bentley turbo EFI conversion

[mb230sl]

evening,

i've an early bentley turbo, which runs a solex four barrel in a pressure box. these carbies were troublesome (prone to warpage) when fitted to more ordinary cars, so you can imagine the trouble when they sit in a pressure cooker between the banks of a 6.75L V8.

i considered converting it to a four barrel throttle body type injection system, but i've been chatting to a few people about the adaptability of the delco system, and am now erring towards buying an injection manifold and going that route.

so, a few questions.

is the system suitable for use with a turbo?

would it be advisable to start with a loom from a V8 holden, or start from scratch?

which would be the best version of the ECU for this application?

in terms of ignition, is both the ignition and injection triggered from within the distributor, in the case of a V8 commodore? is the timing map adjustable to suit?

is it possible to adapt coil packs as per a V6 commodore, and would this be advantageous?

once fitted and running, will the system adapt itself via the o2 sensor enough to render the car driveable, or will it absolutely need immediate tuning?

any further info would be much appreciated.


davide

[Jayme]

is the system suitable for use with a turbo?

Absolutely, Ive run a delco 808 using $12P software on many turbo setups. just need a 2 bar map sensor and injectors that are big enough for your horsepower.
https://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=356

would it be advisable to start with a loom from a V8 holden, or start from scratch?

loom from either a VN/VP v8 (regardless of trans type) OR a VR/VS v8 Manual. the auto in a VR/VS ran a different computer.

which would be the best version of the ECU for this application?

delco 1227808 with VL400's OSE$12P software as shown above an a realtime Nvram and communications board installed
https://pcmhacking.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=167

in terms of ignition, is both the ignition and injection triggered from within the distributor, in the case of a V8 commodore? is the timing map adjustable to suit?

yes ignition and injection are both triggered from within the distributor. a v8 holden has a hall effect sensor in the dizzy and the ignition module sends that signal back to the ecu which uses it to run its calculations then sends another signal back the the module telling it when to fire a spark (timing control). some dizzies use a reluctor instead, in which case a different ignition module is needed, off a JE camira (which also uses a delco 1227808)
there is a spark map in the tune for you to adjust, its just RPM vs manifold pressure and you simply type in the degrees you want to run in each cell.

is it possible to adapt coil packs as per a V6 commodore, and would this be advantageous?

normally yes, but the only compatible v8 coil pack module I know of is the northstar v8 module which has an excessively complex trigger system. not recommended for the trouble.

once fitted and running, will the system adapt itself via the o2 sensor enough to render the car driveable, or will it absolutely need immediate tuning?

it will absolutely need immediate tuning of the fuel map to be drivable, you will need to get the fuelling pretty close with a wideband sensor first, then you can turn on closed loop and it will adjust itself to get economy.


good luck, sounds like a ripper of a conversion

[mb230sl]

excellent info, thanks very much.

another question -

does this ecu have knock sensor capability?

[Holden202T]

it does but its accuracy in a different motors application will possibly be the issue.

i guess you can only try it, if you find its giving fault knock readings might have to re-locate the sensor or not use it all together.

[mb230sl]

i suppose what i was getting to is that in all honesty, the parts cost for these cars is pretty reasonable - except engine related stuff, so i want to be sure i'm not going to go melting pistons. granted, they'll be less chance of this with EFI than a stinky old carbie.

[antus]

with proper dyno tuning a good spark map can be created without knock (tuning for best torque) and with a wideband you can get the fuelling right. do you want to do it your self, or do you just want it to work?

[festy]

Do you have any information on the standard advance curve for your distributor? You can use that for putting together a rough ignition map to get started with.
And wideband kits are cheaper than pistons, I started trying to tune my conversion without one but pretty quickly realised I was flying blind.

The other day I was setting up a pair of carbs I'd just rebuilt for another car, and started to panic because I didn't have a WB showing me what was going on at the time...
Now that I've got used to having the WB display available, I cringe when I think about the carbs I've worked on in the past with nothing more than a manometer