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Practical
Classic Magazine 
Austin
A40 project
Practical
Classics magazine have been running a series entitled 'Bring
your car into the 21st Century'. With a title like
that, it was only a matter of time before electronically
programmable ECUs would be considered.
Rather
than just talking about it, a full reto-fit installation
was carried out onto a testbed Austin A40. With the 1100cc
A-series engine, this was an ideal candidate for a multi-point
injection (MPI) conversion from a late Mini. Traditionally
of course, retro fitting multi-point injection to a five
port head has been deemed anything from 'difficult' to 'impossible'.
As our users know, the Canems ECU changes all that, so here
was an ideal chance for a back-to-back test.
The only
modifications (all easily reversible) were to swap the original
SU carb for an MPI Mini injection manifold, injectors and
sensors. The distributor was removed in favour of programmable
distributorless ignition.
Due to
the pressures of meeting a magazine deadline, the entire
conversion was completed in one evening and one day. Ironically,
there was no time to program the programmable system - so
the engine was set up with a typical 'base map' (ie. typical
settings for this type of engine, not actually tuned for
the individual machine).
The
true test...
Before the
conversion, the A40 was producing 43bhp at the flywheel.
Afterwards, it produced 51 bhp. Torque was slightly down
at low RPMs, but this could clearly be reinstated by programming
the fueling and ignition settings.
What cannot
be ignored are the facts - a 22% power increase at the wheels,
and a forty year old engine producing considerably more
power than it did from the factory. This is with no internal
modifications and no changes to the engines breathing ability
other than SU carb to MPI injection.
Perhaps
more important than the power curves are the driving impressions.
Fuzz reports, "It has made the car better able to keep
up with modern traffic and has elimated a number of unreliable
moving parts - and it's much more tractable in daily driving."
So how
does the Canems ECU achieve this? Put simply, the engine
is producing power with all four cylinders. Without a Canems
ECU (and, to a lesser extent, with carburettors) cylinders
one and four are starved of fuel, resulting in a lack of
power. Only two cylinders are forced to do the majority
of the work. With a Canems ECU you can convert your five
port head to multi-point injection and reap the rewards
of all four cylinders working together.
Thanks...
All at
Practical Classics magazine, particularly
Fuzz Townshend - www.practicalclassics.co.uk
Mini Classics - www.miniclassics.co.uk
1320 Autos - www.1320autos.com
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