Electronic PowerTrain Management
Actually, EFI is really too narrow a term to describe the type of engine/driveline management available for today’s drag racer. If you think of installing a re-programmed performance chip as the first crawling steps in the electronic engine management evolutionary chain, the current set of EPM (Engine Powertrain Management) units are standing upright and running at a full clip.
Current EPM “boxes” can be user-programmed to control so many variables that you can now fine-tune your engine combination more than it was ever possible. And if you make a change to this combination (change the camshaft, for example), these EPM units allow you to change the variables “on the fly” – using a laptop – so that you can ideally optimize: fuel and spark (to individual cylinders in sequence – SEFI – or in bank/batch firing) for up to 16 cylinders; actuate torque converter lock-up; control boost; manage power adders (nitrous, up to four stages); and offer on-board data logging of fuel pressure, driveshaft RPM, and other parameters! Try doing all that with a carburetor and set of timing weights and springs.
One of the keys to this newfound tuning versatility within the last few years is using Wide Band 02 (WBO2) sensors for feedback to the EPM. Unlike your street car’s O2 sensor, which is trying to keep the air:fuel ratio to the engine around 14.7:1 for best economy and emissions, a WBO2 sensor can operate from 9:1 – 16:1 A:F ratios. These are fantastic (critical) for racing engine management systems – now these sensors can be used in closed-loop control outside of just 14:7:1.
That is, a racer can program an EPM to actuate the fuel injectors to maintain an A:F ratio more suited to say a turbo’d engine (11.5:1 for instance) as the boost increases. Or richen up the A:F when nitrous is added in multiple stages. Now racers can make an even more accurate A:F map to keep an engine at its max HP all during its powerband and pass down a track. The Big Stuff company even offers with their BigStuff3 GEN 3 PRO SEFI black box dual WB02 sensors to “eliminate left and right cylinder base engine and transient fuel calibration guesswork.”
The primary limitation of taking advantage of all this electronic technology will be, as it always is in racing, is how fast your wallet can go. And getting the sanctioning bodies to recognize that this is the future and embracing it. Might happen in my lifetime, yet. But I’m not holding out for it. 
SOURCES:
| FAST 3400 Democrat Road Memphis, TN 38118 www.fuelairspark.com 901-260-FAST |
Big Stuff3 4352 Fenton Road Hartland, MI 48353 www.bigstuff3.com bigstuff3@comcast.net |
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