EFI for an EVO - Harley Forum

friscofrankie · #1 07-05-2009, 11:41 AM

There is a late model EVO soft tail in my near future. It has a carburetor. I want to set the bike up to perform much better than stock. I plan head-work or SE heads, Air cleaner, exhaust, cam and Think a programmable EFI system would be the best thing for performance and reliability. It would also work well with a future plan to increase displacement.

I've taken a look at nightrider.com and read the online installation manual but the date on that is nine years old. Are there alternatives? Kits? cobbing one together from hd part bins? Has anyone here done this? Or even tried and failed?

friscofrankie · #2 07-13-2009, 11:12 PM

So. No one, eh? I've been researching this and there are some alternatives. I contacted The guys at Nightrider and asked about their MAD EFI setup. Steve there has been quite patient and is a font of information. He has recommended MegaSquirt and/or Microsquirt. The mega squirt is open source; the plans are freely available and there are several sites on the net selling ECU kits and complete ECUs. The microSquirt is a completeunit with weather-proof ECU.

These things require a great deal of custom work and a fair bit of knowledge There is a ton of documentation where the knowledge is readily attainable to those willing to study a bit. A late model delphi throttle body and either a custom fabbed manifold or maybe a few parts from S&S (?) and you might just have something. Not sure if this is the way I will go, but it is an alternative. I am told it is quite easy to set up using electronic ignition modules as the trigger. It is a batch mode injector but they are threatening to release a sequential injection module in the near future. There are two releases of the tuning software, both free, one will run on multiple platforms with the Java runtime Environment (JRE) installed (being a linux geek myself I like that). The actual code that controls the ECU is available for any assembler geeks out there.

Then for those that are build maybe a big stroker motor or even contemplating replacing cases, S&S sells all their cases machined for stock diameter wheels with the hole and bung for the crank sensor. This one's byfar teh best way to go but involves changing cases at $1100++ (priced from catalog), you can buy the HD injection or the S&S full complement of products or mix & match stuff. I imagine with a full rebuild you could possibly just go with a late model Delphi setup (maybe you got a friend that wants to get rid of that EFI on his Twinkie?) With this setup you basically have a blanks slate and any after market stuff is applicable. I am not sure if the Delphi system would work out of the box with the Evo CPS setup, still researching that, if anyone knows please chime in. If you can upgrade a Magneti Marelli setup on a stock bike I imagine the same methods would apply.

Then there is a company, RB Racing. They also sell a kit. It makes use of a cam position sensor or aftermarket ignition system. This is a sequential closed loop system and they make a big deal of using Narrow band sensors.

So. This is what I've found thanks to the kind help of nightrider and a few days of internet research. I have no experience with any of these configurations. But I will with at least one in the near(ish) future.

This is my first build in a long, long time, and I'm ten thousand miles from home. Although my friends keep pushing me to a TC I am going to go with an Evo the bike will grow in stages I expect. Injection is by far the best way to go strictly from a performance and engineering perspective. There is just no way a carb can give you the kind of control allowing you to take your motor to the very edge, and back, relilably like injection can.

Parts here are about 50% (or more) higher than in the States and they seemed to have jumped about to abut 300% of what they were in my day, so I am spending a bit more time investigating my options with a little more care. Bikes are about 100% higher in cost here and I have found about four good candidates for this project soe in country and some out. I'll have to make a decision soon.

There was time... never mind, that time is gone. I've been out of the loop. I've been reading about the various problems with Evo cases; porosity, casting voids (?) poor adhesion between bearing inserts, thin spigots and alloy changes, oh my!

I have a vague idea of a partial timeline on these events/problems and am quite sure that the latest candidates (and most expensive, need I add?), a 1999 Std and Fat Boy, should be safe for my intended build (4.625 stroke x 3.635 bore). But am not sure. Then there's this 1993, ya see, with lots of bling and things. Pretty bike. Cheap too. Well, cheap all things being relative; is $14 - $15k cheap for a 16 year old bike? In Thailand? You bet it is. I am actually leaning towards this choice, simply because the additional cost of a set of S&S cases would still offer savings over the initial cost of the other more recent bikes (there's two '95s in there as well). but in intend to ride first, wrench later.

Am I rambling? Any thoughts of the readers would be appreciated. If someone can point me to resources a more complete or accurate list of the case problem saga as it unfolded I would certainly appreciate it. I've found some books that look to ahve much of what I need. By the time they arrive I will have to make my first, irreversible decision; which one to get. If anyone on the board has experience with any of the above injection scenarios I'm all ears (eyes?). I'm worse off than I was with my first Panhead project back in the late 60s. Then? I was a teenager and with no idea how ignorant I was.