Engine swap considerations with a DI Engine?

Hello

I am building a car which I bought as a roller, and know i have to consider what to put in it.

I have come down to about 2 engines, one of them is the Ford 1.6 Ecoboost which I am considering the most right now it being small, light and lots of power/torque(relatively).

But it being a DI engine and me wanting to run a standalone with all the engine/motorsports features but being there are very few that can handle DI and the ones that do is prohibitively expensive, would there be any problems performance-wise converting to regular fuel injection?

What I mean is purely in the performance in termes of low-, mid-range power & turbo spool, will all the gains the little engine has be lost going away form the factory DI stuff?

While you say a DI capable standalone motorsports ECU is prohibitively expensive, have you figured out the cost for a new Manifold, Injectors, Fuel Rail, Pressure Regulator -- it would seem that like could quickly exceed the cost delta for the ECU particularly if you end up needing any custom fabrication.

Is there enough support for the OEM ECU (i.e. ECUTek w/RaceROM features) to make that a viable option?

I think your performance with Port Injection will be similar to DI, but you may have worse fuel economy/emissions with port injection (the reason for Direct Injection).

Well its not so much that is expensive is more that the options are limited.

ECUTEK seem like a good option but I haven't looked at OEM tuning options.

The car is a track car it will never even roll on the street.

You will also need to delete the DI injectors and fit bungs in their place to ensure reliable long term operation. The tips of the injectors (which are in the combustion chamber) don't have fuel pressure assisting the pintle seal, and won't have any fuel flow to cool them. This results in the DI injectors burning up and failing, with combustion pressure and heat being the deciding factor on how long it takes for this to occur.

Performance wise you will likely lose a little bit of low end performance, and depending on fuel type, you lose a few % of power overall, as you are taking up space in the intake port with fuel that otherwise isn't there in a DI application.

hello, i would consider the Link GDI stand-alone ecu for this conversion it is very affordable, this ecu is now obsolete to buy from link new but I'm sure dealers would still have them in stock somewhere around the world and an email to sales@linkecu.com may help

I would want to do run a link ECU from the start, but since the only one they have with DI as you say is quite old it does not seem to be that good of a option.

Price wise its seems to be more expensive than the newer ones, and have less options.

The other engine I was considering was the Honda K20, which is a proven platform and would be easier & cheaper to get up and running, than the 1.6 ecoboost.