EFI System Components

I completed both of the EFI Wiring courses recently but there are still some things that have me scratching my head. Everything is just not coming together for me yet. I have no previous experience in wiring or anything electrical for that matter.

How do you ensure that you don't miss any components at the design phase of harness construction? Do you have to go through the engine bay physically looking for sensors and actuators? Is that how it's done? Or do you have to consult the vehicle/engine documentation?

It would be really depressing after completing harness construction to find out that you missed something.

Several ways of doing it - looking over the vehicle (if parts fitted) writing down every componet you can see or think of, looking at the schematic if supplied, etc - with a note of the terminals where possible as if you have x wires for y connections you know you need to double check things.

I also use the "what the **** have I forgetten" panic method.

I like the look at the engine and count what you have method. And then the oh-shit what have a i forgot panic method.

Sometimes its smart to include a few extra redundant wires aswell. Sometimes things will be forgotten or added later.

It is a bit of a tricky one, as some knowledge of how an EFI system operates is required. Have you had a look at the EFI tuning fundamentals course at all? It'll really help with the system design stage.

I thought that EFI Tuning course might have been a bit too advanced for me but since you think it would help me better understand the workings of the EFI System and the components involved I think I will give it a try. It would really help me with this wiring stuff.

I absolutely think it would help. Its a little bit of a catch-22 sometimes, you need a bit or wiring knowledge for the tuning side of things, but you need some tuning / configuration knowledge for the wiring side of things.

We've got a short free introductory EFI tuning course, give it a look first and you'll get a good idea of how the fundamentals course is laid out, although its far more in depth.

https://www.hpacademy.com/courses/bare-minimum-tuning-knowledge/understanding-fuel-tuning

what exactly is Alpha N??

Using Throttle Position as the primary engine load source, rather than MAP. Typically used on engines that ITB's or a lumpy cam that means that they have little Manifold Pressure variance in relationship to Engine load.

Alpha-N, refers to the two axes of the fuel table, one is throttle angle (angle variables are often referred to as "Alpha"), the other axis is engine speed (units are RPM or N revolutions per minute). So whenever you are using Throttle Position (% or degrees angle), and Engine Speed/RPM, we refer to that as Alpha-N tuning.

Stephen has described why the load axis would use Throttle Position instead of Manifold Pressure.