Lil4X
Elio Addict
We've talked about the Elio's engine design and its contribution to its economical fuel consumption - and we've thought about the leading edge engine sensors that will generate the data for our dashboard displays in real time. But where is this technology leading? There is a marriage of new engine electronics that will be part of future Engine Control Modules that's just over the horizon. If you want a preview, look at the aviation industry. Just as single panel LED instrument displays were pioneered in commercial aviation, another digital development foreshadows a new engine management system that is going to find its way into your new car.
Called FADEC, for Full Authority Digital Control, it was developed to manage the dozens of parameters required for safe and efficient operation of turbojets and turboprops. It soon became obvious that the same sort of management could be applied to reciprocating engines.
On a turboprop, FADEC integrates ignition, fuel flow, prop pitch while reading RPM, torque, inlet and exhaust gas temperatures, as well as ambient temperature, humidity and air pressure. The computer then manipulates engine controls to deliver thrust required for a number of flight regimes most efficiently. In commercial aviation, considering the high cost of fuel, even expensive flight management systems start looking like a bargain - and are providing the test beds for the future of all internal combustion engines.
Now the same technology that integrates a variety of instrument readings and control functions, placing all under the authority of a turboprop's single "thrust lever". Whether you start, ground idle, taxi, takeoff, cruise, or descend, you move the power lever to the selected detent and FADEC issues the engine and prop pitch commands to achieve your wish quickly, smoothly, with optimum safety, and economy. What's more, it maintains those optimal settings even when temperature, altitude, or even wind direction alters your flight dynamic.
OK, your present ECM does do some of that, but development for piston-engine aircraft along similar lines points toward some new possibilities for your car that can offer greater flexibility and economy. Think about your fuel injectors delivering timing and pulse width that will not only replace the old choke and throttle, but tailor those mixture and timing commands to each cylinder individually with every revolution. It can even partially compensate for a "weak" cylinder in many cases to smooth performance. The computer not only provides the fuel map, but spark advance curves tailored for altitude, temperature, and humidity.
Magnetic valve actuation, including both lift and timing can be optimized similarly for EACH cylinder separately, potentially eliminating cams and cam drives, as well as fuel and ignition controls. It's all going to be under your right foot, BUT it can now be tightly controlled to produce more power AND better fuel economy - out the same or lesser displacement. At the same time, this ground-bound FADEC can select transmission gear, torque converter slip, or clutch and gearbox integration - and all with sets of sensors, actuators, and chips. Sure, it's a few years off, but there are radical changes coming for reciprocating engines - ones that will wring the last bits of energy out of every drop of fuel AND still offer the performance of a larger engine.
Will it appear in your Elio? Well, not this year - nor probably the next or the one following - but that's new territory that is being explored today.
Called FADEC, for Full Authority Digital Control, it was developed to manage the dozens of parameters required for safe and efficient operation of turbojets and turboprops. It soon became obvious that the same sort of management could be applied to reciprocating engines.
On a turboprop, FADEC integrates ignition, fuel flow, prop pitch while reading RPM, torque, inlet and exhaust gas temperatures, as well as ambient temperature, humidity and air pressure. The computer then manipulates engine controls to deliver thrust required for a number of flight regimes most efficiently. In commercial aviation, considering the high cost of fuel, even expensive flight management systems start looking like a bargain - and are providing the test beds for the future of all internal combustion engines.
Now the same technology that integrates a variety of instrument readings and control functions, placing all under the authority of a turboprop's single "thrust lever". Whether you start, ground idle, taxi, takeoff, cruise, or descend, you move the power lever to the selected detent and FADEC issues the engine and prop pitch commands to achieve your wish quickly, smoothly, with optimum safety, and economy. What's more, it maintains those optimal settings even when temperature, altitude, or even wind direction alters your flight dynamic.
OK, your present ECM does do some of that, but development for piston-engine aircraft along similar lines points toward some new possibilities for your car that can offer greater flexibility and economy. Think about your fuel injectors delivering timing and pulse width that will not only replace the old choke and throttle, but tailor those mixture and timing commands to each cylinder individually with every revolution. It can even partially compensate for a "weak" cylinder in many cases to smooth performance. The computer not only provides the fuel map, but spark advance curves tailored for altitude, temperature, and humidity.
Magnetic valve actuation, including both lift and timing can be optimized similarly for EACH cylinder separately, potentially eliminating cams and cam drives, as well as fuel and ignition controls. It's all going to be under your right foot, BUT it can now be tightly controlled to produce more power AND better fuel economy - out the same or lesser displacement. At the same time, this ground-bound FADEC can select transmission gear, torque converter slip, or clutch and gearbox integration - and all with sets of sensors, actuators, and chips. Sure, it's a few years off, but there are radical changes coming for reciprocating engines - ones that will wring the last bits of energy out of every drop of fuel AND still offer the performance of a larger engine.
Will it appear in your Elio? Well, not this year - nor probably the next or the one following - but that's new territory that is being explored today.
