Austin Healey Sprite, Supercharged and Efi

[arnold]

Hi there

I just wanted to inform you guys on the progress. As few of you maybe remember, since a couple of years I am trying to supercharge my Sprite IV. After some (trouble) experiences with a Judson kit I decided to make my own 'kit'. I bought a second hand Eaton supercharger coming from a Mercedes 230 Kompressor. I started with fueling via MG Metro Turbo carb, it worked pretty well, but I experiences quiet some problems in the 'fine tuning'.

So I decided to give EFI a try, now this is going in a very good direction! The cars is driveable for almost a year now. I use the Megasquirt controller (http://www.msefi.com) which not only controls the fueling but also ignition (using a fixed stock dizzy and Crane Fireball XR 700 ign). For fueling I use a Opel (Vauxhal) Astra TBI unit, I removed the throttle and placed it upstream because the blower 'opened' it during boost (and got a few fuel leaks).

The last months I spent quiet some time solving the cold start problems. I ended with using another starter (Isuzi Trooper), and now finally I am where I want to be.

Car starts fine and drives GREAT. I few improvements I am considering: intercooling / waterinjection. The inlet airtemp is pretty high (80C during cruising) and I'll raise the boost a bit (now about 0,5 bar, I'll use a smaller pulley)

I can find some pictures here: http://kmnet.demon.co.uk/~arnold/