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Almost everyone loves a mystery

Discussion in '308/328' started by t3thomas, Jun 11, 2008.

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  1. t3thomas

    t3thomas Formula Junior

    May 9, 2008
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    North Carolina
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    GThomas
    #1 t3thomas, Jun 11, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    My newest 'project' is a '84 308 that unbeleivably has not gone up in flames or simply ended up in a junk yard somewhere. I've begun to disassemble it and have run across something that completely has me stumped and I'm hoping someone has either seen, installed or hopefully removed a similar funky setup.

    The setup includes an additional injector tied into the Jettronic distributor, a fuel line, and wired to a 'black-box' which in-turn is also connected to the oxygen sensor among other various electrical components.

    Can anyone tell me what this setup is all about and perhaps some ideas on the best way to 'purge' it from the car?

    Thanks in advance and even if you don't know what it is, it's probably worth a good chuckle that it's not in your car!
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  2. davebdave

    davebdave Formula 3
    Owner Silver Subscribed

    Mar 18, 2007
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    Northern VA
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    Dave W
    I don't know but that beer glass is making me thirsty!
     
  3. GrigioGuy

    GrigioGuy Splenda Daddy
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Nov 26, 2001
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    Snike Fingersmith
    Sounds like the standard cold-start injector setup to me. There's one electronic injector that plugs into the plenum above the runners and is controlled by a primitive ECU that reads the water temp.
     
  4. t3thomas

    t3thomas Formula Junior

    May 9, 2008
    427
    North Carolina
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    I've got some doubts about the installation regardless of what its purpose is. If you look closely at the injector I'm holding in the left-side picture, the base of the injector is hose-clamped to a fuel line which in turn is connected to the fuel line via a tee near the fire wall. The top of the injector is also connected by reducer/hose clamp/bubble gum/etc. to the 4mm line going to the fuel distributor. It doesn't appear to have been connected to the ECM's (thankfully), but to the O2 sensor, the coil packs, and the mysterious little box in the right-hand picture.
     
  5. Mike Florio

    Mike Florio Formula Junior

    Jun 19, 2003
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    Mike Florio
    The box houses the flux capacitor which enables the warp drive - be careful when working around that anti-matter

    Sorry, I couldn't control myself. What I really think (to agree with Tillman) is that it is a privative, and badly implemented cold-start/idle enricher.
     
  6. Steve Magnusson

    Steve Magnusson Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Jan 11, 2001
    26,846
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    Steve Magnusson
    #6 Steve Magnusson, Jun 11, 2008
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2008
    +1 ;), but it's how an '84 (or later) euro 308QV or 328 (both K-Jet without Lambda) would typically be "converted" for the US market (into a quasi K-Jet with Lambda).

    What is your 308QV version or how does your VIN decode (for version and/or original intended market)?

    That "extra" plastic line going to the center port fitting on the FD and the added electrical valve gizmology (which is really a controllable leak) is an addition meant to have another way (besides the WUR) to change the control pressure; and, therefore, provide Lambda (A/F) control (via the signal coming from the O2 sensor).

    If you would like to do a fairly easy test to confirm if it's really doing anything or not, with everything plugged in and running at warm idle, measure the voltage from the single wire coming from the O2 sensor to ground with a DC voltmeter -- if the added valve is really working, the voltage should be "wandering" between 0~1 VDC (trying to hold an average of 0.5V, but overshooting/drifting/recorrecting). If it's just a quasi-constant value, it's not really doing what it should be, or has some other problem.
     
  7. snj5

    snj5 F1 World Champ

    Feb 22, 2003
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    +2
     
  8. t3thomas

    t3thomas Formula Junior

    May 9, 2008
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    GThomas
    Oh, okay. I thought you guys we're just ribbing the newbee. The VIN does show it to be a euro version, however the connecting pipe w/ the Lambda, I can now assume added at the same time as the rest of the 'I want to be an American' system.

    So my next question is, can I just remove the whole shenanigan, plug the holes and call it good or will my EMC miss its bretheren and misbehave?
     
  9. branko

    branko F1 Rookie
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    Mar 17, 2003
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    +1, It looks just like mine.
     
  10. Steve Magnusson

    Steve Magnusson Two Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa

    Jan 11, 2001
    26,846
    30°30'40" N 97°35'41" W (Texas)
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    Steve Magnusson
    If it is working and you remove/disable it, you would need to make a manual mixture adjustment to compensate (The added valve "leaks" at a nominal rate and then the ECU tweaks that amount of leaking to make A/F ratio changes it thinks it needs to make. If you remove that valve you will have zero leakage in that path and the control pressure will go up making for a leaner condition -- the manual mixture screw would be tweak to compensate for this). If the car is running well, I wouldn't mess with it (just to get rid of it).

    If it's not working, it might make sense to just strip it off, but IMO having some "window dressing" would be an asset for reselling a "(supposedly) federalized" euro version here in the US.

    JMOs.
     

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