TECH

air injector systems

Words: Stewart Sanderson

and James Wills

THE EXPERT
Stewart
Sanderson
Having worked
as a tuner for over 20
years, Stewart ‘Stu’
Sanderson is one
of the most-respected
names in the business.
A Level 5-trained
fuel-injection
technician, Stu has
worked for a Ford Rallye
Sport dealer, a well-
known fuel-injection
specialist and various
tuning companies.
11 years ago he
joined forces with
Kenny Walker and
opened up Motorsport
Developments near

Air Injector
Blackpool (01253
508400, www.
remapping.co.uk),
specialising in engine
management live

Systems
remapping, as well as
developing a range of
Evolution chips which
are now sold all over
the world.
He is the creator and
administrator of www.
passionford.com,
which he started in
we take a look at air injectors –
2003. It has grown
rapidly from a few what they are, what they do and
friends contributing,
to one of the biggest
Ford communities on
everything else explained right here.

M
the web.
Stu’s enviable ost of you how they differ from thing straight – the air OK, so air
knowledge of petrolheads other forms of boost injectors we are looking injectors
the workings of out there will control and when you at this month are a form are a form
modern-day Ford probably have heard the may need them, along of boost control. of boost
performance engines term ‘air injectors’ and with what to look for There is an air injector control, but
means that every often wondered what when buying. system related to how do they
month he’s just the they are. emissions, but us work?
man to explain how
and why things work,
Well, this month So, what are petrolheads aren’t Well, to understand that
and importantly how we will look at them in air injectors? overly concerned with we need to go right back
they can be improved. some detail and explain And how do that when we could be to basics and look
not only what they are, they work? talking about boost and at why we need
but also how they work, First of all, let us get one going faster right? boost control... On

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 fasttech

a turbocharged car, the

turbocharger is driven
exhaust gases
bleed off
by the exhaust gases
which rush into the exhaust wastegate
housing and force the exhaust
wheel in the turbocharger to 10PSI
rotate. This exhaust wheel
TO ATMOSPHERE (5PSI)
is directly connected to the
compressor wheel via a shaft boost control VALVE
which runs through the centre
of the turbocharger core.
The faster the exhaust
wheel rotates, the faster the
compressor wheel rotates
which pumps more air into the
engine; the more air pumped
into the engine, the more
exhaust gases are produced,
from air filter
producing a cycle where the
compressor
turbocharger can quickly
turbine
produce lots of boost pressure (15PSI)
and lots of exhaust gas.
Now obviously this cycle
has to be controlled otherwise
Bleed off systems will ‘fool’ the turbo into
things can very easily get
producing more boost by bleeding some of it
out of control. We do this by off to the atmosphere to engine
opening a wastegate, which
bypasses the exhaust wheel of
the turbocharger, so gases no
longer drive the exhaust wheel
exhaust gases
bleed on
but in fact take a short cut
straight into the exhaust front wastegate
pipe allowing the turbocharger
to slow down and in turn 15PSI
boost pressure made by the
compressor will drop.
This wastegate can be air injector
built into the turbocharger,
or externally fitted to the
manifold itself, but either
way it needs to be controlled
and told when to open and
close... in brief, it needs to be
regulated in much the same
way fuel pressure is.
Now... 90 percent of
from air filter
turbochargers have what is
compressor
called a wastegate actuator
turbine
which is a sprung canister
that will open the wastegate
at a predetermined pressure. 15PSI

External wastegates usually In bleed on systems, an ECU-controlled air

injector accurately dictates how wide, how
have the spring built into the long for, and when the wastegate will open,
unit, but again will open at a giving much more precise boost control to engine
predetermined pressure.
The boost pressure is fed to
them and, once that pressure exactly when the wastegate will So, How about directly to the wastegate
is reached, usually between 8 be opened, how wide it will open other forms of actuator to control the boost.
and 14psi, the valve opens and and how long it will open for. boost control? As the turbo made pressure, the
stops exhaust gas from flowing They look similar to fuel injectors, And how do air actuator would see it directly
through the turbocharger, but internally are very different. injectors differ? and the gate would open based
limiting our boost pressure. Fuel Injectors are designed to To understand how various boost on the actuator’s spring rating
The pressure signal that is fed be kept cool and lubricated by controls differ, you need to know only. Tidy and efficient, so why
to these units to open them the fuel flowing through them. how most boost control devices complicate it? Well, basically,
is where our boost control Since we are using air and not usually work and indeed why we usually have a fundamental
system and, of course, the air fuel this is not possible, so the they even exist, so let’s look at need to actually lower the boost
injectors are plumbed in. air injector units are therefore that next. pressure, for reasons such as:
Air injectors are a method designed to be cooled by air and In its most crude form, we ■ The engine itself is cold.
of boost control which allow they are also self-lubricating to would simply run a pipe from ■ Intake air temperature is
us to very precisely regulate ensure reliability. our turbocharger’s compressor, very cold.

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aiR injEcToR sysTEms

■ Engine intake air is very hot.

■ Detonation is detected.
■ Exhaust gas temperature is
too high.
Most turbocharged vehicles’
engine management systems
will lower the boost pressure
in some or all of the above
conditions, and often have
different boost pressures for
different gears. So, in order
to be able to control boost
pressure what they do is fit a
wastegate spring that is softer
than the boost required and
then adjust how much pressure
ever actually reaches that spring.
Most forms of boost control
systems do this in what is
known as a ‘bleed off’ manner,
Air injectors differ from fuel injectors but in
this means that they will bleed
principal work in exactly the same way
air off to atmosphere from the
control hose routed between
the compressor housing and the meaning even though the solenoid, removing the air bleed in order for us to be able to
wastegate actuator. actuator is seeing 10psi and and directing all pressure to our suddenly fire that gate open in
A simple example here is this: opening as designed, we actually wastegate actuator which of case of emergency. Some are
if your actuator is set to open at have 15psi of boost pressure course suddenly sees the full simple on/off switches,
10psi, but you intend to run 15psi at the plenum as desired. 15psi and instantly opens the so full boost or low boost,
of boost pressure at the engine, Essentially we are fooling the wastegate, lowering the boost some actually regulate the
back to a regulated 10psi. valve and have some degree
“these siMple systeMs are These simple systems are
fitted to most of the world’s
of control allowing a slightly
varying degree of boost to suit
Fitted to Most oF the world’s turbocharged petrol vehicles various scenarios.
and include the Ford Cosworth’s OK, so now you know how
tUrBo’d petrol vehicles” SEM valve (or ‘Amal valve’ as it ‘bleed off’ boost control
is known), the Fiesta Turbo and systems work and can
you will need to bleed 5psi away actuator by not allowing it to Escort Cosworth’s two-port hopefully see that they have
from the actuator’s control see the full pressure that the valves and the Focus RS and ST’s a pretty crude working brief
pipe via a solenoid (our boost turbocharger is producing. more modern solenoids. and are, to all intents and
control valve) so that it doesn’t Now, if we ever need to drop They all vary from two to three purposes, either working
‘know’ you are developing 15psi the engine’s boost from 15psi port designs, but all in essence (15psi in our example) or not
of boost. What we do is simply down to 10psi, all we have to simply reduce or divert gas away working (10psi in our example)
bleed this 5psi off to atmosphere do is turn off the boost control from a softly sprung wastegate and while many do indeed
regulate, they are far from
Air injectors have been efficient at being anything
commonly used in motorsport other than on or off as they are
just solenoids. They do a job,
and they do it reliably and well.

So How do air
injeCtorS differ?
Air Injectors are known as a
‘bleed on’ system meaning
that the whole air supply
is controlled and air is bled
into the actuator though the
injector assembly. You can
literally control the amount of
air that flows to the actuator in
any position from fully closed
to fully open. On a typical ‘80s
or ‘90s Ford ECU this is in up
to 255 positions, on a more
modern ECU this can be over
65,000 permutations showing
just how controllable these
systems can be! The system
usually works with your
existing ECU boost
control map so instead

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 faStteCH

Air injectors also allow you

to ‘map out’ any unwanted
chracteristics like boost surge

of just saying ‘on’ or ‘off’ that tend to warrant such control. the air injectors, which closes now use our air injectors to slow
we can now adjust how Let’s look at some of them. the wastegate and increases the the turbocharger down right
much air is flowing, so boost pressure again. from the off, aiding the driver
if we want 40psi from 3000- scenario 1 With normal boost control, with traction by reducing the
4000rpm then 30psi to the An engine is presented for like an Amal valve, the turbo low down torque the engine will
limiter from there, we can mapping with an extremely boost would have had to stay produce. At higher rpm when
program it in. large turbocharger fitted to a low everywhere. traction is not an issue the boost
The crudest air injector map completely standard engine. This
is usually boost versus rpm
so any sites can be accurately
engine cannot consume all the
air this turbo produces at lower
“when the UltiMate Boost
adjusted as the boost rpm and therefore suffers badly control is reQUired we tend
increases with revs; better from turbocharger surge, making
systems allow us to adjust it quite undriveable. to Fit air injectors”
that based on throttle position Using air injectors this problem
too. It’s the adjustability that can be overcome. We can map scenario 2 pressure can be allowed to
makes it so useful to us so the air injectors to flow a lot of air A front-wheel-drive car is having increase, and ultimately a hefty
when the ultimate boost pressure to the wastegate during trouble with traction, ideally it power figure can still be achieved
control is required we tend to these periods of potential surge, needs less torque but can easily with less midrange torque. This
fit air injectors. thus opening the wastegate a use all the bhp at higher revs to is best done while live mapping
little to keep the boost below ensure it is still very fast. so traction can actually be assed
So How do i know the surge line. Effectively we can In this scenario we can again and boost mapped to suit the
wHen i would actually map out this surge at low slow the turbocharger down, but car’s capability.
benefit from air revs, and then as the engine’s this time not because we have
injeCtorS? efficiency increases at higher surge but because we want less scenario 3
There are various scenarios revs we can run less duration on boost for a few revs. We can A car is presented for mapping

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 teCH
aiR injEcToR sysTEms

and as such has a small turbo to and, as mentioned, they ideally which blow open at a set
help deliver it. The builder wants need to be mapped in properly. pressure, meaning excess
45psi in the midrange but knows boost pressure will simply
his turbo can only maintain 15psi wHy don’t tHe oe be dumped to atmosphere
at the top-end so needs some ComPanieS run preventing any damage to the
way to get the required high SuCH SyStemS to engine, but not preventing a
boost for a couple of thousand Start witH? turbocharger over speed.
rpm then more sensible boost Well, there is only really one
further on in the rev range. downside to air injectors and that roGue traderS!
We can help here with air is the way they fail. As we have already mentioned
injectors by mapping the boost All forms of bleed off boost these air injectors differ
curve, we can even close the control will fail safe, meaning heavily from fuel injectors,
injectors and see what the turbo if the solenoid or valve stops but we still all too commonly
will do with no wastegate at all working for any reason at all the see fuel injectors being used
and yet we have full control to boost pressure will drop, as no to control boost, some of the
bring the boost back down as and air will be allowed to bleed off kits we see for sale on the
when we want it to. the control line so the actuator internet are nothing more
will see the full pressure from the than old, freshly painted fuel
air injeCtor tyPeS turbocharger, in turn opening the injectors! Yes, that’s right –
There are a few different types wastegate earlier than before, they paint the injector body so
and styles of air injector available, dropping boost pressure. the colour will refer to an air
it is vitally important the correct Now in the case of a bleed on or gas injector! So be careful
size and type is fitted to match air injector system, should the out there as these things will
your map. injector fail in the closed position last maybe a few hundred
Single type injectors are for any reason the wastegate miles before they overheat
usually around 1200cc in size, actuator will never see any boost and seize due to no
most twin type injectors are pressure therefore will never cooling fuel flow
two 600cc injectors open! Meaning your as mentioned
meaning a turbocharger earlier.
total again Since the
of around failure of air
1200cc. But injectors
things are can be very
not quite as serious, is
simple as it really ever
they may worth buying
seem, some second hand?
companies will It is my firm
supply twin injector opinion
kits, with two 1200cc unless you
injectors fitted, but a know the history and use of
careful examination will only stop producing boost any air injector, you are much
of the wiring may pressure when something better off to buy a new kit, and
show that only one is actually breaks, melts, or if you are lucky not risk your engine.
connected. What a waste of when the exhaust gas pressure So that’s it, a brief but fairly
with a modern ECU, the car money. Some will run one 1200 forces the wastegate open by detailed look at air injectors
suffers from traction issues in and one old, dead injector just overcoming the spring pressure and how they work and
low gears but feels gutless in so you have the old ‘touring car in the actuator, but this can are controlled.
the higher gears. In this scenario look’ but are only really running easily be well over 50psi. If you’re
using air injectors we can do a single, but in a double housing. running big boost, chances are
some clever gear-dependent However, some will run both your boost limiter in the ECU will
mapping, meaning the boost can 1200cc injectors connected but have been removed, so you really

neXt
be limited and mapped to suit of course that will flow more air are in danger.
traction just as scenario two, than your air injector boost map These failures are very
but this time we have different (if you have one) was calibrated rare, but it is always worth

montH
maps for each gear, so first gear for so will need a remap. using a secondary safety
can be limited heavily to allow So from this you can see why device when using these
for traction and to safeguard the it is vital to know what they air injector systems.
drive train, but as the car gets are, and make sure your map is These can be as simple
into the higher gears we can
allow it to run much more boost
suited to the injectors you are
purchasing or are prepared for
as an adjustable pressure
switch fitted to the inlet
wHaT is a
from low revs as traction is no
longer an issue.
some mapping to be done. manifold which will either
earth the coil or show a
wasTEgaTE, anD
This really is the ultimate set-
up and infinitely adjustable for
Can tHey juSt be
bouGHt and fitted?
warning light when a set
pressure is reached. But
wHaT DoEs
absolute control. No, they need to be fitted with a it has to be said the driver iT Do?
suitable ECU calibration as they should instantly know if the car
scenario 4 work inverse to a normal system starts to produce much more
An engine has been built to so if you just fitted them you boost than usual! Alternatively,
deliver very high midrange torque would end up with less boost blow off valves can be fitted

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