A very small computer, built into the engine.

Post #244,637 by CRConrad 2/15/06 3:06:28 AM Reply	A very small computer, built into the engine. Also known as "electronic engine control system", or something similar-sounding. It controls the electronic fuel injection and the ignition -- basically, it runs the injection pump / injectors, and tells them, "Now it's time to inject this much fuel into that cylinder"; and the ignition coil / diodes-triodes-whatever-it-is-they-use-in-stead-of-breakers-these-days, telling them "Now it is time to spark the plug in that cylinder". (Lately, these control systems / computers also control many automatic transmissions, and it is probable that they will control ever more functions of the car -- power steering, ABS brakes, etc -- in the future.) Anyway, to know what to tell the engine to at any given moment, it has to know what the engine is doing at every instant; mainly, in what position the pistons / crankshaft / camshaft(s) are. They're all physically connected together, so once you know the position of one, you also know the position of the others; so it doesn't really matter which of these you have a sensor for. That, I'm fairly sure, is the "computer in the car" that you saw mentioned. (If not, it damn well should have meant that. :-) And yes, these things have became ever more common from, say, the mid-to-late eighties; nowadays, it's exceedingly rare to find a car without one. (A new car, that is -- your old one almost certainly doesn't have one! :-) So, yes, a 1999 Chrysler almost certainly has "a computer", in this sense. HTH! [link\|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode\|Christian R. Conrad] (I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.) Yes Mr. Garrison, genetic engineering lets us correct God's horrible, horrible mistakes, like German people. - [link\|http://maxpages.com/southpark2k/Episode_105\|Mr. Hat]
Post #244,640 by Nightowl 2/15/06 3:23:40 AM Reply	Re: A very small computer, built into the engine. Also known as "electronic engine control system", or something similar-sounding. It controls the electronic fuel injection and the ignition -- basically, it runs the injection pump / injectors, and tells them, "Now it's time to inject this much fuel into that cylinder"; and the ignition coil / diodes-triodes-whatever-it-is-they-use-in-stead-of-breakers-these-days, telling them "Now it is time to spark the plug in that cylinder". (Lately, these control systems / computers also control many automatic transmissions, and it is probable that they will control ever more functions of the car -- power steering, ABS brakes, etc -- in the future.) Anyway, to know what to tell the engine to at any given moment, it has to know what the engine is doing at every instant; mainly, in what position the pistons / crankshaft / camshaft(s) are. They're all physically connected together, so once you know the position of one, you also know the position of the others; so it doesn't really matter which of these you have a sensor for. That, I'm fairly sure, is the "computer in the car" that you saw mentioned. (If not, it damn well should have meant that. :-) And yes, these things have became ever more common from, say, the mid-to-late eighties; nowadays, it's exceedingly rare to find a car without one. (A new car, that is -- your old one almost certainly doesn't have one! :-) So, yes, a 1999 Chrysler almost certainly has "a computer", in this sense. Ah, thanks Conrad, that explains it better. My car actually now has a fuel-injection system, (they modified it with the Holley Carburetor,), but I'm fairly they didn't add a computer, I don't think they could add that in. Brenda "When you take charge of your life, there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life." By Geoffrey F. Abert
Post #244,668 by folkert 2/15/06 11:52:46 AM Reply	Yes they can add them to old cars. Many people are transplanting the NEW very efficient and powerful modern engines into the Olds cars. Give that Nostalgia feel, with modern day pep. They are also putting modern Suspension pieces/parts into these old cars. Giving the old look and feel, with 3-4 year old Porsche handling. -- [link\|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net\|greg], [link\|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry\|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ *i_wethey* Freedom is not FREE. Yeah, but 10s of Trillions of US Dollars? SELECT * FROM scog WHERE ethics > 0; 0 rows returned.

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