 MOTOR September 1997 - Tools That Rule
International Recognition for an Australian Product
The Company
Coda Products is a small but innovative automotive test equipment
manufacturer that has its roots firmly planted in the independent automotive service and
repair industry. The fact is that Coda Products still owns and operates a fully functional
automotive repair and service centre which provides hands on information about repair and
service problems that are faced daily by automotive service technicians. Whenever there is
a diagnostic need to for a measurement, the worth of that need is evaluated. If the need
is great enough and the value of the measured information is critical to evaluating the
condition of the system being measured, it usually results in a new tool being developed.
While many tools available to the automotive repair industry only measure part of a
system, all tools manufactured by Coda Products are designed to encompass and measure all
of the available components of a system. Such was the case when the Coda Fuel System
Analyser was conceived.
Requirements, Research, Development and Production
Back in September of 1989, a spate of problems began to show up in
our workshop with the GMH 3 Litre VL Commodore fuel delivery system. The problem could not
be attributed to the electronic side of the fuel injection system however, tail pipe
emission analysis revealed that the problem was fuel, or rather the lack of fuel, related.
Fuel pressure tests indicated that all was normal for the system. This posed a mysterious
problem. The vehicles had an obvious drivability problem, emission tests revealed a lean
air/fuel mixture and yet fuel pressure was correct and engine management systems were
functioning correctly. What was causing the fault? The answer turned out to be
inconsistent fuel density caused by either a stalled primary fuel pump or a constricted
primary fuel filter which caused the main pump to cavitate or fuel aeration caused by air
being drawn into the fuel by a poor sealing rubber hose which is located between the
primary pump and the fuel outlet from the tank.
Pumps do not produce pressure, they produce flow. Pressure is created by restricting the
flow of a pump. The greater the restriction of flow, the greater the pressure up to the
point where flow ceases altogether. It soon became apparent that it is more important to
measure flow than pressure but further to that it is the quality of the flow that is most
important. Compressed bubbles of air or fuel vapour present in the fuel under pressure
cannot be seen, even when viewed through a transparent flow tube, however this condition
causes the density of the fuel to change which in turn affects the mass of the fuel being
injected into the engine. This can be likened to a bottle of soft drink which has not been
opened, you know that the bubbles are in there but you can't see them until you release
the pressure.
It is for this reason that you can not accurately
measure fuel flow or the quality of fuel flow on the return line of a fuel injection
system. Fuel flowing from a high pressure area (before the fuel pressure regulator) to a
low pressure area (the return line) causes the fuel to vaporise. The basic principle of
air conditioning.
Fuel contamination was also a problem to identify, so it was paramount the quality of the
fuel was also examined when testing a fuel delivery system.
All of these potential problems required a single solution. One tool that could locate:
- Faulty high volume fuel pumps
- Faulty primary fuel pumps
- Blocked fuel filters
- Restricted pre-pump strainers
- Faulty fuel pressure regulators
- Aerated, vaporised and/or contaminated fuel
- Leaking fuel injectors
- Blocked exhaust systems
- Leaky non-return valves
- Restricted fuel return lines
- Faulty fuel dampers
- Faulty accumulators (K Jetronic)
- Poor quality electric fuel pump power supplies
These were the design requirements of a tool that was to become the
backbone of the Coda range of equipment.
Design, testing and tooling took up the next eight months. In May 1990 the Coda Fuel
System Analyser went into production, the first units being commercially available in June
of that year.
Being capable of measuring fuel flow in litres, US and Imperial gallons per minute, fuel
pressure in Bar and P.S.I., Manifold vacuum in kPa and inches of Hg and exhaust back
pressure in kPa and P.S.I. as well as being able to display the quality of the fuel and
flow, this unique tools allows the service technician to view the status of all of a fuel
delivery system's components, working together, including the fuel itself.
Sales Record
Although predominantly sold in Australia, over four and a half thousand units have
now been distributed with the remainder going to New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Hong
Kong, North and South America and Europe.
Recognition
This year, the Fuel System Analyser has been awarded one of the industry's highest
accolades. The prestigious American automotive service magazine, MOTOR, has placed the
Fuel System Analyser amongst the Top Twenty Tools for 1997. Out of the hundreds of
entrants from around the globe, only twenty tools are chosen, making it a truly
international award. Although the Fuel System Analyser is privately branded and sold in
America under the EMI-TECH label, it is non the less an award that we at Coda Products are
truly proud of. Listed under the heading, "Tools That Rule" Coda products is
grateful to MOTOR Magazine for the recognition.
The Future
With the complete set of standard fittings and with new fittings continually being
made available as market forces dictate, we at Coda Products, feel that it is the
addressing of all the design prerequisites in their entirety that make the Coda Fuel
System Analyser a universal tool capable of locating the most obscure fuel delivery
problem on any carburettored or fuel injected engine currently manufactured or futuristic,
that uses petrol as the fuel source. |
