Necam MEGA Distributor for LPG

Now available from stock: original Necam MEGA distributor for LPG. 

 Used on many factory fit Necam/Koltec/Teleflex systems including Vauxhaul, Mercedes, Ford, VW, Saab. This item includes the stepper motor.

Art. no. GFI 241400-500
Homologation: E4-67R-010064 (LPG) and E4-110R-000005 (CNG)

This product is not intended for Volvo cars.

Buy this from our on-line store.

Necam MEGA Distributor for Volvo LPG or CNG

Now available in limited numbers: original Necam MEGA distributor for Volvo cars. This is a specific item made for Volvo, and is different from the standard MEGA distributors. This item includes the stepper motor.

Art. no. GFI 241400-557
Homologation: E4-67R-010064 (LPG) and E4-110R-000005 (CNG)

Contact us for price and availability.

New minimum gas level indicator for forklifts - no more wasted gas!

Minimum Level Detector for forklift trucks - the solution to know when your LPG-tank is almost empty.

MLD System

2nd Generation minimum level detector for forklift trucks.

Application:

• More accurate low-level indicator for LPG-powered forklifts
• Key Advantages:
• Improves safety and productivity by knowing exactly when the tank is nearly empty
• Accurately detects near empty cylinder level
• Prevents waste of replacing a tank before it is truly empty
• Simply connects to a warning indicator on the dashboard to indicate low level

Order no. MLD

Description: Minimum Level Detector SRG 471-1 for LPG forklift trucks, inlet & outlet ¼” NPT female

The kit includes:

-MLD incl. 25cm cable with Tyco pin connector

-Mounting bracket incl. 2 spacers, screws, washers and nuts

-LED warning light (for dashboard)

-Extension cable incl. Tyco pin connector (2.5 m)

-User/fitting instruction, wiring diagram

-Packed in a single cardboard box

-with UL+CE approval, patented

Fine-Tuning an AEB-Manufactured LPG System

Fine-Tuning an AEB-Manufactured LPG System

AEB-manufactured LPG systems include the following brand names - AEB, Bigas, Emer, King, OMVL, Romano, Tartarini, Zavoli and possibly others too. This article assumes that the installation is complete and that you have the correct software on your PC and have made the connection to the LPG ECU, completed the system configuration and run auto-calibration successfully. It also assumes that the vehicle has both petrol and LPG fuel supplies to the engine.

Before you start changing any settings, save a copy of the system configuration so that, if you make the tuning worse, you can restore the system to the way it was before you started. This does not cover physical changes to the system such as rail pressure, so make a note of the Press.Gas reading when running on gas.

This document does not cover direct injection engines.

Make sure that the engine is at normal operating temperature before tuning. From the Main Menu select Vehicle Configuration, then Modify Carb. Un-tick the box marked Adaptivity.

From the Main Menu select Vehicle Configuration, then Lambda.

If your engine has a V or a Boxer configuration it will most probably have 2 separate banks of cylinders with 1 or 2 lambda probes per bank. Check that your LPG system is configured with 2 banks. The same applies to engines with 5 or more cylinders. Some 4-cylinder engines are run as a single bank and some as 2 banks. On a 4-cylinder engine, set the number of banks to 2.

Turn off the ignition and wait for the lights on the change-over switch to go out, then re-start the engine. This procedure is referred to below as RESTART.

For a 4-cylinder engine, compare the 2 Tinj.Petrol readings at the bottom of the screen. If they are the same then the engine is being run as a single bank, so switch the setting back to 1 bank and RESTART. If the LPG system setting has been switched from 1 to 2 banks, re-run auto-calibration and save the resulting configuration.

If the engine is being run as 2 banks, when running on gas, compare the two Tinj.Petrol timings. They will be different, but if one bank is consistently more or less than the other, you should adjust the Fuel Trim Bank 2 until the timings are about the same. If Tinj.Petrol for bank 2 is, say 10% higher than bank 1, add 10 to the Fuel Trim Bank 2 figure and vice versa. The trim figure can be negative. Repeat the above until the two Tinj.Petrol values average around the same.

From the Main Menu select Vehicle Configuration, then Map. The columns relate to revs and the rows to petrol injector timings. The numbers in the cells are parameters for the fuelling algorithm and vary from 0 to 255. You will see a ball hovering somewhere in the top-left corner of the map when the engine is idling. As the load on the engine increases, so do the petrol injector timings and the ball drops down the screen. As the revs increase, the ball moves to the right. When making changes to the map it is best to apply a change to a block of cells so that a smooth transition is maintained between different parts of the map.

To change the values in the map, highlight the area to be changed by pointing to the cell in one corner, pressing the left mouse button and dragging the pointer to the opposite corner. Press Enter and a pop-up box allows you to change values in one of 3 ways. Percentage is the best option to use, so click that mode and enter a number (either positive or negative, between 1 and 50) in the box, then click OK.

The best way to tune your engine is under normal driving conditions, concentrating on the way the car is normally driven and the speed at which it is normally driven. Tuning requires that the car is driven at a given load and given revs, running on one fuel and then the other. It therefore means that you need a fairly clear road or smooth-running traffic. You will also need a driver who can hold a steady throttle. This technique covers the part of the power band that is most often used. The remaining parts can be viewed as either over-run or full(ish) throttle and will be dealt with later.

Drive at a constant speed at the lower end of the normal driving speed with the engine running on petrol. Make a note of the Tinj.Petrol value. Switch to gas and drive at the same speed and load. Make a note of the Tinj.Petrol value. Ideally these should be the same. If the Tinj.Petrol value when running on gas figure is higher, add to the numbers in the block of cells around the ball. Calculate the percentage difference between the 2 values and add the same percentage to the block of cells. If the Tinj.Petrol value when running on gas figure is lower, subtract the percentage from the numbers in the block of cells. Repeat this test at the same speed and load until Tinj.Petrol is about the same value for the 2 fuels.

Repeat the above procedure for different loads and speeds.

The next area to tune is the overrun part of the map. Overrun occurs when you take your foot off the accelerator and allow the car to slow down. Initially, most petrol ECUs will cut off the fuel to the engine by not firing the injectors. So, the ball will move to the top row of the map. As the revs drop, a point is reached when the ECU restarts the fuel supply. At this point, the lambda reading should be around 0.2 volts (if you have a 0-1 volt probe). If the reading is higher, reduce the numbers in the top row of the map until you have the correct reading. At tick-over, the ball should be in the second row of the map. If it is in the top row, you may need to adjust the tuning in the tick-over area of the map.

The final part of tuning is the most difficult – brisk to hard acceleration. When driving briskly, a point is reached when the petrol ECU stops looking at the lambda probe reading and calculates fuelling based on air-flow, throttle-position, revs and possibly other parameters. This is called open-loop fuelling because the feedback loop from the lambda probe is not used. The purpose of this mode of operation is to avoid lean running when the engine is under stress. Lean running increases the temperature of the engine and can result in component burn-out (valves, pistons). Since there is no automatic correction of the fuelling, it is important to ensure that the LPG system supplies enough fuel to avoid a lean mixture, but not so much that it is wasted. If you have an LPG ECU that has an OBD connection, then you can tell when the petrol ECU is in open-loop mode from the fact that the fuel trims freeze. On systems where there is no OBD connection, there is no way of checking when open-loop mode starts, all you can do is drive briskly (over ¾ throttle) and check that the lambda reading never falls below half for more than a second.

Drive the vehicle in open-loop mode and monitor the lambda reading. For a 0-1 volt probe, the reading should always be around 0.8 volts. This will ensure that the mixture is adequately rich, without wasting fuel. If the reading is below 0.8 volts, increase the numbers in the operational area of the map until 0.8 volts is obtained. If the reading is over 0.85 volts, reduce the numbers in the operational area of the map until 0.8 volts is obtained.

Once you are satisfied with the tuning, from the Main Menu select Vehicle Configuration, then Modify Carb. Tick the box marked Adaptivity.

Save a copy of the system configuration. The name of the configuration should include the registration number of the vehicle, the Press.Gas value (when running on gas, e.g p137 if Press.Gas is 1.37 bar), and the odometer reading.

Petrol Injector Cut-in Loom for AEB-manufactured LPG Systems

The conventional colour-coding for this loom is as follows:

Blue                                        Petrol injector A negative

Blue with a black trace            Petrol injector A to petrol ECU

Red                                         Petrol injector B negative

Red with a black trace             Petrol injector B to petrol ECU

Green                                      Petrol injector C negative

Green with a black trace          Petrol injector C to petrol ECU

Yellow                                    Petrol injector D negative

Yellow with a black trace        Petrol injector D to petrol ECU

Red with a white trace             Petrol injector positive

Recent supplies of this loom have a different colour coding:

Blue                                        Petrol injector A negative

Blue with a white trace            Petrol injector A to petrol ECU

Red                                        Petrol injector B negative

Purple with a white trace         Petrol injector B to petrol ECU

Green                                     Petrol injector C negative

Green with a white trace          Petrol injector C to petrol ECU

Yellow                                    Petrol injector D negative

Yellow with a white trace         Petrol injector D to petrol ECU

White                                      Petrol injector positive

Preparing for the Auto-calibration of an AEB-manufactured LPG System

AEB-manufactured LPG systems include the following brand names - AEB, Bigas, Emer, King, OMVL, Romano, Tartarini, Zavoli and possibly others too. This article assumes that the installation is complete and that you have the correct software on your PC and have made the connection to the LPG ECU.

From the Main Menu select Vehicle Configuration. Start on the Change-over screen and set the following parameters.

1. Fuel Type – LPG
2. Injectors – select the option that matches your LPG injectors
3. Type of Revolution Signal – if you have not connected the brown wire, remove the tick from the box. If you have connected the brown wire (we recommend this) tick the box and select Standard from the dropdown list.
4. Ignition Type – select One Coil if you have one coil per cylinder, otherwise select one of the other options. At this point it is not important which option is selected.
5. Inj. – most engines have a sequential injector firing pattern, so select Sequential. If your engine fires all petrol injectors at the same time, select Full-Group. MJ-Sequential is for engines that fire each injector multiple times per cycle and is quite rare.
6. Reducer – enter the operating pressure (when running on gas) of the reducer (this may be fixed or variable.
7. Cylinders – enter the number of cylinders
8. Valvetronic – tick the box if your engine is of this type (e.g. some BMW engine)
9. Type of Change-over – In-acceleration if you have an automatic gearbox, In-deceleration for a manual box.
10. Leave all other fields as standard for now.

On the Lambda screen, set the following parameters.

1. Number of Banks – for an in-line 3 or 4-cylinder engine select 1. For a boxer engine select 2. For more than 4 cylinders, select 2 banks.
2. Type of Pre-Catalytic Oxygen Sensor – select the type that matches your engine.
3. Oxygen Sensor 1 – we recommend that the purple wire is connected to the pre-cat oxygen sensor signal wire of bank 1. Set this parameter to match your installation.
4. Oxygen Sensor 2 – we recommend that the purple/black wire is connected to the pre-cat oxygen sensor signal wire of bank 2. Set this parameter to match your installation.

On the Sensors screen, set the following parameters.

1. Type of Gas Level Sensor – set this to AEB or 0-90 Ohm to match your installation.
2. Tank Solenoid with Dedicated Wire – tick this box if you have used the blue/white wire to power the tank solenoid. Clear the box if you have used the blue wire.

Leave all other parameters set to the default settings for now.

Turn off the ignition and wait for the lights on the change-over switch to go out, then re-start the engine. This procedure is referred to below as RESTART.

Look at the Vehicle Configuration – Change-over screen. With the engine running on petrol you should see the following readings at the bottom of the screen.

1. Revs – this should match the number on the rev. counter. If you do not have a rev. counter, expect 700-900 rpm at tick-over. If the software shows half or double what it should be, change the Ignition Type to a different value. RESTART and re-check the revs. The value must be correct for auto-calibration to work.
2. T. Reduc – reducer/vaporiser temperature – this should be the same as engine temperature – about 80°C. It must be at least 50°C for auto-calibration to work.
3. T. Gas – gas temperature – usually measured at the rail and usually around 40°C. It may show a low temperature if the engine bay is cold and no gas is flowing through the rail. You may need to close the bonnet to warm it up. If T Gas is higher than T Reduc, the sensor wires are probably switched so fix this. T Gas must be at least 25°C for auto-calibration to work.
4. Tinj. Gas – Gas injector timing – should be zero when running on petrol.
5. Tinj Petrol – Petrol injector timing – should be between 1.5 and 4ms. If this is not showing, the wiring of the petrol injectors is wrong. This must be fixed.
6. Press Gas – gas pressure – this is usually 1.0-2.0 bar when running on petrol. It will drop to an operating level when on gas. If this is out of range, the pipes to the pressure sensor are wrong or the electrical connection is wrong. Fix it.
7. MAP – Manifold Absolute Pressure – this is usually 0.2-0.4 bar at tick-over. Outside this range implicates the pipe-work again. Fix it.
8. Lambda 1 – if connected should show a fluctuating voltage within its operating range.
9. Lambda 2 – if connected should show a fluctuating voltage within its operating range.

Work through the above checks and resolve any issues before proceeding.

Go to the main Menu and select Diagnosis or Injector Check.

There may be some diagnostic messages at the top of the screen. Make a note of them, then click Reset Errors. Put a tick in the Enable Diagnosis box. RESTART and see if any diagnostic messages appear. If they do, check the wiring and/or piping to fix the error.

Check Petrol Injectors Signal Diagnosis. You should see green boxes and petrol injector timings for every cylinder. If not, you have cut the injector positive wire instead of the negative – change it.

Work through the above checks and resolve any issues before proceeding.

Make sure that the engine has reached its change-over temperature and see if it will switch to gas. If it does, continue with the injector check below, otherwise run Auto-calibrate and return to the injector check.

Go to the main Menu and select Diagnosis or Injector Check.

With the engine running on gas, switch each individual cylinder from gas to petrol using the Gas Injectors Cut-out box. Each time you switch a cylinder, listen carefully to the engine – there should be virtually no change in the running. If switching one cylinder causes a problem, switch it back to gas and move to the next cylinder. Note which cylinders have caused problems. Such problems are caused by shutting off all fuel to a cylinder or supplying 2 lots of fuel to a cylinder. The 2 possible causes are wrong wiring of a petrol injector cut-in loom (the solid coloured wire should be connected to the injector negative wire and the wire with a black trace should be connected to the wire returning to the petrol ECU), or incorrect pairing of petrol and gas injectors. If the wiring is wrong, fix it and re-run this test. If you have a 5-8-cylinder engine, check that the banks are not switched. The petrol injector intercept loom of bank 2 should have a red band round it and the bank 2 gas injector loom should feed gas injectors E, F, G and H. If you have changed the wiring, re-run this test.

If the wiring is correct it must be a pairing problem. Start with the engine running on gas and all gas injectors switched on. Switch off one of the problem injectors. Switch off another problem injector to see if it cures the problem. If not switch it back on and do the same with the next problem injector. You should find a pair that fixes the problem when both are off. Swap the plugs on the 2 gas injectors and then turn them on again. You should now be able to switch them off with virtually no change in the running. Work through the above checks until you can switch off any of the gas injectors without affecting the running.

Go to the main Menu and select Vehicle Configuration, Chang-over. With the engine running on gas, check the Tinj.Gas. For slower injectors this should be around 4ms and for quick injectors around 3ms. If Tinj. Gas is lower than this, then the gas pressure is too high or the rail nozzle size is too big, and vice versa. Valtek type 30 and 34 rail nozzles need to be drilled to the correct size. Bigas rails need the correct size of jet fitted. Check that the nozzle size is correct for the engine by referring to the sizing charts for the rail. If you change the nozzles size, re-run this test.

Go to the main Menu and select Auto-calibration. Click Start Calibration and follow the instructions on the screen. This should take about a minute. If the engine struggles to run and/or calibration does not complete, it usually means that you have pipes or wires crossed. You need to go through all of the above tests again to identify the problem.

If auto-calibration completes successfully, save the configuration before moving on to fine tuning. Give the set-up a name that includes the registration number, odometer reading and the gas pressure (e.g. p130 for 1.30bar). Any calibration is valid only at the calibration pressure.

Checking the Connection to an AEB-manufactured LPG ECU

We get quite a few questions along the lines of “Why can’t I get my PC to connect to the LPG system?” Broadly speaking, the answer falls into one of the following categories:-

1. Wrong or damaged interface cable
2. Wrong or missing software driver for the cable
3. Fault with PC
4. Wrong software for the LPG system
5. Wrong version of the PC software
6. Wiring problems in the installation.

If you get an error message that says “Impossible to connect. Check connection. (ERR CODE: C01)”, then the problem probably lies with any of the following potential causes.

1                    Wrong or damaged interface cable

Checking if you have the correct cable is not as simple as it could be. Is the cable intended for connection from an AEB-manufactured sequential injection system to a PC? If you don’t know, ask your cable supplier.

Checking for damage is more straightforward. Look along the length of the cable for signs of pinching and abrasion. Check the connections of the wires to the pins. Check for damage to or displacement of the pins. Check for electrical continuity along the length of the wires (not through any intermediate circuitry).

If possible check the lead on another LPG installation that is known to work.

2          Wrong or missing software driver for the cable

This section applies to USB cables only, since serial (RS232) cables do not require a driver.

When the interface cable is plugged into a PC, there is normally a ding-dong sound played to indicate that a device has been attached. There may also be a message to say that a driver has been loaded. If you want to check which driver has been loaded, click Start, Run and enter the command compmgmt.msc /s

Click Device Manager, then Ports (COM & LPT) and look for a USB Serial Port. Double-click it to display the Properties. Click the Driver tab to find the Driver Provider and Version. (Most of the cables that we supply use the FTDI driver).

Drivers for the cables that we supply can be found on our web site www.tinleytech.co.uk/downloadusb

3          Fault with PC

You need to have a PC that is running Windows XP or later. The quickest way to check this is, if possible, to check the PC on another LPG installation that is known to work. Check that the USB port works with another device. Run Computer Management (compmgmt.msc /s) and then Device Manager and look for any warnings or conflicts that may stop the cable from working. Try a different PC.

4          Wrong software for the LPG system

Look at the label on the top of the LPG ECU. It should say AEB, Bigas, Emer, King, OMVL, Romano, Tartarini, Zavoli or possibly some other brand. This should match the name on the software that is being used on your PC. If you run the software, then click Help then About you should see the name of the software and the version.

5          Wrong version of the PC software

From time to time, manufacturers add new features that require a step-change to the ECU firmware and this can cause upward/downward compatibility issues. For this reason, it may be necessary to upgrade to the latest version of the software, or to go back to an older version. In such instances you will usually get a message C04 or possibly C03, that may be accompanied by a compatibility message. Make sure that you have the appropriate version.

6          Wiring problems in the installation

An AEB-manufactured LPG ECU has quite a few connections to your engine. However, only a few are required for it to be able to connect to a PC.

1. Permanent live should be connected from the battery(+), through a fuse via the red/black wire. Check the fuse.
2. Permanent earth should be to the battery(-) via the black wire. Check that you have not mistakenly connected another wire of a different colour that has a close-fitting black sheath over it.
3. Switched live should be connected to the positive side of one of the injectors via the red/white wire that is part of the petrol injector intercept loom. If you have a 5-8 cylinder engine, be sure to connect both red/white wires (one for each bank), since only one of them connects to the ECU.
4. The change-over switch must be connected. Check that the wires have not been pulled out of the back of the plug, and that the wire has not been chafed.
5. The PC interface cable must be plugged into the fly-lead from the LPG ECU. The older ECUs had small, white, rectangular plugs with 2 rows of 4 pins (usually one of the rows had no pins present). The current ECUs have black, oval plugs with 4 pins. These plugs are the same shape and size as the plugs for the pressure sensor. Make sure that you have plugged them in correctly – the long lead goes to the pressure sensor – the short lead should have a cap over the plug that connects to the PC lead.
6. Some of the older LPG ECUs require a pulsed signal on the brown (rev-sense) wire in order to connect.

If you work through all of the above checks, you should find the cause of the problem and be able to fix it. If you still are unable to connect your PC to your LPG ECU, call us and we will do what we can to help.