MAF Sensor

[Denisk31]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if someone could help me. I am hoping to test and run a Garrett turbo on our engine (CBR600 F4i) this year and want to use a MAF sensor to monitor the actual mass flow throught the engine. I have looked on the forums etc and cant find a post which specifies what MAF sensor to use. You can buy MAF sensors which are engine specific but how do you read the data from it if your ECU does not have capabilities for these sensors and what calibration data do you use to interpret this data. Or is there a MAF sensor that can be bought which comes as a complete system, ideal for dyno testing. Finally I have read some posts that state that MAP systems are just as good as using a MAF sensor, is this true?

Any opinions or thoughts?

Denis

[Denisk31]

Hi Everyone,

I was wondering if someone could help me. I am hoping to test and run a Garrett turbo on our engine (CBR600 F4i) this year and want to use a MAF sensor to monitor the actual mass flow throught the engine. I have looked on the forums etc and cant find a post which specifies what MAF sensor to use. You can buy MAF sensors which are engine specific but how do you read the data from it if your ECU does not have capabilities for these sensors and what calibration data do you use to interpret this data. Or is there a MAF sensor that can be bought which comes as a complete system, ideal for dyno testing. Finally I have read some posts that state that MAP systems are just as good as using a MAF sensor, is this true?

Any opinions or thoughts?

Denis

[Jon @ Electromotive, Inc.]

The MAF sensor from the Mustang 5.0 is pretty easy to deal with. Should be available just about anywhere.

I found a calibration table on the web somewhere. It seemed to work in our test mule Honda Civic. Here's the data I have:

kg/hr:volts
836:4.8
695:4.4
596:4.2
500:3.9
399:3.5
348:3.4
296:3.1
243:2.9
202:2.7
183:2.6
161:2.4
142:2.3
120:2.2
100:2.0
90:1.9
82:1.8
73:1.7
62:1.6
54:1.5
45:1.3
37:1.2
33:1.1
24:0.9
19:0.8
14:0.6

Hopefully that will get you close enough.

Edit: cleaned up the table

[Jon @ Electromotive, Inc.]

I have misunderstood the intent of you question. I was thinking that you where wanting to chacterize you turbo/intake where you would simply use the MAF for informational data rather than fueling data. If you where going to use a MAF sensor to actually operate the engine, you can place a restrictor in the MAF sensor to reduce the actual airflow through it. It will have to be recalibrated, but you can do that using a flow bench and a voltmeter. That's what we did for the Honda anyway. GM MAF sensors output a frequency proportional to airflow as do Toyota MAF sensors. Ford, for certain and I'm pretty sure, Bosch sensors, output a simple voltage propertional to airflow.

As for whether or not it's good to use a MAF sensor, that's a different question and it's been discussed in another thread.

[awhittle]

Get a ford MAF that looks like this. Common on Taurus's and Mustangs. It works great on my 140hp 2 stroke jetski running Megasquirt. About 1 Volt at idle and about 4 Volts at full power

[Jon @ Electromotive, Inc.]

That's actaully exactly the one I was refering to. Thanks for the pics!

[Denisk31]

Thanks for help and pictures guys, greatly appreciated. To clear up what i want to use the mass flow meter for:

I want to calculate the ACTUAL mass flowrate through the engine to then calculate the volumetric efficency and compare it to the analytical and computational approach. Is this the right way to do things or is there another way to calculate nv? I will have an air pressure sensor and temperature sensor on the intake manifold. I will also have thermocouples on the exhaust manifold, measuring EGT's. Is this enough data to calibrate a Ricardo Wave model or is a MAF sensor essential?

Also we don't have access to a flowbench so is there any other way to calibrate an OEM Airflow meter or is there a system that could be bought which would be suitable?

Thanks again guys,

Denis