Take a trip with the EthanolTechnik Quick Guide
To understand the principal working steps of how to convert a car to be fit for gasoline and E85 or any mixture of both, check the photos and instructions given below. For detailed technical information, refer to our installation manual, which is available under the section product documentation.
1. Is my car compatible with EthanolTechnik ?
Check, if every cylinder has its own fuel injector. The injectors are located in the air intake manifold near the cylindre head.
Picture shows a fuel injector and (female) connector, which can be seen in most European car brands, with the Bosch EV1 connector standard.
2. Check connector format of the fuel injectors
Pull the connector cable off the injectors and check which format it is. Typical format for West European vehicle brands is the Bosch EV1 format. Asian brands may feature the common Denso- or Toyoda or Honda connector.
    
Note, its not important how the connector looks from outside. Important is the shape of the inner section that matches with the fuel injector.
3. Check the polarity of the connector harness
While putting the engine start key to position “ignition”, measure the voltage signal in the connector with a common diode current tester. You must check, if the circled-in “pin 01” of the connectors shown above, sends a positive or negative voltage signal. The signal is usually available for a few seconds only, after the key is switched into position “ignition”.
4. Check the electrical resistance of the injectors
Measure the electrical resistance (Ohms) of each injector, with the connector plugs pulled off. Switch the Multimeter to a range of about 0 - 20 Ohms and read the display. Cars made after 1994 often have injectors with a resistance ranging from 10-17 Ohms, which is ok.
Older cars with low impedance injectors of 1 - 3 Ohms only are not compatible.
5. Check the electrical signal of the lambda probe
The probe is located in front of the first catalytic converter in the exhaust pipe, near the cylinder head.
Most vehicles of the 90ies used to have voltage type probes sending slow sinus type signals between 0,2 and 0,9 V.
Measure each cable of the probe with the Multimeter against vehicle ground and switch the measuring range first to 0 – 20V checking each cable. In a second run, search for the low voltage cables, switching to a refined measuring range of 0 – 1 Volts until you found the signal cable.
To view the signal, the engine must be warmed-up already and be running (idle). If in doubt, ask a professional car mechanic how to find the signal cable.
6. Install the injector wiring harness
First, look for a cool and dry place for the control unit. This can be near the air intake filter or near the cars battery. Don’t fit the control unit near the exhaust system or the radiator or the ignition system. Then connect each injector with one pair of male and female connectors of the EthanolTechnik injector harness.
 
7. Install the lambda probe harness
G3-L control: To do so, you must solder the 2 cables of the lambda harness properly to the signal cable of the lambda probe.
G3-S control: there is no more lambda interface.
8. Install the temperature sensor
Simply by taping it onto the big water hose, thats leaving the top of the engine to the front radiator. Don’t put the sensor in contact with liquid coolant.
9. Connect the ground cable to the battery
Connect the ground cable of the EthanolTechnik injector harness with the minus pole of the car’s battery. Make sure the electrical connection is well done. Poor connection can be the cause of the engine running poor at low speed.
10. Thats it!
You have successfully converted your car into a flex fuel vehicle (FFV) which now can run with any mixture of Ethanol and gasoline.
Drive to the next fuel station and fill in some E85 into the fuel tank and raise the mixture stepwise until E85. Check how the engine reacts to increasing ethanol grade especially when cold starting.
For further information refer to the EthanolTechnik installation manual.
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