When did ECM's first appear ?

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bargeahead

bargeahead

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Anybody know what year car makers first started putting electronic control modules or other "computers" in vehicles ? THX
 
Vee Dub squarebacks used to have some sort of mundane electronic injection clear back around 67-68

How about 1958???

http://www.allpar.com/cars/desoto/electrojector.html

electrojector.jpg
 
67Dart273 said:
Vee Dub squarebacks used to have some sort of mundane electronic injection clear back around 67-68

How about 1958???

http://www.allpar.com/cars/desoto/electrojector.html

electrojector.jpg
Click to expand...


Close. AMC beat them to it in 1957.

http://www.allpar.com/mopar/amc-engines.html

The 1957 Rebel was supposed to offer an optional Bendix "Electrojector" electronic fuel injection system, which was said to produce 288 horsepower, and which Motor Trend believed would have proven even faster than the fuelie Corvette had it made production. (The Electrojector was not quite ready for prime time, AMC ultimately passing on it due to chronic issues with cold-weather starting. Chrysler offered it as an option on its hotter 1958 models, but the problems were nowhere near resolved and most of the EFI MoPars were recalled and retrofitted with dual [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]quads[/COLOR][/COLOR]. Bendix eventually sold its Electrojector patents to Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH, who as the years went by eventually worked out the bugs in numerous European applications, and ultimately broughtop it back to the US for successful use in the '75 Cadillac Seville.)
 
THX guys; am considering trading my Dart ( if trade found ) for a truck but want an older, non ECM. Having one of those " senior moments ", couldn't remember.
 
70 had an electronic box for emissions; it was easy to bypass, 3 wires, looked like a voltage regulator. Bypass it and the engine thought it was a 68 model. I think it got serious in 72.Or 73; cast crank and the emissions crap came in late 72. Some where in 72, the compression was dropped to 8.5.
 
Gryzynx said:
Bendix eventually sold its Electrojector patents to Germany's Robert Bosch GmbH, who as the years went by eventually worked out the bugs in numerous European applications, and ultimately broughtop it back to the US for successful use in the '75 Cadillac Seville.)
Click to expand...

Not quite.

Bosch's first EFI system, called D-Jetronic, was of their own design. It was first available on the Volkswagen 1.6 in 1967, and was used on a fair number of European-made vehicles including Volvo and Mercedes through 1976. It is a speed-density system with a giant, fist-sized manifold pressure sensor specific to each and every make, model, engine, transmission, and emissions package, a throttle switch, an (analogue!) electronic control module, and what we now consider ordinary electric pusher fuel pump, fuel rail, injectors, and pressure regulator.

This system was closely but not exactly copied by Bendix -- not bought or licensed -- and released on the '75 Cadillac Seville. The full presentation of the Bendix system and its relation to the Bosch system is in SAE papers 741224 and 760242. The introduction to 741224 reads in pertinent part as follows:

"(…)Electronic fuel injection (EFI) had its origins during the 1950s, when the Bendix Corporation secured worldwide basic patent coverage. Successfully operating systems were developed and installed on vehicles; however, the field of electronics, and especially semiconductors, was not advanced to the point where a durable electronic control unit could be designed. The vacuum tube was still in vogue, the automobile environment was much too harsh, and costs were prohibitively high. The significant achievement at this time was the limited prduction of approximately 300 systems for Chrysler Corporation during model year 1958. The development remained essentially dormant at Bendix for a period of several years until 1967 when pending exhaust emission controls indicated that a market might be evolving for EFI. Robert Bosch of West Germany was also developing EFI and succeeded in marketing in Europe the first high-volume, production EFI system to Volkswagen. By this time, electronic semiconductor technology and manufacturing techniques had evolved to make the application of EFI practical. The Bendis Corporation has for several years been aggressively developing EFI fo the American automotive industry; the first system will be introuduced during 1975 model year production."
 
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