Ask The Editors: Would There Have Been EFI 2-Strokes?
It has been and is being done.
The answer is a resounding yes to both questions. How can we be so sure? Many industries never stopped manufacturing and selling competition two-stroke machines (think MX, snowmobiles, personal watercraft etc.) and the move to fuel injection in recent years has certainly taken place.
However, we can’t say with absolutely certainty that they would have used a similar electronic fuel injection delivery method similar to the ones we have on our four-stroke ATVs today. Over a decade ago the smart money was on development of a direct injection model; one in which the intake really only supplies air. Fuel is sprayed directly into the combustion chamber but not injected until the piston rises and all of the ports are closed.
However, these days we are witnessing success in the form of transfer port injection (or TPI). This system relies upon transfer ducts to move the fuel/air mixture from the crankcase up into the cylinder.
Regardless of which method of fuel injecting the manufacturers would have engineered into a modern two-stroke ATV, emissions would have greatly improved. To the tune of exhaust smoke being dropped by 50% and fuel to oil ratios improving to roughly 110:1. Back in our racing days we were running 50 and sometimes 25:1!
The bottom line is that like all things, efficiency, tolerances and performance would all have improved over time but strict environmental regulation has made the two-stroke ATV not unlike the velociraptor: Extinct but cool to look at in museums.
