If recently published patent drawings are legit, then Honda has some changes ahead for the CRF250L engine, including some atypical exploration into uncharted territory.
The drawings published on MoreBikes show a new dual plug arrangement on the CRF250L head. That’s a rarity on small-capacity singles. More typically, you’d see two spark plugs per cylinder in a motorcycle with larger singles, although some smaller made-in-India motorcycles are moving towards this arrangement.
The advantage of a dual plug head is improved combustion, with more fuel being burned and less being wasted down the tailpipe. For this reason, a dual spark plug design might be attractive in the face of increasingly tough emissions regulations (Euro5 is just around the corner, remember!).
The CRF250L also supposedly gets a mechanical fuel injection system, which is puzzling. The CBR250-derived motors have run with EFI since their introduction, so why the switch to mechanical injection?
Finally, there’s considerable speculation that the drawings indicate a gasoline direct injection system. Could that be the case? If so, it’d be the first budget bike we’ve ever seen with GDI, which makes us wonder why Honda would go this route. Maybe this is far-away, in-the-future stuff? Or a clever hoax? Maybe we’ll know more at this year’s EICMA show.
The mechanical fuel injection is most likely just a high pressure pump for the EFI. On the injector itself there seems to be 3 electrical leads, i.e. electronic injection. The design might be a way to avoid fuel dilution of crankcase oils common in GDI.