Create Exact Maps for Engines
Q: Why is it that when I pressed the “Create Exact Maps” button on the Engine Mapping screen, no maps were created.
A: Unlike Make and Model mapping, there is no single “Engine String” to compare against in the VCdb. The EngineBase is made up of nine different text fields (e.g. Liter, CC, CID, Cylinders, etc.). There are several ways these could be combined to make a single search string.
For this reason, we provide a way for you to create “Engine Formats” based on the Engine column(s) in your source data. The idea is to select one of your engines and tag the portion that is a Liter, CC, CID, etc. Then, the Create Exact Maps will match the individual pieces parsed from your engine string. Here are the steps to do this:
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Select an engine from your list of engines that represent a standard format.
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Select the Edit > Engine Formats… menu item.
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Highlight the actual value for “Block Type”, “Cylinders”, “Liters”, “CC” or “CID” and press the associated button. The software will replace the actual value with a special format tag. For example, 2.0L will become %LITERS%L.
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Continue replacing values with format tags as directed above until all have been replaced in your data.
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Press the Add button to save the Format String.
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Press OK to exit the screen and repeat the process for each unique combination needing a format.
Note that if there is any additional information in a format string (such as fuel or aspiration), you will not be able to define an engine format that applies generically.