www.VMaxGuru.com - The Guru's Blog

What did I do today? Glad you asked. I made the highest horsepower I ever dyno'ed with a completely assembled, streetable bike. Aside from the Akrapovič system the modifications are a modified air box, a Race ECU, PCV and a UFO Performance Max Air filter. I have some tuning to do, but I ran out of time today. Since I have a couple days work lined up and my shop time will be at a minimum, I will share this chart. The top end is getting close to being correct as far as Air Fuel Ratio. I am working on the 3K bump and 4.8K bump. That being said, here you go:

I have shot some video, but I have some new software to install for the new camera. Maybe a sound clip will follow shortly.

8/29/09 Honest to goodness, I shot the video and came to the house to post it and,,,, No video!!! Camcorder is shot. Does not record anymore. Feel like a fool now with all the stuff I did and it was not recording. I am making a trip to Best Buy.

8/28/09 This morning I rode my bike to breakfast. The wife needed to go shopping so she was behind me in her truck. She told me she was jamming to Maroon 5 on the radio when we pulled up to a stop sign. Since it was early morning rush hour in my little town, we had an extended wait to get out on the main road. My wife said while we waited for a break in traffic, she felt something rumbling her truck so she turned down the radio. That's when she discovered it was my bike in front of her shaking her truck. I like these pipes.

Worked late. Promise to post sound and video of the Akrapovič system with all the noise reducers tomorrow.

Thinking out loud here. As some of you have seen in the video I have posted on the EXUP valve and from studying it's operation, I have the stinking suspicion the first three gears have a different ECU fuel curve than both 4th and 5th. The two top gears are treated to a completely open EXUP. The bottom three are not. This could mean there is a difference that would require gear dependent mapping for maximum performance. I do my wide open throttle tuning on the dyno in 5th gear. I do my peak horsepower on the dyno in 4th gear. Most people will do the majority of the WOT high RPM Auto Tuning in the first three gears (4th or 5th gear would mean some pretty high speeds). An e-mail had started me leaning toward the EXUP being the difference in the Race ECU and Stock ECU's but I never actually tested it. My gut tells me it's being picky, but if people are Auto Tuning a single fuel curve that is mainly tuned in the first three gears (EXUP'ed) and the long acceleration gears are 4th and 5th (unEXUP'ed),,,.. Something to look at later. Today is a work day. I hope I can post good video of the Akrapovič system in action.

8/27/09 The folks on my e-mail list have been treated to an early view of the Akrapovič system installation pictures. I sent a link to this page to them some time ago. They could check in as I added pictures to it. There are a few pictures on that page which are ready to post for general viewing. I am not happy with them and I need to take some better ones when it's not raining, but these will do for now.

It thundered and rained beyond the hours I can run the dyno today. It will be the weekend before I can get some good video and numbers.

Put the bike back together and rolled it out to take a few pictures and it started to rain! Maybe I can get it photographed and some good video with sound on Youtube tomorrow.

I hope to get my bike put back together today and get it up on the dyno. See what kind of numbers this Akrapovič system will make. I had an e-mail come in that said the Akrapovič web site has a page that you can search for vendors around the world. The page for the USA list two importers, LOCKHART PHILLIPS USA and PARTS UNLIMITED.

Next, I got tired of all the conjecture concerning the TPS signal being jumpy and how to fix it. This has been discussed in the forums before, mainly starvmax.com has a specific discussion concerning the V-Max PCV TPS fix. After some conversations and research, it seems this problem was initially discovered by the Wide Band Power Commander users wherein the TPS signal was jumping around while displayed on the screen. The Dynojet Wideband Commander Tech Tips list a similar fix for stable TPS readings. I took the time to measure the signals and found that between two laptops, one registered more noise than the other. This was the problem I listed much earlier in my Blog that was solved with an alligator clip jumper. Upon removing the laptop and alligator clip jumper, there was still some noise in the circuit. After cutting the White stripped Black wire on Esten's PCV and connecting it to the Brown stripped Black wire of the TPS, the noise did substantially subside. It did slightly increase the noise level seen by the ECU on the TPS circuit, but not enough to be of concern. This being said, having the knowledge of a current warranty issue not being covered due to alterations, I can not advise you to do this modification. Although I am still learning the PCV, I am of the opinion the stock O2 sensor and ECU works fine for all throttle positions from 0 to 20%. Tuning in this manner (along with an averaging type firmware revision) may make this modification less important. If you are a purest and want the adjustment of every increment, this modification may be a must. You may want to search for some more TPS (posi-tap) connectors before you cut into the bikes wiring. That's all I'm saying and I will leave it at that.

Wow, my e-mail had rolled down to a few a day until I started this new adventure. The main question being ask, "where did you get yours and where can I get one"? I acquired this exhaust system directly from Akrapovič. They sent it to me free of charge for testing. I am very grateful. I currently do not know where you can purchase this system, but I will send an e-mail to Akrapovič to get some answers.

I was also ask to post the Jay Gleason Videos are now available to VMOA members from the VMOA store.

Non members can e-mail Rhonda Lane to acquire one.

8/25/09 I wanted to snap a few pictures and shoot some video of this Akrapovič system before I started to install it. So far I can offer you the following: this is the most well thought out, intricately detailed and complete system I have had so far. The welds are crazy beautiful. The titanium collectors are so light, I am afraid that if I breathe too hard I will blow them off the table. The best way to describe the weight of the titanium tubing used to make the collectors would be an empty soda can that you can't crush. I am trying to stay objective, but this is nice.

I had a few work related issues to tend to this morning. I hope to get into the shop this afternoon and start videoing the Akrapovič system. This is the most excited I have been in a while to open a box!

On another note, I have had some e-mail correspondence with Dusty at Dynojet concerning the PCV. I sent him an e-mail asking if the firmware could be downloaded and the PCV unit updated via the PCV software, this was his verbatim response:

"It is something we need to do manually as this does not apply to all models. The unit would have to come back for us to update it. Also keep in mind this does not apply to all PCV units. We caught this after the first run so only about 50-100 units will have a jumpy TPS signal. All the others will be fine."

8/24/09 For the Dynojet PCV owners, Dynojet has updated the firmware. The latest units are being shipped with the new firmware. The update resolves the jittery TPS signal during calibration. No more need for jumpers!

8/23/09 Not a lot of numbers to talk about today. We spent most of the day trying to get the RMP to read correctly on the LM-2. I had been using the Inj 1 circuit for my bike. I wanted to get a signal that would not die out above 3k when the throttle was released and the injectors cut out. I tried Coil 1 signal today and built a small circuit to get it working. It works but we now we have a lagging reading problem. The RPM data is the right scale but lagging too far behind. More to study on that one. Maybe a phone call in the morning. Anyway, we continued to dial in the map for the UFO Battle Star with the baffle in and the fxTuner Big Air. The "baffle in" map will be for switch position 1. It started life as the "WFO" map before we started hacking away at it. There is a bad bump at 2k and another at 7k. Lots of adjustment needed from the baffle. Didn't get to do anymore. Tomorrow is a work day.

I will be working on another project today. Esten and I will continue the experiment tomorrow morning.

8/21/09 Worked at the real job today, but I made a few phone calls and sent a few e-mails. After speaking with a few potential sponsors yesterday, I may be getting closer to closing the deal on "Jay Day". I am trying to get this put together soon so people can make plans. I can't say to do that just yet. I hope to know more next week.

8/20/09 I will leave this in the Blog for now, but I am going to merge it into it's own page before long. Continuing on from 8/19/09, Esten installed a toggle switch on the handle bar and we installed two maps in the PCV. Esten downloaded one map from the web he call the "WFO" map. It was not created for this pipe, but he wanted to try it. He had another one e-mailed to him from fxTuner created for the Battle Star and Big Air kit. Esten told me the e-mail instructions sent with the fxTuner map stated the map did not have any tuning from 40% down. We pulled a couple of quick dyno runs and switched the maps. Here are the results (fxTuner = Run 3 and WFO = Run 4):

Here is the LM-2 Log Works screen shot with the fxTuner map imposed on the WFO map:

The fxTuner was very close to being correct at the top, but performed horrible in the low and mid range. The "WFO" map did better in the mid rage but was too lean up top. After studying the LM-2 data and the maps, we determined the controlled opening rate of the Yamaha Chip Controlled Throttle (YCC-T) keeps the PCV from seeing 40% TPS until approx 3k. I wish I could be more accurate about the specific RPM. We worked at getting Esten's bike to read RMP for some time but I will have to get my oscope out and make a voltage divider for the ignition circuit. Pushing ahead, we made a few adjustments to the bottom of the fxTuner map and produced the following Run 7:

My concern started to be this Velocity stack and exhaust pipe combo. I looked back in my files and I had made more SAE horsepower with the Battle Star pipe and no air box. Since I know very little about the construction of velocity stacks, I started surfing the internet for things such as trumpet and taper. I found a web site called Velocity of Sound. I clicked on the Velocity Stack link and lookie here:

Seems they are already V-Max friendly! I have sent an e-mail to them requesting more information and I hope to hear from them soon. For the time being, they have an online velocity stack calculator you can use to calculate the optimal length stack. If you need to do some imperial to metric conversion, here is an online conversion. The 2009 V-Max specs can be found here.

Remember this is just my Blog. I may find something we did wrong. I am testing and thinking. I am not of any opinion yet. This weekend we will be looking at different stacks and measuring the performance on the Battle Star. Not to short change the fxTuner Big Air, if Esten does not mind I will try it on the Cat Sass bike as I feel I have topped out the SAE HP of that current setup at 189.9. Currently, it appears that at an AFR of around 12.5 at 9k RPM (peak HP), this setup is close to making all the power it can. One thing is for sure, this setup has the most aggressive sounding of anything I have dyno'ed. More to come on this one.

8/19/09 Yesterday proved to be a very interesting day. First off, my suspicion about the speed and TPS signals being affected by the un-powered PCV rang true. I confirmed that if you install the Power Commander V on the TPS and Speed Signal wires as instructed, the respective diagnostic test will fail. Diagnostic Test D:07 of the speed signal as described on page 8-39 of the manual will fail as well as the two Throttle Position test described in Diagnostic Test D:01 on page 8-38 and Diagnostic Test D:13 on page 8-39. This initially confused me as I remember using diagnostics to set-up the TPS during calibration. Esten and I went ahead and started the set-up on his bike and it worked. After a little thinking, it dawned on me that during the calibration routine the PCV is being powered by the USB port.

Next, I found the TPS signal calibration is slightly more accurate when an alligator clip is used to jumper between the laptop (such as a serial port nut) and the bike's ground.

Next, we found the LM-2 and PCV TPS signals can not be paralleled from the same white wire. They must be split. The TPS sends two identical signals. They are present on a Black and White wire at the ECU. Since there are two sets of these Black and White wires (One for the TPS and One for the APS) find the black wire with a matching signal when the throttle is moved with the key ON and the bike not running. The TPS signal only swings a little above 1 volt where the APS will go above 4 volts.

This is all the time I have for tonight. I had to work today. I will be working on another project for part of the day tomorrow but I have some specific data to go over. Currently the bike is only making 182 SAE corrected horsepower with both the Big Air and Battlestar. I need to get my data together, but it isn't looking like I will have any good news. More tomorrow.

Wendy sent me this proof of the poster she is re-producing for Jay Gleason. She hopes to have them available soon.

Yesterday proved to be very informative day of testing. I will do the write-up tonight.

8/18/09 Back on the Esten Experiment. Hope to start dyno'ing the bike today.

8/16/09 Today was an interesting day. I finished the Battle Star install this morning. I did the "Double D" clutch spring modification also. By the way, I thought I would mention the Gen 1 clutch spring part number is 1FK-16334-00-00. We also figured out another issue with the Power Commander 5. When you go into diagnostics to check the APS sensors feedback, initially you will find a low reading for one of the APS readings. When the throttle grip is moved rapidly, the throttle servo then stops moving and goes "offline". This issue goes away when the PCV is not installed on the APS sensor. The reason this happens, the PCV gets its power from the injector circuit. When the bike is in diagnostics, the fuel pump relay is only energized for certain codes. Coincidentally, this relay also powers the fuel injectors with positive battery voltage. The PCV gets it's power from the injector circuit. Under normal running, this injector and pump relay is always energized and the ECU grounds each injector to turn it on (fire the injector). In diagnostics, this relay turns off in various diagnostic codes and in turn kills power to the PCV. The dead PCV seems to cause an alteration of the signals the PCV is hooked to. The ECU sees the alteration of one of the two signals and sends the servo off line. I have also found the speed signal will be compromised by the PCV earlier. I had unhooked the PCV at the injectors to run without it. I left the speed signal wire attached and I had no speed signal. I unhooked the PCV speed signal wire and it came back. Didn't see if diagnostics for the speed signal worked or not today. Didn't think about it until now. Something to remember. We are getting closer to being ready to dyno the bike. Tomorrow is a work day.

I will be in the shop today working with Esten. I hope to get the "Double D" clutch springs installed, finish the Battle Star and LM-2 install. Maybe some dyno'ing if all goes well.

8/13/09 I have spent the V-Max part of my day modeling "cool things" in CAD. Tomorrow is a work day.

8/12/09 They installed the permanent line today and found (or made) two water leaks. That's what I had to deal with today.

8/11/09 Internet was down again. Temporary line they installed went bad. I worked on something very, very cool for the V-Max. Maybe the coolest thing I have built yet. I will show it when I am done with it.

8/10/09 I am back online!!!! But today is a work day for me. Esten is ordering an extra clutch spring plate to perform what is referred to as the "Double D" wherein you order a second clutch (diaphragm) spring and double stack two springs on the clutch basket to eliminate clutch slippage.

The part number for the clutch spring is 5YU-16334-00-00. List price at K&N is $36.90 Although I have re-used mine before but if you are a purest, you may want to order a gasket for the cover. The gasket part number is: 2S3-15453-00-00 and has a list of $8.34. I use the K&N website to find most of my parts and they offer a nice discount to VMOA members.

8/9/09 Still no internet, this sucks! I spent the day working on the "Esten Experiment". Today I ask him if he wanted to name his bike, and he offered up Matilda. I think he's just goofing on me for naming my bike. Anyway, it's catchy so Matilda it is. I suppose I should give you the laundry list of what he has purchased for Matilda:

Today we started putting this together. One thing is for sure, it is a necessity to pull the rear swing arm to remove the stock rear header assembly. If you are planning to install a Battle Star, you may want to think thru any suspension components you may be entertaining as now would be the time to do it. I have a few tricks developed from the few times I have installed a Battle Star pipe:

Today we also installed the Aux power relay for power to the LM-2 and started wiring the wide band O2 sensor. Esten removed the Air Induction System solenoid assembly and plugged the tubes.

8/6/09 - 8/8/09 Lightning struck again. I live 10 miles from the lightning capitol of the world. I hope to have the home PC and internet connection fixed soon.

Esten was here and he worked on mounting the LM-2. I worked on a prototype speed fix to put on his bike for testing.

No shop time yesterday. Wound up mowing the yard. Esten is coming over today and we are starting on his bike. I am reading over two ECU manuals for the blower project. I am looking at the MoTec and Haltec.

8/4/09 I hope to get into the shop a little this afternoon. I have a few errands to run. If possible, I will video the second version of the speed fix.

Looks like a few other sites are gearing up for the 2010 lineup. Nothing posted yet, but these are the 2010 year model hits on the search engines.

I had a little time to look at the speed fix yesterday. I have the base module switch sorted out, next will be the divide by half flip flop and output driver (which is easy). I think you're gonna love where I am going with this! More later.

8/2/09 I have been working on putting together a V-Max event I have labeled as "Jay Day". My concept is the following: Rent the Orlando Dragway on Saturday October 17th. This track is the closest 1/4 mile track I could find to the Daytona Biketoberfest event. It would be nice to have the VMOA BBQ at the track. Maybe have the VMOA store and a few V-Max related vendors setup there. Jay would be there to autograph things like the faux tank cover or your frames badge desk display. I am willing to bring my dyno there. I am working on the next street legal bike for Jay to try making it into the 8's on all motor. I would like to get as many V-Maxes as possible to show up for a photo shoot with Jay on the starting line of the track. Anyone that wishes could make a pass at the track or a dyno run. The holdup has become the high price of renting the track. To do this, I will need to keep the VMOA's cost exposure as low and close to normal for this event as possible. I have spoken with Kelvin about this and he feels the directors would be interested but the VMOA will need to do something to offset the track rental cost. I have purposed having some corporate type sponsors. I have called Yamaha in California and inquired with them. I was advised to type a letter up and mail it to them. Jon from UFO has offered to sponsor a gracious portion and bring down a fleet of V-Max's including his turbo bike. At this point, we may have the ear of two major cycle magazines to be on hand. Still in the planning stages but I am cooking on this, so we will see what happens.

I hope to be back in the shop today. Work on the speed fix some more and start laying out my plan for attacking what I will call the "Esten Experiment". I thought about it some last night. I have a race pipe to install and tune! Aside from that, Esten has a plethora of parts to install. I'll take a picture of it today. I have to start with installing the LM-2 and getting some stock measurements on the bike next week.

8/1/09 Well, I've been given some "Hunny Do's" again. So I hope to get those done and this afternoon return to the Speed Fix.

Gary from Munford, Tennessee tells me his first night at the track did not go so well. With all the modifications, he has a lot of bugs to work out. He got 5 passes in last night. A electric shifter problem plagued the first 4 runs. He took it off and speed shifted the bike for the 5th and final run, but ran out of gas at 400'. The bike still crossed the 1/8th mile finish line 7.23 seconds at 109mph.