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The Guru's Blog2/28/09 I spent most of the morning with another O2 problem. The LM-2 is going off the chart lean at 5 - 7k. This has got to stop. I will have to call Innovate on Monday morning. I have not been able to tune anything today. Since I consistently had an O2 sensor problem, I changed gears and tested something else. I now have the bike wired to look at the APS and TPS. I had been wondering if the servo opened the throttle differently from the Race ECU and Stock ECU with the speed limit bypassed. I installed each of them and recorded the throttle opening times with the LM-2. They are almost identical. The black lines are RPM. The dashed green line is the Race ECU TPS signal and the solid green line is the Stock ECU TPS signal with the speed limit bypassed. The bike was warmed up for the Stock ECU run and made power a little faster so the lines do no line up perfectly, but the verdict seems to be in on the Race ECU.
I gave up just past 1:00pm and took my neglected wife for a nice long bike ride today. This will end this month and tomorrow I will start a new page for March. I will see if a copper heat sink helps this problem just for giggles. I don't think it will. I will also cut the Bike Week signs. It's getting closer! The last day of February and best of all, it's testing day! I have had a long time to form a game plan for this one. Weather is not going to be great for Uncorrected values. It's 62 degrees at 8:00am this morning. Thank goodness the warm weather is coming back. I also want to reiterate, I am really only going to focus on SAE corrected numbers from the time I had the weather station fix on. It's the only real way to get close to apples to apples comparison spread out over so many days. Hello to Steve the VMax riding Hells Angel. Hope you can get me that wheelie photo soon! You never know what the next e-mail will bring. That being said, time to go wring out the Cat Sass! 2/27/09 The new videos are available here. Just finished the video and I am uploading it to Youtube now. While I wait, I will tell you I rode the bike in to work today. I have to admit, having the baffles in was the perfect volume level for me. I think I will enjoy the option of removing the baffles and terrorizing the town or putting them in and going for a long ride. Stock is just too quiet for me. Moving on, I also figured out a problem with the LM-2 and corrected it. Somehow I got crossed up in the manual and wired analog out 1 to the O2 sensor. After riding the bike and seeing it run lean for a couple of trips, I got the scope out and started checking. The narrow band replication voltage was a bit off causing the bike to run at around 15.5 to 16 AFR. I read more into the manual and found the analog 2 channel is the default channel for O2 replication. I corrected this and checked it with the Oscope and the bike was spot on (1 Lambda) for most of the ride. I had a couple of pegged out errors that a reset fixed on the way into work. I had no problems returning home. Lastly, riding the bike today gave me time to think about,,, things. For the most part, this web site has been a good thing. It is quite a burden but I have made a few new friends since I started doing this. I think I have figured out how to get beyond the stage fright. I have to pretend that I am relaying a message to one person and hope they find it informative and entertaining. I also felt I should stop worrying about the hit count. So for tonight, I thought about my new friend Scott and his wife. He tells me he reads the this, what ever you would call it, to his wife. Tonight, I was typing to you. Thanks. Today is a work day. I hope to get the Afterburner - baffle in verses baffle out - comparison video done tonight. To change gears. I guess me acting a fool draws attention. Here is a screen cap of the traffic page from my host:
I hope this will tie two topics together. Stage Fright and my job. I love to show off to my friends but the truth be known, I have stage fright something horrible. Ever see the guy that goes blank when the news reporter shoves a mic in his face, that's me. I joke and say I am a box of instant moron, just add a microphone. I would even have a hard time saying the blessing at Thanksgiving in front of the family. I suppose someone was spurred by a recent forum thread and I had another e-mail come in asking what I do for a living. Here is my day job. I am very proud of the company I have built. I started it from the end of a single wide mobile home with just a tool belt and a Ford Broncho15 years ago. Of course, now that you have seen my day job, you can tell that not much frightens me. At least with my job, I may have a small audience on the ground but I sure don't have much company. Until lately, I saw this site as my personal log book for everyone to open and read. I took a little extra time to make it look good. My goal was to attract attention to the product I am fooling with, not myself. I looked at my site hits last night (which honestly amazes me) and for the first time I started to get a little anxious. I talked with my wife about this. I am worried I could make a fool out of myself. If you are ahead of your time, your a visionary. If you are on time, your dependable. If you are behind the times, your history. Time defines and corrects every mistake. When you have your head down and running like I have been over this stuff, you are bound to miss something and make a mistake. It's no big deal when I am alone in my garage, but this is different. I am thinking about 200 to 300 people are checking this site a day. I am not going to stop, and this was not a plea for support, so please don't send e-mails. This whole ditty was to say, I will try to not let this get crazy. You are here for the bike, parts and numbers. I am a one man band around here so it makes it hard to hold the camera and bolt stuff together and get something decent to put together, so bear with me. I will do the best I can to pretend I am you looking at this thru the internet and get something sensible from it. As for my little personal detour this morning, I will pretend your not there so I can still be me. I wanted you to see a little of the personal side of what concerns me. Just taking time to think out loud and tell you I refuse to be a victim and therefore I reserve the right to 100 oopps, three mulligan's and 1 Ahh $hit! OK? 2/26/09 I shot some video of the Cat Sass and Afterburners with the baffles in and out. Hope to edit it soon. Another milestone. 30,000 hits. Had to update the (now stupid) who's watching page. Since I don't own the 2002 any more, I removed it from the 120rwhp clubs. I added a new photo album of the Cat Sass and Afterburner cans. These are some good pictures in my book. I have one as my desktop. Ok, a longer video will follow this weekend! I am really starting to enjoy this stuff. I was playing around and made this short clip of First sound of the UFO Exhaust. Ok. The honest truth, I have never had so much e-mail in one day! I think I replied to everyone currently on the e-mail list that sent an e-mail and I added many more to the e-mail list today. WOW! Please don't be offended if I was short in my replies. I just wanted to respond to everyone today. I was surprised to see the number of e-mails in all of my e-mail accounts when so little was said on the forums. I guess it was enough. Anyway, for you new readers that missed the boat, the UFO Afterburner Sneak Peek is what the salty dogs around here saw yesterday. I hope to post more soon. On another note, I had an e-mail asking about my Top Speed mod and EXUP mods. For the record, I don't have a "Mod" for them yet. I am currently finishing one of two top speed fixes. I have the "top speed fix" portion working, I am now adding a few features to it. I hope to have two different versions. For ones that need one yesterday, be patient! At the last minute, I am trying to add a turn signal cancellation feature to it if I have enough program space on the PIC. I sure do have enough pins available! I am running close to max mem now so I am going to try to shave the program a little. Since the chip will already see the bike speed, I figured a turn signal killer would be a neat feature. One thing, if you want to go fast, don't turn your turn signal on! The chip can not do both at the same time with the program space I have available. I am not going to release the details of the second version of this top speed fix, but it is proving to be more of a problem to get working. It will have to go on the back burner while I test some new products. Next, the EXUP. After hours of testing this thing, I have found that it only works in lower RPM's of the first 3 gears. In a real "Race situation", the bike never drops down to where it will be used after you leave the starting line in 1st. It is up to you if you want to unhook it. It seems to uncork a little bottom end power with it un-hooked on the dyno. I consider these to still be in the testing phase. You can join in and do a little testing yourself if you like. When I am done testing, if I put together something I consider it to be a worthy "Mod", I will make a Modification page of it. 2/25/09 I feel there should be some benefit to those that read my Blog daily and have taken time to join my e-mail list. Those of you that have joined, check your e-mail. Those of you that have not, you missed the boat this time. Here is a "Spy Photo" below. Click photo to enlarge.
2/24/09 This evening, I heard a roar off in the distance. It seemed un-earthlike. My ears where trying to adjust to this new sound. It appeared to be the deep, throaty sound of an afterburner. I walked out of my shop, then, there in the light of the setting sun, I got my first view. As a valley girl in southern California might say, OOOHMAGOD! It had landed in my field in northern Florida. Seen changing directions at a very rapid pace! Acceleration is beyond the earthling comprehension. Craft appears to create an exhaust sound unknown to man. Composition materials appear to not be of this earth. Strange identification lettering on exhaust. Could only get close enough to make out three letters. Could be our best clue as to the craftsman. More to come. Afraid to sleep, but I know I must get some. Perhaps soon, before the occupant returns, I can capture it and strap it down to the dyno to see just what type of propulsion they are using. Stay tuned. Oh yea, you're gonna love this next one. I'm gonna have to let this one build for a while. Those on the e-mail list will get something soon. I hope to post to the site in a day or two when I have time to build pages. As I've heard elsewhere, stay tuned! Tomorrow is a long work day for me. I received an e-mail about the auxiliary power relay video saying the relay can be purchased at MCM Electronics for just over a buck. I looked, you sure can and here is the page. Thanks Mark! I have added this page of the UFO Drag Star installation photo album. Lots of pictures. 2/23/09 Anyone needing an easy and inexpensive fused power supply that is turned on by the key switch will be interested in this modification video. The relay in the video is a simple 12vdc coil single pole 30 amp power relay commonly found at most automotive stores. This can be used to power numerous accessories including your GPS, heated grips or a 12vdc cigarette lighter adapter to charge your cell phone. It's quick, simple, easy and hidden. The print I mention in the video can be found here. One more thing, I hope to post a video I did on adding an inexpensive auxiliary power relay for accessories on your V-Max tonight if time allows. Today is a work day for me, so I have to be quick. It appears I will be testing two new performance products soon. These items are in the prototyping stage now and the respective companies should be completing development on them in the near future. I will have more details later as I firm up the prototype arrival dates and such. I really appreciate the responses for the Race ECU testing and what was more surprising was the response to History of the Generation 1 V-Max page I found on my old server. I really would like to fill that page with color examples of readers bikes for each year. That being said, if you have a good side shot of an all stock v-max with it's original paint colors, e-mail it to me. For a while the e-mail had slowed down but I see there are still people stopping to visit. Someone sent me and e-mail saying "Your hits are almost like watching a stop watch tick away" which made me take a look. As of today, the hit count passed 27,000!!!! I am a realist and I have to keep telling myself it's not me, it's the bike. I am really enjoying doing this for you folk's. 2/22/09 I think after today, I have a more definitive answer to the Race ECU question. I spent the morning changing the way I had a few sensors wired. My intention was to watch the EXUP, TPS, Speed, RPM, and Intake Air Pressure sensor. As planned a little after mid day Esten Spears, a local 09 VMax owner showed up in my driveway. We talked a little shop and soon suited up for a LM-2 data logging trip. I was going to ride around with the Race ECU and record data, return to the shop and install the stock ECU and do the same again. I would then compare the data. We had some beautiful weather today for riding, so the 1st data gathering trip was taking a little longer than I initially had planned. We took a semi spirited ride down Istachatta road and finally made it to a less traveled straight stretch. I had a thought. I pulled to a stop at an intersection and I ask Esten what he weighed, he replies 260. I tell him I am 275. He and I both are rather tall men. I said, I weigh 15 lbs more than you, if we do a 5th gear roll on, it will tell us what this Race ECU is doing. I informed him that I will give him a sign when we are at the right place and he will pull beside me, we will hit the bikes and see what happens. Well, he ever so slowly pulled away from me. Both times. The only differences in the bikes aside from the Race ECU, my bike has a boulevard screen, he has the full wind screen. Another test that seems to state the Race ECU does nothing more than remove the top speed limit. 2/21/09 I uploaded the Gen 1 Ver 1 timing measurements. I hope I have them all right. Since there seems to be a lot of hub-bub about the Race ECU results, I am going to re-visit this. To be honest, run # 6 seems to be too high to me too. If I was to post the raw video, you would see run # 6 was just another run I attempted without really noting anything before I swapped the ECU's out again. Since this test day, I have become a lot more aware of the sensors and adjustments of this bike and that may need to be taken into consideration before testing. Removing the left scoop and exposing the intake air pressure sensor makes a difference. Things such as this can easily get overlooked and make an impact on the test results. Many are saying that all the Race ECU does is remove the top speed limits. I will reiterate, the main difference seems to be the limiter that stops the stock ECU from making the peak horsepower in both 4th and 5th gear. As for the difference in curves, I don't know if the same would happen if two stock ECU's are swapped without adjusting them to the bike. There are many diagnostic screens that need to be addressed to see if there is a reason this made a difference. In my initial write up, I referenced a previous run with the limit bypassed to show how closely it followed the Race ECU. They are almost identical. I think the most important re-test I can perform will be the Stock ECU with the limit removed verses the Race ECU. This will produce a more definitive answer. My gut leads me to believe there will not be a significant difference. This whole endeavor has been a huge learning curve for me to catch up to. Forgive me if I bumble along until I get this 100% accurate for all that are concerned. I just hope you are enjoying following along with me. For now, these are the results I have to operate from until the additional questions are answered. Excluding the last run, the bike setup was the same for all test shown in the graph and video. It was as close to apples to apples as I thought I needed to be at the time. Now we have more questions that I will gladly try to answer. For now, you can form your own opinion. As for me, I would say to hold off on the Race ECU. I am completing my version of the top speed bypass circuit and others are said to be currently available. I feel there is a slight difference in the two ECU's but not enough to justify purchasing one for an all stock bike. While working on the new timing measurements, I found an un-linked History of the V-Max page from my old server. I worked on it a little, so I hope it's correct. Anyone that has these bikes in stock form, I would like to also gather the paint schemes. I hope to finish the timing measurements page today. 2/20/09 I added the video from the Race ECU VS Stock ECU. I had to cut it down so that it would load to Youtube. I will work on the Gen 1 Ver 1 measurements today. Getting a lot better today. 2/19/09 Flu. 2/18/09 Not feeling 100% today. Not that I am sick, I just am going to take the wife's advice and "cool it" a little. Feels like the flu trying to get a grip on me. Little "big headed" and not quite right. I probably should not attempt this, and it's going to be wordy, but I feel I should address these two issues which are bothering me: First, I have had e-mails asking if I would like to start a forum, join forums or if I care if my work is posted to a forum. At present, I do not reserve my work from being posted on ANY forum, so don't take this (line of thought) where I didn't. I have found that I really do not have the time or patience for forums any more. Truthfully, this site is based on what I would post to a forum, just with greater detail than a forum would allow. Even better, it does not diminish or disappear into the threads wherein every new guy will have to be shown where it is. I am not being sarcastic, it's just the way information flows. Testing - discovery - news - knowledge - history. My view has changed to where I really don't mind it when someone re-post what I have done as if it was theirs because the objective for me is to find out what makes the VMax tick. I feel if you see it here and someone else learns it from you, then you deserve a little credit for knowing what you knew. Did that make sense? My head is still fuzzy. I reserve the right to re-read this and delete it all! Which leads me to this warning. If all you do is read about it and do very little at the bike, please have a modicum of respect for those that are turning wrenches. I refuse to fault someone for attempting a respectable task but don't pretend to be the "Grand Poobah" with a completely stock bike sitting in the garage. Next, No! This site is not just a sales pitch for UFO. Jon Cornell is my friend, I have no problem admitting that. Until the 09 came out, I had not talked to Jon in a year or so. We have become good friends in this current process. To be honest, the reason why there is so much UFO material currently appearing on my site is he seems to be the first one out of the gate with new products for the 09 VMax. Couple that with his willing to let me wrench on his prototypes! Jon agreed to the same terms that every other vendor that willingly submits product to me to test has to agree to. What is that you ask? Here are my two rules (so far) for submitted products: Rule number one, it is what it is. The results are the results and I say what I think. If a vendor has submitted something to me to test, I will try to get the best results I can and post them. That being said, I have to be realistic. If I am running Dyno competitions, I do not want to pull up with a bike that does not do what I have shown it to do on my site. Second rule, if I like it, I keep it. There is an enormous amount of work involved with doing some of these mod's. Not only from the work at the bike, but also the pains of putting together the web pages, the pictures, and the videos. I feel I deserve to keep the product as compensation if I like it. Besides, if I like it, I really don't want to work un-bolting it (unless it's a prototype). This policy also serves to cull the heard of products to be tested, cuts the expense of this "hobby" of mine, somewhat relieves me of scratch worries and filters out vendors attempting to just sell me something. Most of all, this means my bike will be a rolling advertisement for what I like from a form and function standpoint. There will be only one difference between a vendor supplied product for testing and one I purchase, supplying one means it WILL be tested. Wait for me to buy it and it might not. As a vendor, I hope you find my site worthy of such. To make a point, you are here and read this. After buying insurance for the new VMax, 1 minute and 50 seconds into this kills me! 2/17/09 I finished and uploaded the UFO Max Tuner video. It is a quick demonstration of the features and installation of the Max Tuner EFI unit. I have put together some video of the initial tuning of UFO's Drag Star exhaust. These where the initial runs and numbers while attempting to top out the horsepower. This is provided more for the sight and sound aspect rather than a technical reference. 2/16/09 I am late typing because I had a long day. First, I took numerous ignition measurements from a Generation 1 Version 1 bike today. I will be working on putting together the pages and artwork over the next few days. Next, I also replaced the rectifier on the Version 1 bike. I did a complete test of the malfunctioning unit and the new unit. I hope to make a page of that also. Lastly, I want to be able to show how the Max Tuner operates and the Gen 2 bike has to be running for that to happen so I put my stock exhaust back on. I modified the rear tubes so the swing arm did not have to come back off to get the rear pipes installed. I cut the welds and removed the heat shield. I then wrapped the tubes in heat wrap to compensate for the loss of insulation and heat shielding. This will do for now and it worked great. Slid right together. Click to enlarge:
2/15/09 Here is the proof for the 1st place Gen 2 Award for the dyno shoot. Click to enlarge:
I hope to get some measurements of the Generation 1 Version 1 Ignition system today and start gluing the wood together for the Bikeweek Dyno Shootout awards. I know it isn't VMax related but this is a good photo I took. Here was yesterday's Valentines activities. Care to guess who it is? Click to Enlarge:
It's Kenny Rogers. 2/14/09 I had an e-mail come in that makes me think I need to mention a point about the Max Tuner. Hopefully I will have some time Sunday to shoot some video of the install. I will say this about the Max Tuner, for Fuel Injection correction, it is the simplest thing I have ever seen to install. 5 minutes or less. As for it's performance, I did not take a lot of time to tune it before I had to send the pipe back. To be honest, it really seems to work so seamlessly that it blended into the back ground and I overlooked it. Pull a run, see you need fuel, add fuel. It worked. As you can see from the Blog, I had just completed the installation of the LM-2 on my bike to monitor and record real time data. This is an instrumental tool in producing fuel maps. I had a chance to take the VMax out for one spin with the LM-2 on it before I had to send the pipe back. The fuel curve I have is close. One or two more rides will be enough to finish it. Jon of UFO Performance Products needed the Drag Star pipe back to work on a fixture. I had it longer than anticipated anyway. UFO has similar equipment and tuning capacity also. The problem with my "top horsepower" endeavor occurred when I found the upper RPM's range of my bike to be a tad rich. This seems to be a problem I grossly aggravated by removing the stubby intake velocity stacks. This simple mistake caused a lot of wasted time problem solving to get it corrected. On a very cold day a couple of months ago, I made an uncorrected 190 rwhp with stock pipes and bare throttle bodies. I went on to install the stubby stacks and make 191 rwhp. The Drag Star exhaust system, however, will not work without the stubby velocity stacks. I want to mention, I am fairly confident this bike would have been close or into 200 rwhp (uncorrected) given the same weather conditions, the short stacks on and the Drag Star pipe installed. For now, the stock pipes will go back on and the catalytic eliminator will be next to test. I will have the time and equipment to build a nice map for that while I wait for the first production Drag Star pipe to come in. As I have always purposed, any other manufacture wants me to look at their product, e-mail me. 2/13/09 My shop was 63 degrees according to the dyno weather station. 186 to 187 SAE rwhp consistently this morning. I feel the bike has 192 to 195 SAE corrected in it with this pipe on it. I wish I had a little more time to tune it. Now to take a pipe off a hot bike. I tried. It's 47 degrees this morning. I have got to pull a few runs before I take that pipe off just to see the values. I must! Let you know what happens. 2/12/09 If you really want to look like a Dufus, bolt one of these babies to your handlebar and go riding around town! As always, click to enlarge:
I don't know which is more embarrassing, if I was to get caught cramming my leaf blower in my air box or riding around town with my PDA (Public Dufus Alert-er) on my handle bar. Worst part is, it's bolted to a 150 decibel alarm to get everyone's attention before you roll by with a laptop on your handlebar. Who cares. Well, honestly, I do, but it serves a purpose! Anybody ask, I just tell them the truth. It's a TENS unit for my "back yonder". The numbers on this gets right, everything gets tight! Ok, bad attempt at humor and almost nasty but I had to try to come up with some tuff and cool saying for it. Of course the next question will be "what's a TENS unit"? Truthfully, I can monitor and data log numerous inputs to this unit now. This will come in handy for future mod's and tunings. This unit can monitor: RPM, Accelerator position, Throttle Position, Temperature, Speed, Intake Air Pressure, Atmospheric Pressure and almost any signal can be adapted to be monitored with it. I finished this install today. I didn't have time to shoot a video of the Max Tuner. Now for the bad news, I have to send the prototype Drag Star pipe back to Jon in the morning. He needs it back so I will have to hold off on testing it for a while. Besides, it would be best to move forward with the actual production pipe to finalize the Max Tuner settings. In the morning before work, I have to pull the Drag Star pipe off and send it back. After that, it's a work day tomorrow and a full weekend is planned, (Valentines fella's!) so it looks like Monday before I can do any real testing again. If I get some late night time, I will post some of the pictures of the Drag Star install. So for now, adieu. I will try to take some pictures today of the LM-2 installation and maybe shoot some video of the Max Tuner install. That should be about 2 minutes long! I am going to look at a few new things to try to get more ponies from the Drag Star pipe but it's not a good day for uncorrected horsepower today. It's raining. 2/11/09 Since the LM-2 I ordered came in, I spent what time I could doing a semi-permanent installation of the it on the bike today. I need to finish it up in the morning. I can now monitor just about every important analog sensor on the bike. I took the bike out for a quick spin today. I don't like to get too excited, but I have a new found respect of 1st gear. It's a different bike from what I am use to. The road test revealed I have a little more tuning to do with the Max Tuner. I am a tad off from dyno to real world. The cruise, mid range and WOT mixes need an adjustment. This LM-2 unit does a good job of data logging. I wish it has a little more resolution on the analog inputs. Anyway, I am getting the Max Tuner unit closer to being right to this exhaust. I am very pleased with the performance but boy is it loud! I can assure you the nasty sound of this opened up V4 does turn heads! Today reminded me I need to ride this bike a little more. It's pretty bad ass! Boy's and the toy's! I am whipped. Got a lot done today aside from the bike. More tomorrow. I feel like I have been in the dark, wildly swinging at a horsepower piņata. Yesterday it felt like I struck the first real blow. I kind of know where this thing is now. I have done a lot to the bike that gets skipped over in the Blog to keep from boring you with all the details. Funny thing is, the people that seem to check up on me on a regular basis ask me if I have done the this or that because it's not in the Blog. I am quite impressed with a few folks that have been right on time with me and atop it all, are operating from second hand information. There are some that are living vicariously thru me. They would have to dig a path in the snow to even let their bike see daylight. I looked up "sucks" in the dictionary and here is the definition: A new VMax sitting in the garage and no opportunity to ride it. That,,,,sucks! After reading some web sites about this new powerful bike, owning one that you can only look at has to be one of the toughest things in the world. If you can't stand it anymore, here is a guy with an answer. I also wanted to say I am still astonished at what has transpired with this website. The re-vamped site has had as many hits in the past two months as the old site did in 5 years. Well, I will quit rambling. More testing today. For those wondering, yesterdays uncorrected was 194 rwhp. Yea, its close. 2/10/09 Let me add, the O2 AFR is closer now with the velocity stacks in place. It is a little lean on the way up and gets rich at the top. The lean lower end is an adjustment I made on the Max Tuner to avert the sensor tripping again. It is still tripping the new LM-2 I just got in today. Nice unit. Much more features that the LM-1. The O2 is 11 to 1 at 9k rpm as indicated the last pull I made today. It made this one (and only one) pull and the LM-2 did not go into "too rich" then Error 8 "sensor timing". I am using a tail pipe clamp type sensor. I think the readings are slightly delayed with this type sensor. Tomorrow I will pull the stock O2 sensor out and install the wideband in its place and use the LM-2's analog out for simulated narrow band output to the ECU. The LM-1 tripped even sooner in this type setup so I will try this again now that I am starting to get somewhere. I really think this bike's horsepower output is totally different at speed. That Intake Air Pressure sensor seems to be a big factor in in fuel calculations. I have played with it and can get the bike to go rich or lean by varying the resistance. I can actually lean the bike out to where it will not start! I am working on a chart. Ron, thanks for the air box tip. I just passed 20,000 hits on my site! I am still trying to figure this thing out but I can tell you this, the air box bottom made the difference. The velocity stacks are a very important part of this setup. The Ram Air has to be another big factor in how this bike makes power. I am going to look at wind speed simulation at some point. I attempted to inject air into the box today with a leaf blower. Quit laughing, I'll do anything for horsepower. I taped it to the air box opening where the filter normally goes. At 8k, it started sucking the tape in. The motor was pulling as much air as the leaf blower was producing. The bike still pulled 176 rwhp. The highest HP run on the chart below was with the bottom on the air box in place and no YCC-I stacks. This setup left only the little stubby stacks on top of the throttle bodies. The highest torque curve was with the YCC-I stacks installed on the former setup. This only cost 1 peak hp but gave allot. The Horsepower and torque improvement from the YCC-I spans from 4k to 7k rpm. Something to mention, the other curves I put on this chart are the Race ECU curve and the stock ECU curve. More in the morning. Quick note to add during lunch. I was really tired of getting my ass kicked but I think I found it, just turned best hp at 188.5 SAE Corrected rwhp! Best Torque, 125.1 ft lbs. The YCC-I DOES HELP! (THE MID RANGE) Here are some charts to look at until I have time to do a write up. Click the chart to enlarge:
After turning in the numbers for the all stock setup, I wanted to try for 200 rwhp. I found that taking the air box off helped make more hp the last time. After reading some e-mail (thanks Ron), I may have made this problem worse by removing the air box. This is one theory I will look at today. Just thinking out loud for this next bit. Here are a couple more of my theories from my testing. It also seems the AF mixture can be mildly adjusted by adding or removing resistance from the two Air Pressure sensors. These sensors are the ECU's only clue to where in world it is. Since altitude is a large factor in AF ratio calculation, tricking the ECU into thinking it is somewhere else may be a inexpensive fix for aftermarket add on's. You could parallel additional resistance which causes the ECU to think it is at a higher altitude and in turn leans the bike out. Reciprocal to that, add a series resistance to make it more rich. The sensors will still work, they will just be adjusted (tricked) into thinking they are at a different baseline altitude. The resistors will be an additive or subtractive constant to the sensors output. I will look at the coolant temp next. Adding a resistor to that in some fashion to make it think it's hotter than what it really is should lean the bike also. This may help turn the fans on a little sooner too. If these theories ring true, I will post up a page for people that have GPS's and/or know their altitude can submit the diagnostic screen reading for the two sensors. Then I can get a grip on what resistance to suggest to add to adjust for bolt on mod's. I don't think this solely will work for this pipe but this may work for other mod's. 2/9/09 I have a game plan for the morning. I am going to look further at the sensor tricks. I will also look at temp sensor. The O2 is working, but not like the article I read. I will look at it more extensively. I will also look at the butterflies to see if the are doing something strange. If none of these work, I have ordered a bigger hammer, a fuel pressure regulator. The bike is most definitely rich. The sensor in the end of the pipe is very black. I want to thank everyone for sending me suggestions and encouragement for this project. Don't worry that I will give up. We are just now getting to the good stuff. Un-chartered territory for me. I am sure there is a Yamaha Engineer somewhere that knows these answers. I am having fun trying to reverse engineer what they have done. I may get it, I may not. But I am no where near the point of giving up. This may become boring. Most people come here for results. I can say this, I am consistently pulling around 180 SAE corrected hp at the rear wheel of this bike. If this is a problem with every exhaust mod, figuring this out now will be a real plus in the long run. If this proves to be an issue related to this pipe or something I have done to my bike, this will be a well documented repair. My thought for today is to drop back and look at the data. Make some phone calls on test equipment. This problem does not seem to be lending itself to a quick fix. Either I have a sensor problem, I have damaged something or I am overlooking the answer. I will make some calls. By the way, the easiest way to pull the stock exhaust (rear tubes) is to pull the swing arm. Biggest problem will be putting it back together. The drive shaft is indexed! 2/8/09 For the best O2 sensor web page I have found Click here. I am learning allot about the sensors today. There are two sensors on the bike to measure air pressure. One is located under the left scoop and a matching one is under the air-box. The one under the scoop measures the intake air pressure. The one under the air box measures atmospheric pressure. These can be tested from the diagnostic screens. Mine measures 102 at my altitude and barometric pressure today. I found that pulling a vacuum on these sensors dropped the diagnostic reading into the 30's. I removed the connectors and used a 200k resistor to jump between the black and pink wire on the wire side of the connectors. This made the reading drop to the mid 70's. This is looking like it is helping to lean the bike out, but the LM-1 goes into error at 14 to 1 now????? I can't win today, but I am getting closer! I will have to call Innovate in the morning to get the scoop on this problem. I also measured the actual O2 reading with my Oscope and had some funny results. More testing on Tuesday. I will let you know what I find out from Innovate tomorrow. Still too rich. O2 didn't help. I am going to look at these other sensors. Jon suggested cutting the fuel pressure. That will be next if I can't do it electronically. Tested the diagnostics, I had one code for it idling too long and shutting down. I case you didn't know, it does that. Idles too long, it shuts off. I had to resort to the manual. On page 1-3 of the service manual, I found this: "The injection duration and the injection timing are controlled by the ECU. Signals that are input from the throttle position sensor, accelerator position sensor, coolant temperature sensor, cylinder identification sensor, atmospheric pressure sensor, lean angle sensor, crankshaft position sensor, intake air pressure sensor, intake air temperature sensor, rear wheel sensor and O2 sensor enable the ECU to determine the injection duration. The injection timing is determined through the signals from the crankshaft position sensor. As a result, the volume of fuel that is required by the engine can be supplied at all times in accordance with the driving conditions." Here is a very interesting dyno sheet from yesterdays testing. It caused me about a hour of time to find and fix. Care to guess the problem? (Click image to enlarge)
I start looking and looking to see if I had fueled something wrong. I load another map thinking it could have been a bad map load. Bike will not even start. Then it dawns on me. Click Play: Umm Hmm. Some big "VMax Guru" I am. I really didn't need this yesterday. Thought you could use a laugh. Testing again around noon. My shop is close to a Church and this bike is LOUD. 2/7/09 Sorry to report, I have actually lost HP today. I have tinkered with the bike all day. I have a problem to get past and I am having trouble finding it. The welds are all good and everything is tight. The LM-1 is still saying it's too rich above 6,000 rpm and going into a "sensor timing" error. The LM-1 chart shows a more than 10 to 1 AFR before it error's out to 0. I went and purchased a new wide band O2 sensor. By the way, if anyone has one of the Innovate LM-1's, the replacement wide band sensor is for a 2006 Vee Dub (VW) 6 cyl Eurovan at Autozone. I hope to get past this in the morning. I did a propane torch test I found on the internet to the stock O2 sensor and it failed. I will research it more tonight for a game plan in the morning. I even went so far as to thinking maybe the Ram Air may be an ECU speed/gear calculation consideration. I injected 35mph for the speed and jumped out the gear switch to read 1st gear instead of 5th, no dice. It's a 4 wire sensor so I can get that local and make it up to the harness. You don't always win. After checking the e-mail I wanted to mention that if you are interested in purchasing a product that I have tested, such as the Drag Star pipe, please contact the vendor. As I state on my home page, I sell nothing on this web site. I am not a dealer of any sort. I am not receiving any commission for anything that I cause to be sold. So please contact the vendor, dealer or manufacture direct. So far, my only reward is having the most powerful Gen 2 VMax I know of sitting in my shop. In parts mind you, but still there. I am open to testing any product out there I find interesting. If you are another vendor that would like to have something tested with the same vigor, then please contact me. I will do this as time and money allows. If I like what I tested, I may want to keep it on the bike as compensation (sometimes taking it back off it a real pain). Off to the shop. If you are bored, I found this Story of Stuff thought provoking if you are looking to kill a little time today. Let the testing begin. I have added a video of a new top speed limit removal device I have been working on. This is ground work for a really neat idea I have. 2/6/09 Now it's time for me to mention looking ahead. I have realized that I can only go so far with my bike. I don't want to continually take it apart and put it back together. I have already put a few scratches on it and I really would like to ride it every now and then. If I had two bikes, it wouldn't be a problem. I don't, so here is a plan. Florida seems to have a lot of VMax owners. As people decide to modify their bikes, (if I am interested in doing the mod) I am willing to help you install it, video the process and post the video / Dyno results afterwards. I will give you, the product and the vendor full credit for the mod in the same fashion as I have done so far. We do this under one rule, the results are the results. Maybe I can change the site name to VMaxGurus.com. I went ahead and purchased the domain name tonight. A personal note: Truth be told, I bought the VMaxGuru name as a arrogant goof. I never ever dreamed it would come to this. At times I am almost embarrassed that I did it now that so many people check the site, but now I proudly try to back it up with some original and honest homework! My hope is to build a site that, no matter who you are, you will learn something from my tinkering during your visit to my site. I want to back that up with the most extensive set of Dyno charts on the internet for the 09 VMax. This will be done on one dyno and with me observing to make sure the results are fair. That being said, I need to meet and get acquainted with potential "Mod'ers" if you will. This Bikeweek, I am performing the Dyno Shootout for the VMOA at their BBQ. Anyone interested in this process, please shoot me an e-mail and hopefully we can meet at Bikeweek. I already have one person potentially lined up to perform a mod at the Bikeweek Dyno shootout. It may be a pipe dream, but my heart is now in the right place. We will go from here. A few errands to run in the morning and then back to Drag Star testing! Couple of things came in the e-mail tonight. I will refrain from mentioning names until they respond to the e-mails I sent asking if it was ok. First, one person suggested the O2 sensor problem could be a pencil sized leak and suggest a "smoke leak" test. I have never heard of that, but it will be the first thing I do in the morning. The welding looks real good on the pipe and O2 bung but I could save myself some headaches if this quick test rings true. Next, an e-mail that somewhat backs my claim the ABS must average the signals from both wheels to produce an averaged speed signal to the ECU. After a tire change to a smaller rear wheel, the speed indicated did not change that much indicating averaging. I have had a night to sleep on the results and now it all makes sense. The LM-1 wideband O2 sensor was indicating "Too Rich" and shutting down yesterday. This is one of those times that you get so involved, you can't see the big picture. It was stuck in my head that it was too rich. It was not until late in the afternoon I found in the manual what was really going on. The sensor was getting too hot and giving me a bad reading. "Too Rich"? That can't be, the new pipe should want more fuel! In the process I had started to remove all additional fuel from 6,000 rpm up to try to keep that error from coming up. You can actually see the bump just before 7k where one correction ends. I have to work today so not much more to follow. I plan on doing some more Saturday. I am really getting excited. 2/5/09 Not a great day. I need to fix an O2 sensor problem that plagued my testing all day. I have been tuning between 2k and 6k today because the O2 sensor trips out beyond 6k for a "Sensor Timing Error". I checked the manual and found that to be the sensor is getting too hot. The end of that pipe must be like a torch. I will have to make a sniffer tube for the wide band LM-1 O2 sensor. What I have now is very respectable, but I feel there is more. Please remember, I have not tuned the top end yet as I have not been able to with the sensor error. I have not touched from 6,000 rpm up yet. Rather than make you wait, I will show you what I have so far. Ok, here are the graphs. What you see here is a comparison of the best Race ECU, highest HP 4th gear SAE corrected stock air box run I could find on file, and the best UFO Drag Star pipe run from today. The only differences in the set up: the Race ECU is just the Race ECU in 4th gear with the air box assembled and the scoops off. The Drag Star line is the Stock ECU (speed limit bypassed) and the UFO Max Tuner module, stock air box assembled, no scoops, 4th gear and the Drag Star pipe. One more time, I have not tuned the top end yet! OK!
Almost 14 foot pounds of torque around 4800rpm! And if you really want some numbers, I go uncorrected and:
192.7 with a stock air filter! I could not help it. I had to tell you. These numbers should only get better! Even if they don't, they are impressive now!! I stopped to eat lunch. The numbers are starting to get big. Top is still too wet. Can't let the cat out the bag yet. I think there is more so I don't want good yet soon to be bad numbers out there. Tuning I set out to apologize to the Liberty Tax girl. Not there today. It was the Liberty Tax Dude. For the visual -
Click the picture to enlarge it. He is in 30 degree weather this morning with a huge smile on his face. Notice the well worn path he is dancing in. The girl looks the same. The little torch just kills me! I am glad he is having fun. Well, the video of the Drag Star pipe has received 2 Youtube honors. In the Autos and Vehicles category it was the 30th most viewed in Japan and 76th overall (I guess). Somebody in Japan has a very popular VMax Blog! My site was hit 736 times in one day. For a site that has been going for a month or so, that's not too bad considering the site is all about 1 bike. I did not realize today was Thursday. I was thinking it was Friday. That's what happens when you have your head down. I have some "work" work to do but hopefully more tuning today. 2/4/09 Here is something I find amazing. Two guys have e-mailed me today mentioning they and their wives have enjoyed something on my site today. Well,,, doesn't that just change everything! Women read this stuff too???? Now I'm going to have to run the Blog thru MS Word Big Dummy Grammar Checker Version 2.0 and make sure the object of the preposition hasn't conjuncted with a contradiction in terms and made an oxy moron. By the way, synonym is good on toast! To be serious, I think it's great! My wife thinks my obsession with this stuff is crazy! The other day she announced she is ready to print scoops on each side of a tee shirt so I will pay attention to her. I tell her "honey that's a great tee shirt idea! Let me go take a picture of my scoops" and then she really get's pissed!? "See honey, your VMax crazy!" Ladies, I hope you can put up with the bad grammar and a chest beating testosterone filled opinions. So, John in Maine and Corey of HP tell the wives your are glad they share your interest. I am glad to have a wife that encourages me to seek my mine. 14 years. She is my reason. 2nd glass of wine is empty, I am sure it shows. Nite! I was e-mailed to post a picture of the other side, so here it is. (Click picture to enlarge)
Started working with the UFO Max Tuner EFI module today. Learning the software, adjusting Delta's for correct Lambda's. Anyone smell wood smoke? I went from 40+ AFR to jetting black smoke. I am starting to dial it back in. This is complicated and a fun challenge. I am setting the overall parameters and fuel curve for the unit from which the user can fine adjust. It is a simple three button interface most people will find easy to use. It will be very slick when I get it dialed in. This will have to be done for each style pipe UFO will offer. I ran the bike most of the day on the dyno without actually pulling dyno run's. I had it too screwed up. When I first started, I pulled one run and the bike made near the same horsepower as stock and a little more torque but the curves are not pretty. The AFR has went from stock mid 12's to piped with 14 to 16. After a full day, I am getting up to par now. As I get close, I can feel areas where the bike is really stating to pull hard. I have to say I feel some decent HP gains are reasonable. I have got to do some regular work so I hope to post up some sheets this weekend if all goes well. On another note, I think I will apologize to the Statue of Liberty girl for this morning and tell her I didn't mean to scare her like that. It was kind of funny seeing her in that costume giving me the finger, but she was just doing her job on a cold day. I owe it to her. So I braved the cold and rode the bike to breakfast this morning. I have to say two things bolted onto that bike from UFO had my full attention while riding it. First was the exhaust note from this new pipe. Second was the rearview mirrors to see if the Law had heard the exhaust note from this new pipe. This exhaust tone and note is exactly what I would expect to hear from a drag bike in the ProStar pits (I am proud to be a member of the AMA). At a red light, this thing sounds like it's idly chewing asphalt, bidden time until the light changes. The talk around the breakfast table amongst my friends was about the mean sound of the bike. I go to leave the little shopping plaza I frequently eat at and I have a buddy of mine who opts to brave the cold to hear it when I take off. Now, I have logged almost 1,200 miles on my bike in short spurts here and there. I was VERY familiar with the way this bike used to act with my 275 pound frame on it. I never could throttle a wheelie from 15mph up. Seems that has changed. I round the corner and I whack it for him to hear. Next thing I know, the front wheel is waist high to the Liberty Tax girl hired to wave at the passing cars. This was a surprise to the both of us. I feel real bad because as I passed, I watched the Statue of Liberty throw down her torch and run. I got the front end back down and looked in the rearview to see if she was alright. She must have been as I see her indicating I have an " #1 motorcycle" just before she picks up her torch and starts dancing again. True story. I don't know if it's from loosing the heavy stock exhaust or if the bottom has some new found torque. That aside, I need to start working on fuel curves today. The bike needs to be adjusted to the new pipes. 2/3/09 Late note: When I came in from the shop, my wife says "so it sounds like you got it running"! I asked her if she heard it and she said "yea, I was vacuuming and heard it over the vacuum cleaner". My shop is a good 100 yards away from my house! Today, I had the privilege of installing the prototype Drag Star 4 into 1 exhaust system on my bike. The initial video HQ sound file is here. There will be much more development to undergo on this product.
Remember I said something BIG was coming? You may want to bookmark my site. Results in a day or two. Little on my end until then. 2/2/09 I added the Youtube version of the Speedometer test and EXUP with speed injected. Today was a work day. Tomorrow I will be looking at a few new things. That's all I can say for now. Nothing new posted to the site today. Answered a few e-mails. 2/1/09 Eagles concert, I will not spend allot of time waxing loquacious so I will sum it up in a word. Awe. On to what your here for, VMax stuff. The dyno revealed the Race ECU did very little to increase the rear wheel horsepower of the bike, but I am not sold this is the sum total of all it does. I have put together a Web page for the quick testing I did Saturday.
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