Running rich is safer but downside is more engine/oil contamination over time which can also cause damage. I have always read that lean makes more power but was a risky balancing act of heat and detonation. I just had a phone call from Fast Company and I am heading out on a little road trip to fetch my ECU. My car actually has a wide-band oxygen sensor built in as original equipment, and it runs in closed loop all the time starting a few seconds after cold start, even at full load! (It has a secondary air injection system much like our bikes do, and it uses that system so that the engine itself can be a smidge rich at full load but the catalyst still sees the right mixture for low emissions)Īnd on a much more interesting note. It will run in closed-loop (14.6-14.7:1 showing on the gauge) up to remarkably high engine load. One of my other bikes has closed-loop EFI with 3-way catalyst, and I put my gauge on it and you can clearly see the changeover. They don't use lean cruise any more (because NOx emissions go through the roof) but the speed/load maps automatically select between 3-way-catalyst-friendly closed-loop stoichiometric operation most of the time, and rich mode near full load. And in automotive applications, this is exactly what is done. It's a simple matter for electronic controls to build the speed/load region in which lean cruise is possible into the mapping and simply change over to rich protection mode when there is more load on the engine than can safely be done in lean cruise (or if the driver is requesting more torque than can be delivered in lean cruise). With a Power Commander it's a convenient way of mapping the bike, new maps or multiple maps can be used and getting back to square one is easy too.Īnd the right answer - if you have air/fuel ratio controls that are sophisticated enough! - is to use lean cruise at part load whenever you can, and rich "protection" mode at or near full load whenever you have to!Ĭylinder head temperature isn't useful information on a liquid cooled engine (the aircraft engines discussed above are air cooled). Also there are the parts of the map where emissions are measured which can be readjusted for best power. With the ECU flash you lose this and with 100% throttle may need adjust things at higher revs to optimise the power output. With the stock fuel map, shown by Don Guhl last year, the fly-by-wire throttle is gradually closed above 10,000rpm in the H2. I know that will gain me another 40bhp or so but for now let's see what it can do as it is.Įarly last year I sent off the ECU to Brock for the Guhl reflash to derestrict it and while some say nothing else is needed when keeping things like exhaust stock: we measured the power output with just the ECU flash at 209bhp, then we fitted a PCV and created a custom map on the GT Motorcycles dyno' and gained another 11bhp. Trying to get the best results for the standard bike before I join the party and fit a race system. I am currently running my H2 with the stock exhaust in Land Speed Racing events here in the UK. Only reason I didn't go that route is the C$ - US$ exchange rate is killer right now and I'm not entirely trustworthy of customs not killing me with tax on the full value of the ECU (I have had this happen before). (We - and Flashtune - did establish with my particular bike that the Canadian-model ECU is not the same as the US-model ECU! this is part of why mine has taken a little while to sort out)īrock's is a good choice. Every bike going to the USA has the same tuning, every bike going to Europe has the same tuning, etc. The stock fuel injection programming is the same for every bike rolling off the line for the same legal requirements. I know I ain't gonna worry about it as long as it runs correctly. Even if the canned tune is a smidge conservative, most people aren't going to notice being a couple horsepower down. Most people are not changing cam timing, most people are not changing boost pressure, most people are not making exhaust system changes that will appreciably change the bike's fuel delivery requirements. To be honest, the things that most people do to their bikes and what most people will be doing with them, should be fine with one set configuration that is decently sorted out (and I have no idea how well the tuners have done this). The ECU in this bike is exceptionally complex, there is a lot more to it than a fuel injection map and an ignition timing map. I know they are changing mapping but I don't know what they are basing it on. I am in the midst of a Flashtune once the fellow that I am dealing with gets a hardware problem sorted out (so far, ECU communication has been only one way).
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