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Cruiser
Posts: 152 Bonita Springs, FL | Was away for three weeks, took my 09 with Lloyds fuel controller and Ness big Honkers out for 200 miles yesterday. Fuel economy dropped about 8 miles per gallon, bike stalled three times when coming to a stop, and when gunning it, guys behind me saw a lot of black smoke. The gatlin tips were as dirty as I have ever seen them, were clean when I started the ride. Engine sounds fine, everything normal except above items. I am not very mechanically inclined on engines, any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. |
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Tourer
Posts: 354 20 miles west of Chicago. | What changed in the three weeks? Might want to pull the spark plugs and see if there is black carbon residue on them; if they are heavily carboned up you might want to install new ones, though after 200 miles the carbon should have burned off. Should be gray/tan if mixture is OK. Oil from crankcase vent getting into intake? (Overfilled?) Check VFC settings, though I don't think they could change if the bike was just sitting. Ground or injector wire from VFC, TPS, or other sensor come loose? VFC not working would probably lean the mixture though, as would an intake leak. Rear cylinders usually run a ltitle richer than front. Dealer available to check for fault codes in Digital Wrench program? KevinX or somebody with more knowledge than I will probably get to this soon.
Edited by Mudge 2010-01-06 9:22 AM
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Tourer
Posts: 311 Atlanta Area | Disconnect the VFC and see what happens. It's safe to run it for a short time without it. The reason for my suggestion is I had a Harley Race Fueler (similar to a VFC) go bad and it started dumping a ton more fuel into the motor than what it was supposed to. Pulled it off my V-Rod, bike ran fine, hooked it back up and it went to shit again. Quick and easy check (except for those damn injector plugs!!) |
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Visionary
Posts: 8144 New Bohemia, VA | mine was caused by exhuast leaks on the header gaskets. Now runs hot and lean... |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 18
| Please let me know if you find out what caused this. I had a stage II pack put on by my dealer, it now runs rich and back fires a lot when shifting. Some times dies when stopping also |
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Visionary
Posts: 1436
| The outside temps are cooler so the bike will run leaner.... the down side is the PC will try to richen it up to run at spec. This tends to load the bike up some and will kill mpg. Pretty common on FI Vtwins. |
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Visionary
Posts: 1340 Gainesville Fl Home of the Gators |
A cold engine requires a richer mixture to operate. That is why carbs have a choke. These bikes have a set of temp sensors to run. One in the air stream, and a second in the block. Once operating temp is reached cold start enrichment is cut out. The ECM compares the two for an acurate base mixture. Cold air is more dense, and can be run leaner to acomplish the same level of power, but a little rich gives it that oh so strong feeling. The VFC is load based and adds fuel based on what it is seeing at the injector.
All that said these bikes do have adaptive logic, and unhooking your battery would prolly do you a world of good |
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Puddle Jumper
Posts: 39 Brighton, MI | Damn Kevinx very impressive.. Its great to here from a person that is a professional in his field, It will be an honor to one day sit down and converse with you. keep up the great info |
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Visionary
Posts: 1350
| I was thinking a low battery after sitting 3 weeks and you did not mention a tender attached or a loose battery cable. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 208 Edmonton Alberta, Canada | Fuel.....I only ran Shell premium, stalls, burps, farts all the same complaints. We were on a road trip out of town, unable to locate a Shell station, we had to fill at a little independant. I noticed 1/2 through the day that I did not have a stall... burp or fart since filling up. So I ran a couple of tanks from the same independant, again no issues. One day I stopped back at A Shell station and filled, While making a left accross 4 lanes of trafic leaving the staion, my bike which I have not had any issues, burpped and farted. I have since not used Shell in my bike. I have come to my own conclusion, that the nitrogenated additive must be the culprit. IMO. Have exprimented with cages and find no issues with Shell fuel in either my truck or the Wife's SUV. |
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Cruiser
Posts: 152 Bonita Springs, FL | Update:
Went out two days later for another 200 mile run. The day I had the problems, the outside temp was a high of 53 degrees. The latest ride, outside temp was 64 degrees. Fuel economy was about 37mpg vs my normal of about 40, only stalled once, and gatlins stayed pretty clean. I live in S. Florida and winter temps her are usually in the 70's.
I am beginning to think this was the cold weather or some engine fluke that is correcting itself.
Thanks of all the replies, this web site is so valuable. |
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