Exhaust upgrade and mapping controller

[Stray Bullet]

Hi all, I have an 05 and want to upgrade my exhaust and add a power commander or something similar. My wife had a double knee replacement and can no longer tour with me. What suggestions do you all have that would give me a few extra ponies? Any and all ideas are greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Rog

 

[RossKean]

Aftermarket exhaust and a Power Commander won't do much for you. People have tried but haven't been able to do much to make significant power gains.

 

[BigOgre]

What Ross said. This comes up from time to time but there doesn't appear to be any magic bullets out there. Just to give a recent example read this thread. Btw, and IMHO, the FJR enjoys a stellar reputation for its long-term reliability. I'd have that in mind whenever playing around with upgrades.

 

[Stray Bullet]

OK, now let's assume I install some Two Brothers M2 slipons. Will I need to re-map with a commander (or other) ?

Thanks, Rog

 

[RossKean]

OK, now let's assume I install some Two Brothers M2 slipons. Will I need to re-map with a commander (or other) ? Thanks, Rog

There should be no need to remap. The only thing you will notice is a louder exhaust (if that's what you are looking for).

Not like the old days with carbureted bikes!

 

[raesewell]

The FJR is the finished article

 

[escapefjrtist]

If you really, truly need more snort trade up to a ZX-14 or similar. If you're after a comfortable, regular fuel burning, shaft drive, hard luggage equipped rocket ship...well, you have the answer already.

Seriously, a lot has been tried and not much has been gained. Good luck!

--G

 

[900gc]

Real (though minor) power gains that were dyno verified involved airbox modding along with the exhaust and fuel controller. Try searching uselesspickles threads about airbox modding. I've done the cdog airbox mod and made my own (merged and tweaked two maps) for my PCIII and also have Remus slip-ons. Never had my bike dyno'ed to see about actual gains but my bike does run very well and pulls strong. My 'butt dyno' feels the bike is a little more crisp/brisk feeling but honestly a 5-7 HP gain on this heavy of a bike with good power already is almost insignificant. Smooth fuel delivery from idle to redline is the important thing.

 

[Fred W]

OK, now let's assume I install some Two Brothers M2 slipons. Will I need to re-map with a commander (or other) ? Thanks, Rog

Short answer, no. The biggest restriction in the exhaust path are the cats, and they are in the head pipes of an '05, so swapping the cans doesn't accomplish much except creating more noise.

If you wanted to shift the power band and create more high rpm HP (at the expense of lower rpm torque) you can get a set of headers that will be made of a larger diameter pipe and have no cats. Those will require running without an O2 monitor, but no big loss as you would do that when you install the PC3 anyway.

I tried all of that on my '05 years ago, and it did create more power at the top, but I didn't like the loss of grunt down low, so I went back to stock and sold the headers. Dale Walker 4 into 2 headers is what I had, and those can be run with stock or aftermarket cans, your choice.

 

[tempest766]

I'm not interested in tuning fuel maps for increased power, per se, but rather to circumvent the engine life shortenning lean mix that the EPA mandates.

1) are all US FJRs equipped with CATs or just the ones in CA? If this was introduced across the board then what model year did it show up?

2) are there 3rd party remapping options that involve directly remapping in the ECM flash, or only in-between boxes like PC?

 

[Fred W]

1) All.

2) No, only in between solutions.

3) (unasked) There has never been a correlation proven between engine longevity and enrichening fuel mixture by any means on on an FJR. These engines last a very long time with no modifications.

 

[RossKean]

All FJRs have always had cats. Engine life shortening? Lots of FJRs out there with over 200,000 miles. I don't think there is any evidence that a richer mixture would help extend life. It doesn't exactly run hot. I haven't heard of an ECM flash for the FJR.

Edit: Fred types faster than I do.

 

[wetwolf]

Just ride the thing. If you want to go faster/quicker, get another bike. Bandit/ZRX/FZ1 kinda bike. Set up the FJR to chew up the smiles in comfort, and have the second bike for hooliganism.

My .02

Da Wolf

 

[HotRodZilla]

Take out the cats, and see what happens. You may want to look up WickedWebby before you start cutting though.

 

[BkerChuck]

tempest766, I see from your sig line you're a fellow Buell owner and think perhaps that bike is the reasoning behind some of your questions. Having worked for a HD/Buell dealership those sorts of mods and requests were really common as EPA mandates to make the pushrod V-twins compliant did often have detrimental consequences on performance and engine life. The large displacement inline four cylinders on our FJR and it's kin are completely different animals and while some mods will work and cross the lines of engine families such as freer flowing exhaust the gains are often times not as significant.

Good luck with whichever direction you choose to travel

 

[Bill Lumberg]

On a related note- I've always read, regarding other bikes, that popping on decel (in other-bike context, usually a result of a leak in the exhaust somewhere, such as where the header attaches to the engine) indicates unburnt fuel igniting where it shouldn't be, and that this can be damaging to the bike. In FJR land, I've seen multiple instances where popping, as a result of aftermarket mufflers, is characterized as a non-issue, definitely not damaging to the bike. While wynpro plates can mitigate or eliminate that sort of popping, what causes replacement can popping, and why is it (presumably) in no way detrimental to the bike?

 

[Fred W]

There is a difference between the controlled series of popping on decel the FJR does in stock form (you just don't hear it until you switch to louder cans), and the type of explosive after-fire* that occurs due to an uncontrolled air leak into the exhaust stream.

A little controlled popping is no problem and won't hurt anything. It is actually intentional during certain phases of operation when the PAIR system opens the solenoid valve and injects air into the exhaust stream to encourage combustion of gasses in the cats.

OTOH, I've had a exhaust gasket leak on my DL1000 (which has no cats) and the loud reports of the after-fires on that would scare pedestrians and wake the dead. It sounded pretty much like a gun fire, which turned a lot of heads for sure.

* FYI - Back-fires happen when there is an ignition of gasses in the intake path. After-fire is the name for explosions in the exhaust, but many people refer to those as a back-fire.

 

[Bill Lumberg]

Thanks for the explanation.

 

[RossKean]

Exhaust "popping" probably does no harm to the engine as long as we aren't talking explosive concussion!! Many aftermarket exhaust systems use fibre packing and the longevity of the packing may be diminished by more moderate popping. Not an issue with the all steel Yamaha exhaust or some like Staintune which is also all metal. I had a set of Leo Vince cans on my bike when I bought it (used). At around 50,000 miles or so, it was evident that they needed a repack (even without excessive popping) so I put the OEM cans back on.