Hi all, and especially Hub
since buying my 08 ZX 14, I took it to the dyno at 600 miles and ran it with a sniffer up the tail pipe. 160 rear wheel hp, and 100 foot/pds torque, roughly, at my location of abhout 3,800 feet above sea level.
the exhaust gas readings were really rich, and that was with the sniffer taking its readings AFTER the secondary air introduced into the exhaust by the emissions system, and AFTER the catalytic convertor in the header/collector and the catalytic convertor in the muffler.
so, an engine being basically an air pump, the more air in and out the more power, I looked at both the intake and the exhaust. I started on the exhaust side, bought a spare stock 08 ZX 14 header/collector on eBay, and sectioned it with a bandsaw. I removed the catalytic convertor entirely. I do not believe it would be possible to get ALL of the catalytic convertor out of the collector by bashing it out. In any event, I took the cat out, welded the collector back together, welded on a staoinless steel O2 bung, and had the modified stock header/collector titanium ceramic coated to retain heat and speed exhaust flow.
the stock heaader with totally removed cat now makes an annoying moaning noise below about 4,000 rpm. For 08, when Kawasaki added a cat to the collector/header they made the diameter of the collector 75% greater than the unit for the 06/07. I am now guessing they did that to accomodate the restriction on flow that the cat added. With an exhaust, bigger is not always better, at least in the headers and collector.
I bought a pair of Yoshimura R 77 dual mufflers, titanium sleeved, carbon end caps, and installed them on the nodified stock header/collector. Considerably more noise than stock, but I haven't been back to the dyno yet to see if more noise has resutled in any more torque or horespower. The bike now pops occasionally on deceleration.
Then I disabled the fresh air system which adds air into the exhaust after it exits the cobustion chamber. Nothing fabcy, just made up a plug to fill the hole in the bottom of the air box, and another plug to stick into the hose pulled out of the airbox. No apparent difference, other than now for the first time I cana ctually get a
true" fuel/air ratio reading from the exhaust, no added air, no catalytic convertors. The stock fuel mapping from Kawqasaki appears to be SO RICH the bike is almost drowning in fuel through most of the range, and particularly in the upper rpm ranges. Stinking rich, not good for fuel econom,y, not good for emissions, not good for torque, not good for horsepower. Unbelievably stinking rich.
So, looking at the intake side now, how to flow more air in? The stock air filter has this weird metal screen on it. Looks restrictive. Still want longevity and good air filtering, so bought a supposedly less restrictive K & N air filter and installed it. Maybe a little more intake noise, but not much. The bike still runs way rich.
Looking at the secondary butterflies in the intake tract, they are obviously restrictive at low rpms, that is what they are designed to do after all Ordinarily, removing a secondary restriction like the "flies" would result in more air, thius a leaber mixture condition of nothing else changed. However, the sucker is so stinking rich stock, the mixture is still rich even after the flies are now disabled.
so, then the Power Commander 5, and the accesory autotuner. NOT to add more fuel to the injection map, but to seek enough control to reduce fuel delivery from the injectors, to be able to LEAN out the mixture to gain the additional power and horsepower readily available. Going leaner results in more heat produced, so I went to "Engine Ice" and an additional radiator fan, as well as the titanium ceramic coating.
this is where I am now. PC V and autotuner installed, but autotuner not yet enabled in the PC 5 software. At this point I am NOT inclined to pull the head, thinner head gaskets, head porting, or even cams, other than to check that stock cam timing is what it should be. I just want the bike to run as well as it can in basically stock form, for extended street use, mainly sport touring with the LSL barbacks-superbike bars and the GIVI bags.
so, with exhaust catalytic convertor restrictions removed and Yosh R77 dual slip ons, air intake maybe very slightly improved with a K & N filter, flie removed, and the ability to LEAN out the fuel injection witht eh RC 5 and autotuner, what fuel/air mixture should I be aiming for? Historically on my old carburated race bikes I typically shoot for around 13.2/13.4 as a good compromise, not too lean, not too rich, a tiny bit lean but stil rich enough to help keep engine temps down, or should I be shooting for 12.8/12.9 for more power? Not having my own dyno, the autotuner seems a reasonable compromise if it works as advertised, but I will still double check on the dyno as well. I had dyno time booked for yesterday that I had to cancel and re-schedule due to personal scheduling conflicts... damn, hate it when the real world interferes with my fun.
Anyways, comments, suggestions, am I on the right track for a basic dial in of the ZX 14.... or not?
Paul
ps compared to my older air cooled naked bikes, dealing with the bodywork and radiator on the ZX 14 is a HUGE pain in the ass, big respect to those of you who casually whip a set of pipes on and off, I break out in a cold sweat just thinking about getting all those tabs and fasteners to line back up.......
