Dyno done - 120 mph in 4th gear

[Guest captain nemo]

Nemo's dyno notes

[al_roethlisberger]

Nice results! I'm sure you are pleased to have finally objectively measured the impact of tuning your exhaust with the discs for the most effective setup for your goal I know that's how I feel after tinkering, and finally getting a chance to really "dial-it-in" versus just assuming/hoping for the best

 

Do you have a photo/scan of the dyno curve, before and after? I would be very interested in seeing how much your 2/1 system boosted midrange as you suspect

 

It's interesting, although not surprising based upon your goal of improving low/mid power, that your peak HP/Torque are about the same as stock though. Any thoughts?

 

al

[Guest captain nemo]

I'll post my charts as soon as I can get to Kinko's to print them out. I have a Mac and I can't use it to open the charts he sent me.

 

The baseline graph is with my Supertrap with 9 discs. These are about all the discs I had. So I have no graph with my Mistrals. When I brought the bike in he needed a new end cap so he could drill a hole in it. So, I purchased a whole new core kit which included about 12 more discs. He finally found out that my system was so restricted that it needed 19 or 20 discs to get good readings!

 

In short, my baseline power was 68 hp and torque topped out at 50 pounds at 5500 or so. The bike actually ran OK with no popping and stuff. Also, my fuel/air mixture was VERY rich. Finally, with 19 discs we got the chart up to 79 hp and torque at 60 pounds at both 3500 rpm area and slightly higher - 60 - at 6200 rpm. Also, the 'V11 dip' between 4 and 5 grand was not as deep as before - or as deep as stock.

 

Now, I realize that these numbers are no better than stock. But I have an opinion about that. The bike runs VERY strongly and pulls well without a feeling of stalling out. The bottom seems much improved over stock and the top end runs very hard right up to cutting out. So, I wonder if stock bikes actually feel the same way. What a person is actually riding may be somewhat short of what they think. Mine sure was. I have ridden Louis' highly modified Mondello Rossa and my bike has a similar sound and feel in the low range. It has a new 'jackhammer' sound and feel just as Louis' bike did.

 

However, even if I have made no improvement so far, I have achieved my goals of a clean back end, a better sound and better throttle response. It will be interesting for some V11 people around here to take it for a spin and see what they think. If a person is really interested in taking the V11 to new places, he must get into the head and work with cams, porting, high compression pistons, ignition amplification, dual plugs and so on. My tuner guy says he's never seen more than a 4 or 5% improvement with just K&Ns and exhaust stuff. Mine was the largest fluctuation he's seen with simply fooling with the exhaust.

 

Hey Al, help me get back on the road....see my post on wiring. I'm especially looking for that link here on a clear wiring chart.

[al_roethlisberger]

...cool, glad to hear you've achieved the goal you had set

 

The dyno results will be very interesting to see for sure If you've managed to achieve anything close to a "table flat" torque curve, then that would be a real plus for sure.

 

 

In regards to your electrical problem, I haven't replied because I really don't have any idea.... other than the obvious checking of connectors, etc All I can say is that since the "new variable" was your modified blinkers, just recheck your wiring and the weather tightness of your connections

 

I think I recall your mentioning somewhere that you discovered that the stock tail wiring was a tangle of short sections, bullet connectors, and splices... until you ripped it all out. So I would just think about checking all of that again. It's possible that the water certainly could have created a short somewhere, leaching current to ground.

 

I tend to use dielectric grease, vinyl dip, replace bullet connectors with AMP weather-tites, and heat-shrink to an extreme in this regard, for this very reason

 

 

But as our resident "electrical expert" on the Guzzi, I was waiting for Carl Allison to chime-in on your thread

 

 

al

[Guest captain nemo]

Thanks Al,

 

I will also look for a different battery or some sort of arrangement that allows me to view the cables from above the battery. I can't stand to see all those cables jammed into such a small place as the battery lies on its side. I will also solder the tiny wires this time. I think the problem is the water under the fuse box and flasher, but I wonder why this did not break a fuse or the flasher unit?????

 

 

Anyway, I also wanted to assure you that my dyno torque chart is NOT a flat line! No way. I saw that the Quad exhaust did eliminate the huge V11 hole, but it was weak from then on up. My chart is almost identical to the stock graph in power and in torque. Nothing special. But, as I say, if a stock bike runs like this, then I am impressed. At least I cut 15 pounds off the back end and cleaned it up. So I'm happy.

 

Oh, I noticed something you guys might like to know. My old rear wheel with the 170/60 tire on back weighed 37 pounds. My new rear tire ( 160/70 ) plus wheel weighs 35 pounds. I think that is pretty substantial when you are talking unsprung weight and rotating mass. You guys were right...my bike handles much better now. It really 'falls over.'

[al_roethlisberger]

Excellent and interesting news on the rear wheel/tire combo

 

I'll probably drop mine a size in width as well.

 

 

BTW, just a suggestion... I wouldn't recommend soldering any connections on a vibrating machine. The problem, and reason why the manufacturer uses crimps and connectors versus solder, is that a solder connection will tend to have two issues:

 

1) It is very rigid, and will cause two concentrated points of flex where the solder joint ends. Unless you can cinch this section of wire to something to keep it from bending, as the wire vibrates these two points will rapidly become brittle and fail/break.

 

2) To get the wire hot enough to take the solder, the heat tends to travel up the wire and melt/soften the insulation, causing future shorting failures. It can also anneal the wire causing an exacerbation of issue #1 above.

 

I would recommend installing some good weather-tite AMP connectors from Summit Racing(there's a thread here somewhere that has the part numbers) or quality crimp connectors in combination with dielectric grease.

 

Good luck

 

al