Power commander

Schtum said:
Ahh....ok :) I'll let you know when I finally get round to fitting mine. I primarily got it because I was a bit concerned that with a full Remus fitted, my engine might be running a bit lean at times.
Click to expand...
Only a numpty would put on a wholly different exhaust without carefully considering the tune. That said, BMW's knock sensor will protect the bike against detonation so the numpty would get away with it. It's lucky that some bikes are way, way smarter than their owners.
 
Pressurized said:
Only a numpty would put on a wholly different exhaust without carefully considering the tune. That said, BMW's knock sensor will protect the bike against detonation so the numpty would get away with it. It's lucky that some bikes are way, way smarter than their owners.
Click to expand...

You're a perfect illustration of why a little knowledge is a dangerous thing......:rolleyes:
 
KNOCK/LAMBDA Sensors ??

Can someone please explain the following ?

Is there a difference between:

1) Engine knock due to using a lower grade of fuel.
2) Engine knock due to modified tuning causing hotter/leaner ratios and eventual damage.

My understanding is that the stock bike can retard igniton by design to cope with low grade fuel. The closed loop 'Lambda' sensors alter fuelling to ensure complete combustion.

How far these controls can operate isn't specified in the owners manual, but I have run my bike on 91 Octane here and it is 'okay' (but not as smooth or responsive). I use 95 Octane as the sticker on the fuel filler says so.

I presume that by poorly tuning your engine, you might exceed the designed range of control of the bikes protection, leading to damage.

Am I correct in this assumption ?
 
Pukmeister said:
Can someone please explain the following ?

Is there a difference between:

1) Engine knock due to using a lower grade of fuel.
2) Engine knock due to modified tuning causing hotter/leaner ratios and eventual damage.

My understanding is that the stock bike can retard igniton by design to cope with low grade fuel. The closed loop 'Lambda' sensors alter fuelling to ensure complete combustion.

How far these controls can operate isn't specified in the owners manual, but I have run my bike on 91 Octane here and it is 'okay' (but not as smooth or responsive). I use 95 Octane as the sticker on the fuel filler says so.

I presume that by poorly tuning your engine, you might exceed the designed range of control of the bikes protection, leading to damage.

Am I correct in this assumption ?
Click to expand...
A Dynojet tune involves richening the mixture to a air:fuel ratio of about 13:1 whereas manufacturers try to achieve something closer to the stoichiometric ratio of 14.7:1 because emissions will be lower. For a poor fuel, this ratio is lower.

As long as the tuner knows what he's doing, the engine will run richer afterwards and so more safely. If the mixture is far too rich there is a danger that all the fuel will not burn and could wash the oil off the bore of the cylinder causing excess wear but it would have to be very, very rich to do this.

The knock sensor (not so much the lambda probes) allows BMW to run more lean without risking engine damage thus improving emissions. It detects the onset of knock then retards the ignition as you say so as to keep the engine safe.

For whatever reason, lean running engines do not run nicely. There are other things that manufacturers have to do to improve emissions that further make the engine run poorly.
 
Power commander....who's installed one?

A quick bump for this thread as I'm interested to hear from more people that have fitted a PC.
 
I fitted a Power Commander to an '08 GSA yesterday, unfortunately had a problem with the dyno, so had to load a stock map, should be doing custom map next week.
Customer very pleased with improvement already, should be interesting to see what it is like when it is mapped propperly.

Brian.
 
MOTOTECH said:
I fitted a Power Commander to an '08 GSA yesterday, unfortunately had a problem with the dyno, so had to load a stock map, should be doing custom map next week.
Customer very pleased with improvement already, should be interesting to see what it is like when it is mapped propperly.

Brian.
Click to expand...

I would be interested to see your stock torque curve vs tuned. Are you fitting headers and/or slip-on too?
 
MOTOTECH said:
Full Remus system & K&N filter fitted.
I will post graphs when the job is done.
Brian.
Click to expand...

Sounds great! I have the Remus headers and K&N on the way, but not ordered a PC yet. Looking forward to the results.
 
I for one can never understand why folk buy and fit these things to their bikes. You are adding what's technically known as a "kludge" to a finely-tuned self-adjusting carefully-designed closed-loop control system that you have paid good money for.

But I'm sure its a massive improvement.

:blast

Please feel free to read a decent book about performance tuning of petrol engines before sharing your wisdom with the rest of us who know nothing.
 
Grizzly GS said:
I for one can never understand why folk buy and fit these things to their bikes. You are adding what's technically known as a "kludge" to a finely-tuned self-adjusting carefully-designed closed-loop control system that you have paid good money for.

But I'm sure its a massive improvement.

:blast

Please feel free to read a decent book about performance tuning of petrol engines before sharing your wisdom with the rest of us who know nothing.
Click to expand...

Modern bikes are tuned to meet emission regulations etc. By removing the cat I hope to be able to improve the midrange. If you have seen a dynograph of a GS it is apparent it has a few dips in the torque curve between 3500 - 5000 rpm.

Besides it gives me something to do during the colder months coming up.
 
Dyno Graph

Sorry this took so long to post, but here we go!
2008 1200GSA, full Remus system, K&N filter.
Red line is first run with Power Commander fitted, zero map.
Blue line is final run after custom mapping.
Smoothed out torque curve up to 4k, improved power all the way through.
What it doesn't really show is the improvement on the road, this is only 100% throttle power graph. Mapping all the way through made an enormous difference to the throttle responce & got rid of the surging on constant throttle.
The dips in the graph aren't fueling related, so couldn't get rid of them. You don't really notice them on the road.

Brian.
 

Attachments

  • 1200GS DYNO.jpg
    1200GS DYNO.jpg
    50.6 KB · Views: 1,150
Location

Very impressive, out of interest where did you locate the PC. ? What with my Nautilus horn and Autocomm (and shortly perhaps a device thats got something to do with jam and lasers !!) I'm sort of running out of places.
 
bettlejuice said:
Very impressive, out of interest where did you locate the PC. ? What with my Nautilus horn and Autocomm (and shortly perhaps a device thats got something to do with jam and lasers !!) I'm sort of running out of places.
Click to expand...
From memory it went in the little tray where the 'tool kit' lives.

Brian.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

mpgscott
2011 heated grip problem
Replies
8
Views
303
mpgscott
mpgscott
How to wire up a dash cam setup?
Replies
2
Views
232
Bigcats
Bigcats
Gelandestrasse
BMW Charger woes
Replies
9
Views
367
dashfixer
Quick mechanical advice needed.
Replies
10
Views
479
The Other PaulG
The Other PaulG
Skippy
R1200GS - Trying to decide on the model - Help please
2 3
Replies
51
Views
1,536
DJ123
DJ123


Back
Top Bottom