Poo fuel quality and the 1150

[colesyboy]

Hi all,

Have been reading a bit about remapping and using a different chip on the GS to help it cope with 3rd world fuel quality.

I'm going to be riding the bike around Indiaaaarrrrrgh for a bit and wanted to know what the consensus is on filling the bike up with what might be fuel mixed potentially with the pump owners wee? I guess really what I want to know is what might I do to the bike to help it cope with dirty fuel?

Fanks,

Brian

 

[Tsiklonaut]

It copes well even on standard setup with low octane and dirty shiite (my 1100 doesn't have any low octane chip btw!). You'll poison the Lambda (O2) sensor and Catalythic converten both (if you have them like i?) running on leaded after few thousand kilometres, but the bike still keeps going well, just the exhaust gases aren't that clean anymore , and it has more unstable idle and some surging on cold engine on lower rpms due no information feedback from O2 sensor, but it runs almost exacly the same as with working CAT/Lamda on warm engine. Motronic brain seems to adapt well.

If you have no Cat and Lamda would be even better, you don't feel even much performance difference between lower octane and normal, just the fuel consumption is bit bigger running on low octane my practice shows.

Take one or two spare fuel filters (maybe an idea to make tank-extrenal fuel filter installation as some have done) and would be good if you take spare fuel pump with you.

You have K&N washable air filter or planning to go with stock paper filter btw?

Margus

 

[colesyboy]

Thanks Margus

To the rescure again - thanks for the info. I've not given the filter choice much thought yet - I used a K&N on my last trip on a honda. What do you recommend?

I dont have the CAT....so I guess that helps, should I be getting rid of the lamda then?

Cheers.

Brian

 

[Tsiklonaut]

To the rescure again - thanks for the info. I've not given the filter choice much thought yet - I used a K&N on my last trip on a honda. What do you recommend?

I dont have the CAT....so I guess that helps, should I be getting rid of the lamda then?

Cheers.

Brian

Yep, CAT no good for third world. I'd leave the lambda there - if it REALLY somehow starts to fek you and doesn't run well - remove the Cat Code Plug so it disconnects the Lambda sensor, reset Motronic so you ending up "not having" any lambda sensor anymore anyway. Why i'm saying so is that i find the GSes equipped with lambda work considerably better in terms the known GS's "surging effect", looking at the experience here this site it seems so the surging is rather non-lambda version of GS problem. Also i guess fuel consuption is more controlled if the Motronic get's exhaust gas O2 feedback. Slightly better fuel consumption always comes in handy on long travels...

Yep, K&N get's my vote too. The stock paper filter get's clogged less than 10K kilometres in dusty-sandy-dirty air like Asia has. Here in Estonia i ride 50% on gravel and it get's clogged less than 8-9Kkm mostly, and after few Ks on new filter the sparks take black colour and fuel consumption increases, while running on K&N the sparks are like brand new after checking them on next service - so it's considerably better and more free breathing with K&N IMHO.

You don't have much choice on long distance travelling because you don't want to carry spare original air filter with you that takes around 1/5 panner's room indeed... And you'd need 2 of them doing more than 20K expedition in South-Asian conditions.

Now the stories that K&N lets all the dirt trhough seems to be rather a myth - i've run on K&N my previous bike more than 30K and oil consumption has decreased (probably the running-in process involved as well). If it let's dirt in means the oil-rings should wore out and oil consumption should increase - so it's not true. Also i did a fresh oil spots with clean hand inside the airbox walls (inside the filter area where the air should be filtered) to test if the dirt-letting-in story is true or not. After 8Kkms i wiped the same oil with clean finger and looked against the light to see if any dirt is glued into it or not - NO DIRT! The oil was good and clean as new. But i do keep the precaution and i clean the filter often here at home - cleaning and lubing the filter around 6-8Kkm it's easy job and i can do it with clean hands by now (takes practice), but on travels i leave the cleaning-lubing kit at home if doing less than 20Kkm expedition like i did to Iran - engine breathed good and didn't missed a beat after 17Kkm, and it wasn't around 50% gravel like i do here at home. If doing more miles, then i'd take the small cleaning kit with me - the small K&N cleaning kit takes very little room indeed, times less than spare original filter. So that's my personal opinion about K&N.

Maybe if i had lotsa £££ then i'd run on paper filter here at home just to be absolutely sure, but me poor, so i clean and lube the one more often. But on long third-world travels K&N is definately the boss for me.

Margus

 

[littleredrooster]

Removing the Cat Code plug does not disconnect the Lambda sensor. You can't reset the Motronic to 'not have' a Lambda. Sorry.

 

[Steptoe]

Yep, K&N get's my vote too. The stock paper filter get's clogged less than 10K kilometres in dusty-sandy-dirty air like Asia has.

Think about it - the paper filter gets clogged because it's doing it's job very efficiently.

Which would you rather happen.
1)Filter removing dirt and grit before it reaches the engine

2) Filter staying clear and clean, because all the crap gets through it.

I took my K&N filter out before going to morocco, and replaced it with a standard filter.

 

[Tsiklonaut]

Removing the Cat Code plug does not disconnect the Lambda sensor. You can't reset the Motronic to 'not have' a Lambda. Sorry.

How can you get rid of Lambda then? Only by installing the new chip?

Also it acctually sounds bit odd that the main function for the Lambda is to keep the fuel mixture lean enough to extend the CAT lifetime, also it should make low-rpm engine management bit better. So why some of the GSes have Lambdas altough they don't have a CAT?

I tend not to believe the non-lambda and lambda versions use different Motronic brain, or do they?

 

[colesyboy]

Ok, so just to sum up then...

I need to take the stock filter with me (thanks Steps),...wondering how I might replace the air filter after turkey heading into india though.

I should leave the CAT off the bike

With regard to my question of poo fuel and what to do ..... I guess I need to do nothing right? You could run my old Africa Twin (and I probably did) on fuel mixed with indigenous people wee thoughout South America without any changes to the bike....so are we saying here that the GS is similarly happy doing that?

It will run on leaded for a wee bit, if push comes to shove, but don't do that for long as I will shag the lamda sensor.

Estonia sounds cool Margus, I'll be living in Denmark in 2007, so could well be taking a trip to your part of the world then!

Cheers,
Brian