Thumbs Up for Power Commander V and Autotune

[chync_imp]

It has taken a couple of long winter months, during which I assumed the weather would be too cold to ride in anyway, to get my Power Commander V with Autotune set up. As luck would have it I got it installed just in time for the February spring we are having here in North Carolina.

This weekend I got to actually ride with it installed and test some different settings.

Wow what a difference it can make. If you have made any modifications to your exhaust or air intake this will definitely help you get the most return on your investment.

As soon as I started riding I could already tell that any hesitation in the throttle that had been there before was gone. After playing with some different target afr settings I got it running really perky.

It has been a fun mod to add to the bike. The only difficulty was in changing out the o2 sensor port to accept the larger (car sized) wideband o2 sensor required for the autotune to work. Luckily a local independent muffler shop cut the old one off and welded on the larger size for practically nothing.

I had thoughts of leaving the original o2 port and simply plugging it and having the larger port installed in a different part of the muffler. I'm lucky I didn't because I later realized that the location of the o2 port from the factory is the only spot where you can install an o2 sensor without it interfering with the engine.

But since I had the muffler headers off anyway, I decided to have them coated at Jethot so they would at least remain some sense of polished steel. That added an extra month to the project.

I think the pipes look good. Unfortunately it got dark before I thought to take a photo. I will add one this week.

Anyway my staintune muffler seems to love the new fuel map!

[PowerDubs_imp]

I purchased, but have not yet installed- the power commander, autotune and the arrow header to go with my staintune muffler. I am happy to hear that you like the results.

Can you please give us more detail on the tuning procedure you did?

[Retsel_imp]

So, looking at their web site you have to purchase a Power Commander V and an Auto tune module to do what you did? $400 + $325 seems a bit steep. If, like most, you are not constantly making changes to your bike power train, wouldn't a Don Guhl reflash accomplish the same thing for $375? Additionally you get rid of the limiters. Just curious as I to am considering one or the other.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk

[chync_imp]

I got mine at JakeWilson.com and it was a little cheaper. $319.99 + $228.99.

Honestly I didn't do much comparison shopping for this. I wasn't concerned with removing the speed limiter. I ride a lot of twisty mountain roads and am usually in 2nd and 3rd gear. But you are correct that the Power Commander doesn't eliminate the speed limiter.

The Power Commander ships with a target afr that is recommended as a good starting point for a sport bike.

I am still researching engine tuning but this is what I did to run a couple of different scenarios to get an idea of how the changes would feel while riding...

I downloaded one of the two maps specifically for the CB1100 from the Dynojet website. I think I used the one for the stock muffler and stock air filter to start with.

I loaded that map as my starting point and then used the target afr that shipped with the device.

I enabled auto-tune and went for a ride. I checked the trim tables to make sure the auto-tune ran and it did. I went ahead and accepted those, applied them to my map, and then I saved this new map as my new baseline.

When I looked at the default target afr table I noticed that the values weren't all the same across all cells. There was some variation in some specific rpm and throttle ranges. So in my subsequent testing I simply added or subtracted the same amount across all of the cell ranges leaving the relative differences in place. Basically I just took the target afr and either made it more lean or more rich and then I would take a ride to see how it ran.

I found some good references online explaining tuning basics and some guidelines on target afr.

I thought this video was useful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY78uPXvvY0

I also found some interesting discussion on this forum: http://www.600rr.net/vb/18-exhaust-fuel-...hread.html

I think to really identify target afr across the entire range you would need some feedback from a dyno. The auto-tune does make it possible to get some decent results without a dyno but if you really want to take it further than just making some safe targets based on general principles a dyno would be the way to go.

I go through some significant elevation changes where I ride and the auto-tune will help with that.

I am now thinking of installing a switch so I can choose between a more fuel efficient map and a sport riding map. There is a connection for that on the Power Commander.

[chync_imp]

Just got my bike tuned on a dyno and it's like a completely different beast. I ended up with some additional horsepower and great throttle response.

Great addition to the bike!

[PowerDubs_imp]

So you are saying the autotune isn't doing all it could do?