Latest mods and Dyno results on my Vaquero

[RACNRAY]

I finally had time to alter a previous mod i did to the skoot awhile back, a heat shield to keep hot air from the air filter area.

There were pros and cons to this mod. Although it did help keep hot air from the intake, it also reduced the amount of air blowing into that intake area, and did cause the engine to run hotter in lower speed traffic. I had installed a fan switch so I could turn on the fan when I WANTED to, but was using the fan switch far too often. Last week i decided to re-evaluate the path i wanted to take to improve on the latest mod.

Here's the previous heat shield location...



The idea was a combination of re-locating the heat shield to lessen it's affect on engine temps and to increase air flow/reduce air temp available to the intake.

I relocated the heat shield further forward, here is it's new position...



This helped improve air flow out of the radiator and around the engine and was a good compromise.

The next order was to increase air flow to the intake. I borrowed an idea Suzuki used on the TL1000R, they incorporated the ram air intake openings into the leading edge of the side cowlings. We studied the architecture of the body work and decided to cut an opening in the black plastic inner cowl, jut to the right of the radiator...



Another view...



A view looking from the airbox area and with a flashlite illuminating the passageway...



The piece of cowling cut away to un-obstruct the air flow...



Riding the skoot with these mods proved the relocation of the heat shield was a good compromise, but the biggest gain was in the huge increase in the amount of cool air available to the filter area. My butt dyno told me there was a slight gain in power and an slight increase mpg was noted.

One of the last mods made to the skoot was to fabricate and install a "reverse cone" end cap for the V&H 2-1 megaphone exhaust. The baffle supplied witht this pipe was so restrictive it made less power than my slip-ons, so i used a 2 1/2" core and modofied the baffle to accept that core. That brought the power equal to the slip-ons, but the low speed was just not right. Not enuff back pressure due to low exhaust velocity and the tuning affect of the whole exhaust. Sticking with the inadequate velocity/poor tuning affect I fabricated a "reverse cone" end cap which i attached to the end of the megaphone. I started out with a 2.2" hole diameter, felt the low rpm improvement but felt the engine choking at the higher rpm's. I increased the hole dia. to 2.4" and felt an overall improvement in performance. Nice fringe benefit is that the exhaust sound was decreased considerably, i liked that!!
With this cap in place tho the butt dyno and the mpg meter told me there was the severe necessity for re-mapping.

The cap...



And a better look inside the megaphone...



You can see the large diameter area inside the end of the megaphone, this area allowed the exhaust gasses to expand too quick with my large diameter short length baffle which dropped exhaust velocity and decreased the scavenging affect. With the reverse cone end cap the exhaust gasses must "squeeze" thru the end cap after their expansion in that large area, increasing exhaust velocity and improving the scavenging affect of the exhaust.

SEE PAGE 2...

[RACNRAY]

The last mod was to re-map the skoot using a new PCV with ignition timing adjustability. I installed this new PCV and played with the ignition timing. Advancing the timing at the low rpm/low throttle position areas of the map proved benificial going by the butt dyno and the mpg meter, so i just needed to find the time to get my skoot back on the dyno.

That happened last week, starting with my previous fuel map and a "zero" ignition map, i found the a/f ratio to be so far off it was not funny! Rectifying this helped re-shape the power band, altering ignition timing added to the power improvements. EVERY single throttle position required extensive changes to achieve the proper a/f ratio. What i ended up with was a HUGE gain over the last dyno session.

Dyno chart for H.P....



Stock power was 64.97, September's session peaked at 84.49, and i now have 87.67! I have high-lighted the power at 4000 rpm, that's the black line and you can see the improvements there.

And for torque...


Stock was 79.39, Septembers session was 101.71, i now have 106.03, and look at the gains at 3000 rpm!!

I have since ridden the skoot many times and all i can say is...OH MY GOD!! The torque this thing now has is incredible, along with absolutely phenomenal throttle response. This thing now runs hard,and my gas mileage has increased to almost 50 mpg on the hi-way, dropping to 46.5 in traffic. The engine is silky smooth, it was such a surprise to ride a skoot which now has over 24,000 miles on it and it is better than it has ever been. EVER!!

All the time, labor,scratching my head and triAL and error has paid off and exceeded my expectations!! I did not want to stop riding last nite!!

I also had time to remap my Hayabusa last week as it now has a stock engine that had been running with the 196 H.P. map, it responded well and is making 169 H.P. It's nice that i finally found the time to take care of my skoots, the "shoe maker's kids now have new shoes"!!

RACNRAY