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Running Rough

6K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Vitamin C 
#1 ·
Bought my bike with a Devil exhaust and threw a DanMoto XG-1 Exhaust on there (planned on going back to the DEVIL because it's way too loud) but after about a week it started riding rough - in fact running like a 250cc bike. Acceleration is horrible. I was told it could be the ECU running in limp mode.

How can I go about resetting the ECU? I've read that you can just unplug the fuse or battery for a couple minutes but none of that worked. The local shop told me I would either have to buy a PowerCommander or get it tuned at the Kawi Dealer. If I put the Devil back on, and reset it right, it should go back correct?

Any input is greatly appreciated!
 
#2 ·
To my knowledge there is no limp mode. Is your FI light even on? If it is, then there are ways to see what code is in there. You could have bad gas. Did you wash the bike recently? Could have water in the spark plug tunnels. Changing the exhaust wouldn't do anything significant to the bike other than change how loud it is.
 
#3 ·
FI light is not on and it couldn't be bad gas since I dropped a bottle of octane boost and ran it dry - twice already. I finally got an exhaust gasket and put the old exhaust back on but its still running rough. I reset the ECU and still nothing...
 
#6 ·
Maybe I can give some further details and tip off any problems that you guys may have in mind. It all started at school when I was riding back home, I was taking it easy and out of no where the exhaust note dropped - sounded like a damn Harley - and it felt like I lost a couple cylinders. And has been running like crap since. When this happened I heard no weird noises coming from the engine.

The Kawi dealer is far from where I live so I took it to Honda Performance and they ran a full diagnostic and said that they found no problems with it at all - that's where they said it could be running in 'limp mode' from the exhaust making it run too rich.

Of course, I changed the plugs and filter, but still no change in how the bike is running.

Another thing is that around 6-8k rpms the exhaust note sounds a lot different - almost like its struggling - but does not buck or hesitate. This range (6-8k) is where the power loss is most evident.
 
#7 ·
Problem Solved! Carbon build up on the valve wasn't allowing cylinder 2 to seal properly. You can check this by checking the temps of each exhaust header. Threw some combustion chamber cleaner on the valves and a couple clouds of smoke later it's good as new.
 
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