Power Commander Autotuner Advice

[whoDEANie]

So I have the PCV and Autotune and would appreciate any (useful ) advice you guys can hand out. I have been out for a couple of good rides with it now and have been noticing funny behavior out of my quad from time to time. For example, I was running great until I got really bogged down in high gear near the end of a mud hole. After that, my machine was running like crap and even wanted to stall at idle for a good 10 minutes or so.

1. Does that behavior ound like the Autotune at work?
2. Do you guys with Autotune typically let it run all the time or do you usually tune your machine and shut it off?
3. I'm seeing trim values of +20 in some ranges even though the only engine mod I have so far is a Swamp Series exhaust. Does that sound wacky?

 

[slomo]

pm'ed ya too rich is what i think but the only way is to tune first with plug reading and then fine tune with the auto tune

 

[campingnut]

You should tune your bike first, because in a quad your O2 sensor will only last so long, it does not like water. Then ride with it removed.

 

[whoDEANie]

My quad is running like crap now. Well, sometimes in some ranges. Even when it does seem to be running well, I can smell how rich it is burning. In the end I decided to scrap the Autotune and take it to GetTorqued for a real tuning.

 

[campingnut]

It takes alot of patience and a lot of runs. Are tune while ridding or in a field?

 

[whoDEANie]

It takes alot of patience and a lot of runs. Are tune while ridding or in a field?

Patience is not something I'm known for. I made no special tuning runs, I just enbaled it and hit the mud and trails - I expected it to magically keep my bike in tune all the time as I ride. Even with a lot of effort, I doubt I could ever get the autotune to beat a professional dyno tune. I'm expecitng the dyno/tune to cost me about $220. That kinda sucks since I haven't done a heck of a lot to my quad yet, but we'll see how it turns out and how much the bill is when it's all said an done with.

 

[campingnut]

My bill @ Get Torqed for tunning was $350. Yes you need to make actual tunning runs to make it work. If it only costs you $220 that will be money well spent. Oh I forgot you only have a single cylinder lol....

 

[whoDEANie]

Well, I finished up my snorkels, did the hanger mod to my air box, and took it into Get Torqued for a dyno. The bill came in at $525 (3hrs @ $175/hr) and they got me my machine in time for the long weekend.

After riding the weekend, I found that I was lacking power, had dead spots at certain throttle ranges with certain load, and was back firing like crazy. I pulled the plug and confirmed that I'm now running way to lean, so I rode with 2-stroke oil in my fuel for the rest of the weekend to be safe. I also noticed that the "infamous" Grizzly lag (when you punch it from a dead stop) is probably even worse now.

Kevin's gonna take it back in next week, but he figures that my issues are probably related to a failing fuel pump. I guess I'll have to do what troubleshooting I can before next week in case the issue has nothing to do with the tuning. Of course, I'll start by testing the fuel pump. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[campingnut]

Does sound like a falling fuel pump, I hate to say, but without seeing it, the tune could be wrong. I would definitly check the fuel pump before I went though.

On edit To tell the truth it would have been hard to tune with a failing fuel pump I would think. Unless it was not like that at first.

 

[Med1ogre]

My xp is don't change anything in the zero column, I thought I would modify my a/f in that throttle range to clear up my idle a little bit, backfired on me, leave it at zero. I believe it says the same in the instructions as well... Go figure.

I picked 13.5 for my a/f based off of others dyno sheets for my quad. I picked what I thought was a close map, it was no where near, so it took awhile longer to get it tuned. I was getting a lot of -20 trims at first too but I kept accepting them...Look for anomalies.

what I watch for is when looking at my trims is to stick to one column (throttle), say 40% column and look at it top to bottom/vertically and you can easily pick out a bad trim that way. You might get a weird trim from a exhaust reversion from letting off the throttle.

say in that column you have some trims that start at -5 then go up to -20 and back down again and somewhere in between you have a +20... I would smooth that one out then accept the trim.
sticking to one column and looking at it up and down really helped me click with what the hell this thing was doing to my maps.
that's all i have, hope it helps. and good luck with your pump.

 

[whoDEANie]

Well, I took it back today and have doubts that it is the fuel pump. Here's a copy of the PCV fuel map after the dyno. ...I don't know my a$$ from a hole in the ground when it comes to these maps but my Spidey senses are telling me that this doesn't look right, especially when compared to the maps that are posted right on the Power Commander website.

 

[Med1ogre]

Nothing really strikes me about that map that would make me doubt it. Whats the sop dyno telling ya? Basing your map off the pc5 site will make you second guess everything. You cant tell what afr those maps are at or what elevation they were designed for, probably sea level. I wish the pc5 would show the afr values for the downloaded maps.
But you can't ignore the spider sense, and one things for sure. I'm still figuring this all out myself.

 

[grizzlymud]

What about the dyno tune? Did they give you the afr print out? HP? Torque? Can't read your map to well but doesn't seem that far off. Have you checked your TPS? You can access it through the pod, or check at the TPS. Check out Grizzly central there lots of good write ups on there. I tuned mine with the auto tune and runs like a rapped ape lol

 

[whoDEANie]

Yeah, I got a print out of the AFR/HP/Torque and it looked pretty good. Can't say too much about the AFR, but they managed to squeeze and extra three horse out and it's a pretty smooth curve. On the other hand, when riding the quad, it sucked harsh. I'm eager to get it running for this coming weekend so it's back at the shop now ...we'll see what they come up with.

 

[whoDEANie]

I got my quad back from Get Torqued again yesterday. Kevin was really good abut it - he spend a good three hours or so f'ing around with the thing and didn't even charge me. It's kinda strange, but the bike is inexplicably starved for air, so Kevin had to really cut the fuel back in order to get it to run half decent. For now, I'm thinking I may have over oiled my air filter and/or may even have a blocked snorkel. I'll get this licked eventually.

 

[campingnut]

Oh the fun of modifications

 

[whoDEANie]

It's starting to look like it's not a tuning / air supply issue at all. It was running fine last weekend until I hit the first puddle and then started popping and sputtering again. ...about 30km in, the quad died all together - no fuel, no spark.

 

[grizzlymud]

Check all you connections, fuses and battery.