Ducati Sporting Club UK > Model Specific - Discussion, Technical Problems and Help > General Motorcycles only > Will a DP race can make my bike run lean?

[skibum]

I have a 2003 1000 ss. I bought some Ducati Performance Race Cans and want to know if I have to change anything with the fuel injection so the engine does not run lean.

Will the fuel injection automatically correct for the more free flowing exhaust?


Regards,

scott

[phil_h]

Apparently the ecu handles a change of cans pretty happily.
Changing the air filter as well will def make it run leaner, and you would get better low speed running for sure, and more power higher up if it was tuned on a dyno - but that needs a power-commander or similar - which all work out at about the same price (surprise !)

[twpd]

Does the 1000ss have an O2 sensor in the exhaust downpipes cos that is the only way it's gonna be able to make any corrections for changes brought about by the end cans.

[skibum]

There are no wired connection to the pipes.

I have a DP airbox cover (looks like a stock cover that someone went at with a dremel tool) but have not installed it.

?

Thanks!

scott

[phil_h]

Its not got a sensor (as you know twpd) - brads tests (http://www.moto-one.com.au/performance/index.html) have just found they are tolerant of free-flow cans

[twpd]

I genuinely didn't know hence why I asked. If it's tolerant then that's more by luck than judgement and would infer that there's little impact made by adding free-er breathing pipes alone. I'd expect playing with the filter and aibox would have more of an impact and would therefore need some fuelling corrections though. I do know that the airbox on these bikes is severely restrictive - far too small.

[skibum]

Thanks Phil! That web site is great! I don't know much about air-fuel ratios but from the graphs (http://www.moto-one.com.au/performance/1000ds.html) it looks like the maximum change from a stock engine to one with race cans and a DP airbox cover is only about 0.6 at 7.75k rpm.

Is that change something that I should be concerned about? If not I will put the DP airbox cover on also.

My other question is if the engine is running lean what colour do they spark plugs become? I was going to pull out a plug before I ride to much with the DP exhaust and then take a look at the plug again in a couple hundred miles or so and compare.. What should I be looking for if the engine is running lean??

Thanks for the information! Great help.

Regards,

scott

[phil_h]

The key paragraph is
"So, unlike the 800, where I was looking for some extra fuel to find best power, the 1000DS seems quite happy as is. Maybe the dual spark plugs help here too – I’ve seen 4V go as high as 17:1 air/fuel at WOT and still make almost the same power as the correct fueling, so good combustion does help compensate for a lean mixture. With a plug on either side of the chamber, I’d expect combustion to be much more consistent and stable on this engine. Whether this also corresponds to improvements in fuel economy over the 900 we’ll have to wait and see, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was better. The extra compression will help there too."
You are basically looking for around 14 through the range, but as the man says, modern/good design helps bigtime !

As far as reading plugs goes ... its not as easy as it used to be as unleaded produces a lot of black **** (sorry - technical term !) even when its burning well. You have to look right on the end of the centre electrode to get the real colour - and of course you want a brown tinge for good combustion, magnolia meaning too lean, white meaning expensive bills are on the way, and really brown meaning you just have to fill up more often