thunderbird

dbeau, Thanks for putting this post together. Today I finished creating my OBDII adapter to clear my check engine light that was caused by starting the bike with a sensor unplugged. The OBDII harness that I bought from Corsa Technic had a completely different color code than the one pictured - I ended up having to probe all the pins to figure out which is which. To anyone else that makes their own adapter harness, maybe you'll receive the same OBD cable that I did. Here is the color/pin mapping for the OBDII cable I received. The yellow lines are the ones used in the 4-pin plug. Also, the OBDII cable wires are tiny... like 30AWG or smaller, and the terminals that you get for the 4-pin plug are for larger wire. They will work, but be prepared to go through quite a few of the pins if the crimps don't hold. I had to order a few extra sets of the pins, but then again it was my first time crimping these kinds of terminals. I also added a bit of solder to the end of the wire inside the pin to make sure there is sufficient electrical connectivity.

So I did the throttle body sync - only one of them was slightly out of the +/- 10mmHg spec. I also managed to trigger the check engine light while doing the throttle body sync, probably from when I disconnected a lead on the throttle body while the battery was still connected to the bike. I'll have to put together that OBDII adapter that @dbeau came up with to scan and fix/clear the problem. Anyways... I took the bike out for a ride and came back with a smile on my face. The low-range power has been restored - maybe even improved upon - but without a 0-60 time or a dyno chart to compare it to, I can't precisely say how it compares to stock. It just feels a whole heck of a lot better than it did without the ECU flash. There are still some gurgles when decelerating but it's not as excessive as before. Given that I had a super easy copy/paste ECU flashing experience, I'll take it! I'm sure a pro tuner could dial it in for my engine and my environment/altitude, but I'm happy with it as is! Thank you! Thanks! I think so too. I don't know exactly how much lighter the Akra exhaust is... I remember seeing the figure somewhere when I was doing my original research. I think somewhere around 4 pounds.

Howdy folks, Just wanted to chip in here and share my experience - both for installation and performance - so far with my 2017 FJ-09 and the Akrapovic Ti full system exhaust. I put just over 2k miles on my brand new FJ with the stock exhaust before pulling the trigger on the new Akra. (Revzilla helped to ease the pain with a small deal on Black Friday!) Installation There's not much to say about installation - it was a breeze. I have a rear swingarm spool stand so I popped the rear end up with and left the FJ's center stand and kickstand in the up position. After the old system was unbolted, I had to push the center stand down to wiggle the stock exhaust out through it, but it wasn't hard. A 2nd set of hands for this task would have helped a bit. Installation of the Akra was easier than removing the stock system because it comes in two parts. When installing the headers, make sure you leave the bolts loose so that you can wiggle the headers around while slipping the muffler on underneath. Also, when it comes to reattaching the exhaust sensor, twist the exhaust sensor counter-clockwise several times before screwing it in, so that you put a slight twist in the wires in the opposite direction - as the exhaust sensor is tightened, it will unwind and settle into place with no twist at all if you do it right. In this next pic you can see how I had to lower the center stand a bit to slip the old system out and slip the new one in. The center stand isn't holding any weight - it was just down enough to be past the point of return from the springs. Having the rear end on my swingarm stand really helped give me the clearance the center stand needed. When you're all done, be sure to give the entire header system a thorough wipe down with WD-40 to remove greasy fingerprints and other residue. This will help the coloration during the header burn in period. And I'm sure you all have seen it installed before, but here's mine The sound is great - it's louder than stock, but I wouldn't actually call it loud. It's just there. The sound is deep and refreshing, but not annoying like my Ninja 650 with the Yoshi full system and no baffle. The bike sounds... alive! Wind noise is still prevalent at highway speed. Without the ECU flash, there is some light popping/gurgling when engine braking. I was always planning on doing the ECU flash, but I had to ride it without flashing first to get a baseline comparison on sound and performance. So, about performance... I've seen a few places (here on the forum, and on Reddit) that suggest you don't need to flash the ECU for the 2017 model if you go with the full system Akra Ti. Some of them even went so far as to suggest that because Yamaha was at one point selling the Akra Ti as an official accessory, it didn't require the flash. Irrespective of how silly I think that sounds, I am only here to share my personal experience. The Akra Ti full system with no ECU flash wiped out the bottom end. Top end did improve a little bit, but the bike is noticeably slower when accelerating in gears 2-6 from lower in the RPM range. I was really surprised to feel such a big difference. I don't typically wring out the top end to redline, so I can't speak too much about the high-rpm power gain; however, 1st gear power wheelies are probably one of my favorite things about the bike, and they seemed to be easier in the higher end of 1st gear than with the stock exhaust. FlashTune ECU Experience I purchased the Bench Side flash tune kit from Revzilla. I've never flashed an ECU before, but I was confident that I'd figure it out as I go. I did not attempt to custom create my own mapping - for that, I don't know enough and wouldn't try to do it without diving deeper into the theory first. Flash Tune has several third party maps available for quick flashing, but sadly none for the Akra Ti. However, the Power Commander website has mappings for the Akra Ti for both baffle in and baffle out, and the Flash Tune software has a feature to import PC map files and automatically apply them. (This feature took me awhile to come across, but it's under the "ECU Modules" folder and it's titled "PC Fuel Import" for anyone else wanting to do as I did). Here is a comparison of the stock TPS vs RPM (for cylinder #3) chart to the custom chart for the same cylinder (left chart is custom, right chart is stock). Now I don't know enough to explain exactly what each value represents, but I can infer that the custom mapping is adding a whole lot more 'something' (fuel?) in the 3500 - 4500 range just under 50% throttle. This is just a single cylinder, but the other two cylinders are very similar (though not exactly the same). The Flash Tune software also makes it easy to disable the top speed limiter (which I have done), and enable/disable closed loop (which I have left as is). Also, if you're curious, here is how far the bike has to be disassembled to get to the ECU (it's right under the gas tank, attached to the airbox lid): (I removed the airbox lid to take a look at the air filter and throttle bodies, so the plastic bag is keeping debris out of the throttle body openings) So this is how the bike is currently sitting and since i have it apart, I am going to do the first throttle body check/sync today before putting it all back together. I'm a bit overdue for the first check according to the owners manual, so I'm eager to see how they turn out. I will report back on the performance after my first ride with the new ECU flash once I get everything back together. Post-ECU Flash Update Scroll down to post #4