kaldek

If you need a push on what to do, this is what I would do

Firstly the reasoning behind my decision, to register the reparable write off your up for est extra $1K & doing so will give you a later model bike registered but in reality due to being listed on WOR (Australian write off registry) the resale will be no more than your 02 in good working order. Even to register the later model you have to remove allot of parts from the 02 & the biggest pain is the exhaust so in really there isn't really extra work to just do the motor transplant except some frame bolts. This also has the bonus of your 02 motor being out on the floor to inspect & play with (big bore kit maybe). The other bonus is when your finished you can ride the bike without major delay jumping through hoops & you can hold off updating engine number until you decide what you might do with the 02 motor, so zero cost, zero having to deal with boffins at the registry.

So really to remove all the extra's & front sub frame will take longer than the motor swap & you also save $1K, get to ride when finished legally & don't have to jump through boffin hoops. Sort of makes the dission itself in my book MOTOR SWAP

BUT before I bothered with motor swap I would try the new electrics in 02 as might just cure the problem as you do want to pin point what the problem is don't you.

Interesting. I had only skimmed the service manual and it seemed like a motor swap was a big deal. You're saying it's not?

What about the following:

• Radiators?
  
• Swingarm?
  
• Main subframe?
  

Surely that makes the job quite long?

Discovered new bike was popping quite loudly as soon as the throttle was closed even in neutral. My immediate thought was that this is a stuck PAIR reed valve. Sure enough - shove a marble up the PAIR hose and problem has magically disappeared.

Going over this bike, it looks like it's never, ever been taken apart. I mean, aside from the front end crash damage and rust from sitting around it's MINT. Aarrgh, what to do! Three hours of work and I can put all my farkles & fairings on it but it's going to cost me a grand. Or, I tear into this mint machine and shove its motor into the frame of my '02.

I....I dunno what to do!

Busted Oil Cooler

Cracked ECU socket

Pretty good condition

OK I picked up the wreck today. The guy there hadn't managed to start it but thanks to my (now) intricate knowledge of VFR electrics I had her fire right up. Right away it runs a lot better than mine even with a shitty tank of gasoline and probably dirty injectors. The bike appears to have crashed into the back of a truck with a tray bed, so the front subframe is bent badly and the oil cooler has a split in it. The ECU plugs also took a knock, cracked the white plug housing and one of the pins was a bit bent, but that's now sorted. It was missing a bank angle sensor (smashed to pieces) so I had to take mine with me when I picked it up.

Fairings are semi-OK. One side needs a bit of plastic welding but the right hand and tail fairing are in one piece. Handy spares.

Oh I also pulled the airbox - the intake stacks are short front tall rear and it looks like the airbox has never been off the bike.. Damn, that busted one of my other theories about intake stacks!

Now all I need to do is put a chair out in the garage, crank up the radio, drink a sixpack and decide what's easier - moving engines or paying $1000 to register this one with my plastics, subframe and oil cooler.

Good news! I found the source of the burning smell!

Bad news! I'm a dickhead!

What's that burning smell?

Yes, exhaust headers get HOT, FAST. It appears that the burning smell was wafting up to the steering stem and appearing to come from the ignition switch. I swear I'm going to start seeing communists in my soup next.

Oh my Dog, that don't sound good.

Not to worry, I'm off to get the new bike tomorrow. The guy is also going to throw in some headlight assemblies for me. Wow...possibly a complete bike!

On another note, I'm getting the smell of burning hair/plastic from my ignition switch now.

I said something about ripples in a pond previously. Massive understatement.

And if you do the motor swap and have the same issue? What then?

Exactly. You've established that changing ECUs can make the engine run better or worse... what effect do you intend swapping the engine to have?

I'd be using the complete electrical system from another bike. I don't intend to use ANY of my current ECU/wiring harnesses and will pull the entire system across from the other bike. In essence, I am keeping nothing other than the frame from my 2002, unless I can't be buggered with the effort and just spend the money on having the wreck inspected. Either way, I will not be allowing any of the gremlins from my '02 to come across.

I'm getting too good at pulling this bike apart. I decided to swap back the old ECU and wiring harness, and managed to get the whole job done in about three hours.

So with the 2002 ECU back in it, it runs a lot better. The misfire (actually more like wavering rpms) is still there but just less pronounced.

Also I checked up on registering a write-off and sure enough the VIV certificate costs $440. Hmmm, that makes dropping my plastics onto the wreck I bought a $1,000 proposition if you include registration. Since I have dads bike for a while I should just plan a motor swap.

This is great work mate. Top marks.

I'll need to program some keys into the bike I've just bought so I'll also try to make a video of the above when I do it. It will be a nice appendix!

Fitted the replacement coils today. No change.

Somewhat concerned now this 2nd-hand ECU *is* dodgy!

I bought the wreck. Looks like I'm gonna have a bunch of spare parts soon.

Also: who wants to place bets that the fuel pump and coils I already had on order will magically fix the problems with my current bike? Oh well, at least it will be nice closure to the thread if that is the case!

Anyway for those that are curious how this thing has derailed so badly, I would like to say that I don't think the problems I've got are with the new ECU and wiring. In fact, I would call the job a success as not only did I remove the old harness completely and replace it with the new one, but I altered all the indicator wiring and ignition switch wiring successfully. The bike immediately fired up and ran.

Whilst it has a misfire now and strange high rpm cold idle, this cannot be directly attributed to a wiring harness and ECU swap. It's also worth pointing out that another member already performed this mod on a 2004 USA bike to conver it to a 2006-spec ECU and wiring harness. He confirmed that he found the improvement so good he removed his Power commander.

Which is why I fully suspect you will go with option 1...

That is exactly what my wife would say!

I've been doing a lot of thinking today and I think I'm going to buy that wrecked '06 bike. I really don't want to fork out $13,000+ for a brand new VFR.

About the only thing I don't know how to do on this bike is strip the engine down into its component parts. If I know that much, why wouldn't I do it?

I have two paths forward:

1. Strip both bikes down and put the new engine in my frame (no registration or insurance changes)
   
2. Put my plastics and tank on new bike (new rego required, plus insurance $100 more than it is right now because donor bike is newer)
   

Option 2 has less hassle, because it would take me about two hours to do the whole job....

Ed, check your spark plugs for condition. I'm curious...

Every time I check 'em, they look fecking awesome mate. I keep expecting them to be black, or severely white, but nope they always look perfect. They were replaced last May when the bike first started playing up.

Hah my wife is on Facebook right now telling me to buy a new bike,

Quote:

"I really wanted you to buy one last year but you decided to 'fix' the one that is giving you grief still"

She's talking about the VFR1200 too - which at the time was $28,990 on road!

Adrenalin who is selling that bike get there stock from auctions, if your looking to go that route go to some auctions like Manheimfowles (Australia) they even have auctions online, as an example a stolen reclaimed VFR800 04 that only had a few scratches & barrel destroyed went for $2200.

Yeah...figured that might be the case. What do you reckon their markup is?

I just put in a bid on it.

Is that part of your grand plan to migrate to Australia?

My wife hass already told me to just STFU and buy a 2009 VFR800 in candy glory red. In the meantime I have my dad's 1997 VFR while he goes to England for 3 months. If I haven't fixed the 2002 by then, that may be my exit strategy.

Scratch that. Just found this wrecked 2006 model 70 kilometres away.

Let's see. I'm gonna need new clutch plates soon ($200) new front disks ($800)....that's a thousand dollars effectively off the purchase price right there.

I think I'm just gonna do it.

Kaldek - I"m late to this party - but need to say - WOW. YOu're doing a serious effort here - and I hope you nail it!

Careful with those damn fuel pumps in and out of the tanks - the flanges are more than a little temperamental.

I'll be watching with fingers crossed for ya! Keep up the great experiment!

You mentioned that others have done this project - anyone from VFRD?

Yeah it was our member named CBR6400F4i. He tends to lurk rather than post now; I think he sold the bike? His was an American 2004 model getting an American 2006 ECU and injectors so it wasn't as big a change as mine.

My wife has already told me to just STFU and buy a 2009 VFR800 in candy glory red. In the meantime I have my dad's 1997 VFR while he goes to England for 3 months. If I haven't fixed the 2002 by then, that may be my exit strategy.

I'd think the ECU is fine.

Solid state electronics tend to either work or don't work. 100% either way.

They seldom "sort of" work.

I agree with you completely. And the strangest part is that the bike is fine under power at high revs-- you can pin it in 3rd gear and she will pull like a train to redline. Starting it cold though, it coughs and splutters and then revs its head off (up to 4,000rpm) with constant 500rpm dips until it heats up, at which point it stabilises but you can hear it misfiring. After that, it's fairly rideable but you can feel it hesitating all the time.

Last night I went through the parts catalogue and confirmed that all the things I was interested in are the same part code. This includes engine coolant sensor, MAP sensor, Cam position sensor, crankshaft (ignition pulse) generator, and coils.

When the new fuel pump and coils arrive, I will fit them ASAP. If nothing changes, I'm going to dig into the wiring harness and measure the resistance of every wire. That's going to be a hoot.

Well, the test on DazMac's bike didn't work because it seems that Aussie bikes with HISS wiring in the wiring harness won't work with USA model ECUs that don't have the HISS programming in them. His bike wouldn't prime the fuel pump at all with my USA model ECU fitted.

Dagnabbit, this means I still can't consider the ECU either good or bad. More questions again than answers...

Oh, the bike runs fine under power by the way - above 6400rpm she's sweet as.

I'm sure you have it correct but check the spark plug wiring is going to correct plug, easy test is temp of each header. I say this because I once mixed up the front plugs & bike would run & even idle on 2 rear cylinders but idle when bike started to warm up would rise & fall & motor would cut out now & then. Motor still seemed to rev ok with throttle, was going to start looking at many things & just happened to do a header temp test & bingo front 2 cold compared to rear. Its a very easy mistake to make & the motor can run unloaded surprisingly well on 2 cylinders.

Nup, definitely not that as bike runs fine on the power when riding it hard.

Righto, I'm off to DazMac's house tomorrow morning to drop this ECU into his bike (2010 Aussie VFR) for 10 minutes to see how she runs. We'll know pretty much straight away if it's stuffed!

Hey K. Have you thought about megasquirt? I don't know of anyone using it on a vtec'ish engine. People seem to rave about it since it's so customizable.

I wonder if Honda changed up the ignition with the newer models? You're still using the newer 12 point injectors, correct?

Yeah the only thing that's 2002-era from fuel injection is the fuel pump, coils and throttle body. Oh, of course all the sensors are 2002 sensors but the parts are the same.

Anyway I had the fuel pump out this arvo just to take a look. Looks clean externally aside for some crud on the bottom of the intake screen which I removed. Bike still running shit - revs dipping and then recovering. I had left the fan disconnected so now that's back she is at least rideable - I need her tomorrow to get to work because I'm unable to get hold of my dad's VFR750 for a couple of days.