Darth Bling

You know what, I just thinking about something. It would be kinda cool to set up the shift light to come on at the VTEC engagement point. That way, you don't have to worry about the VTEC transition sneaking up on you. Even better, if you had two shift lights, one at 5800 and another at 6200, you'll always know when VTEC is about to kick in.

The idle and low-throttle response is now much smoother, and with the Turbo City FPR the VTEC runs great.  There's still just a hint of surge cruising at 4,600rpm, but you really have to be looking for it.

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Awesome job David. Your manometer looks great! :thumbsup: I'm glad everything went well. It really is amazing how much better the bike runs after synching the starter valves. I was having trouble starting my bike, but after the valve synch it starts great now.

MFP-2241: Where did you find the 1/4" to 5/32" adaptors?

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Went down to the local hardware store (Truevalue). They have almost everything there.

Haven't used my carbtune balancer for a long time, but I think I remember that there could be small plastic inline restrictors in the tubes, in addtion to the manifold adapters to limit the amount of vacuum in the system and maybe prevent the (in my case) mercury from getting sucked through into the cylinders.

Maybe you should add those to further avoid the suck=hydrolock china syndrome with your engine.

Beck

95 VFR

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Definitely a good idea! But, I found with motor oil and 7 foot long tubes, I have still have a very comfortable safety margin. The highest the oil ever made it up in any of the tubes in my manometer was about 2 feet, but I was screwing around with starter valves screws. I was thinking about adding some valves to each tube. That way I could balance the cylinders one at a time.

(The first manometer I made had some serious design flaws. Actually, I should be taken out a back and beaten with a garden hose for thinking it would work.)

Motor oil is actually lighter than water, but more viscous (I'm sure you knew that).

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Yeah, that's what I meant. I was going to use the word "fluid", but settled on "light" for some reason.^_^

Clever setup!? I've also read about the 20mmHg difference method, which has been recommended by some, and is apparantly the Honda-approved method for the earlier bikes.? The idea being to smooth the transition as the throttles are just cracked open.? Has there been a consensus, here?? Anyone tried both methods?

See the first two stickies (VTEC fuelling) here:

http://www.bikersoracle.com/vfr/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=4

If you use water in your manometer, 20mmHg = 10.7inH2O.

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From what I remember reading on that forum, everyone thought it was a translation problem with the English service manual. But after getting someone in Japan to translate a Japanese VFR service manual for them, they found the manual was right and all the values should be set equal to the fourth cylinder. In any case, balancing the starter values with either of the two methods would probably be a vast improvement since most dealerships didn't synch them at all.

The first manometer I made was a disaster. I found water to too light (almost sucked water into my engine :o ). Motor oil seems to work very well.

I got this idea from imortlfool in the Valve Synch Thread. But, since there weren't any pictures, I decided to post my own.

Basically, a manometer measures pressure (Mano- is the Greek term for "gas" or "vapor"). Many expensive manometers (like the Motion Pro or Carbtune) allow you to measure the vacuum of each cylinder in cmHg (centimeter of mercury). Since the starter valves on the VFR VTEC are supposed to be set equal to each other, then there's no need to measure the vacuum of each cylinder. All we need to know is what the vacuum in the cylinders are, relative to the other cylinders. Or, to be more specifically, what the vacuum of each cylinder is compared to cylinder #4. This is what the homemade manometer was designed to do.

Each of the four plastic tubes are connect to the vacuum lines from each cylinder. Each cylinder will exert a force on the oil in each tube. Essentially, the cylinders are playing a game of tug-o-war. Whichever cylinder is creating the most pressure will "win" and pull the oil in it's tube higher than the other cylinders. Our goal is to balance the starter valves so each cylinder is exerting the same amount of force, and therefore getting the oil level in each tube to be the same.

I used 1/4" inner diameter, 3/8" outer diameter plastic tubing to build my manometer. Each tube is 7 feet long. The reason I made the tubes so long was if there was a leak anywhere in the manometer or with any connections, oil can get sucked up into your cylinders (not good). With long tubes, you should have ample to recognized the problem, panic, and then hit the kill switch.

Manometer.JPG

You'll also need two T-connectors and a small section of tube. This allows you to hook up all four tubes together. The best way to fill the manometer is from the bottom. With two of the tubes disconnected from the T-connectors, fill the tubes with oil (or another liquid of your choice, i.e. water). Connect to tubes to the T-connectors and turn the manometer upright. Gravity takes over and balances the oil levels in each tube.

ManometerConnector.JPG

If I remember correctly, the vacuum tubes on the VFR are 5/32" (3.5mm). So, I used some 1/4" to 5/32" adapters to connect the tubes togethers. Also, it might also be a good idea to got four 5/32" to 5/32" adaptors and some extra tubing (5/32" size). Disconnecting the vacuum tubes from the 5-way connector from in between the throttle bodies is not fun. So, to prepare for the day that I have to synch the starter valves again, I used the straight 5/32" adaptors and extra tubing to make the the vacuums lines on the bike longer. This will make it much easier in the future to hook up the manometer since the you can now pull the 5-way connector out from underneath the throttle bodies and disconnect it in the open.

Hope you you guys find this post helpful. Good luck synching those valves.

Tim

:D

FOOTPEGS:

Mod: Buell XB9 footpegs

Benefits: Lowers footpegs by 1 inch.

How to: Grind down the excess metal on the Buell footpegs, create some spacers, and install.

Time: 30-60 mins

Cost: $15 - $30 for the Buell pegs, maybe 50? for the spacers

Permanance: Completely reversible.

Help: installing Buell footpegs thread