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What's under the seat??

4K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  dazco 
#1 ·
Ok guys, another question from this novice TB storm rider I hope can be solved.
I have Foren Razorback exhaust pipes on my storm and they look and sound great. Sometimes when I go down the gears, giving a little rev (sometimes) I feel a thud from underneath the seat. What can that be?? I'm not sure if it's the way I'm changing gears or what? But I hope this can be answered.
And does anybody else have there exhaust sometimes 'crackle and pop' at times?? What causes this and/or is this normal with after market exhausts??
Thanks in advance.


Vespa to the Storm!
 
#2 ·
The air intake is under the seat. You may be getting a backfire. heres the things with aftermarket pipes. Some are made to work WITH the catalytic converter in place. Some eliminate the cat. Others give you the choice of either. All of them tell you to use the tors map with them NOT because it's optimal for a catless setup. In fact, it's quite the opposite. But the reason they recommend that tune is because there IS NO proper tune for running catless! So they couldn't sell the pipes if they tell you that, so they say the tors tune is fine. And it is to a degree. I mean, the bike will run, but it will not run optimally and it will probably run pretty lean which is not good and would explain the backfires if thats what u r feeling.

Now, that said, i'm 95% sure the forans bypass the cat but i'm not sure. If you know they do i would suggest you run a map one of the member had made via dyno tune with tuneECU. o just by getting a cable for tuneECU and downloading the tuneECU software you can load that tune and your bike will fun much stronger and won't pop as much and won't backfire at all. I used that tune then did the seat hack (allows more air in) and added fuel to that map and that made a huge difference. The bike gained LOT of power. Surprised the heck outa me.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for that. You are spot on. The Foran exhaust does bypass the cat and the backfiring is when I feel it under the seat. I might even take a ride up to the central coast and meet with the team at Foran. Have them do the adjustment.
Thanks for your response.



Vespa to the Storm!
 
#4 ·
Well, like i said there IS no "adjustment" for this that they will have except to sell you a power commander or tuneboy and dyno tune the bike which will run in the neighborhood of $700-800. Thats why i mentioned that custom tune one of the members has. I can point you to the download if you want that. Then you can load it into the bike with tuneECU and a cable for it. Total cost, about $10-20 and the results will probably be as good or close as spending that $700-800 i mentioned. If you should decide to do that let me know and i'll guide you thru it.
 
#5 ·
I've been reading about the tuneECU, power commander and Tuneboy. Looking their sites, I noted the big warnings of destroying the engines if not done right. I also looked through the downloads and noted they didn't have the Storm 1700, but rather the TB 1600 with Foran exhaust. Am I right in assuming that this download is not the right one that I should be looking at?
To be honest with you, I really don't have the knowledge or confidence at this stage to do it myself with all those warnings, however, I will download TuneECU, play around with it and learn more about this. I really appreciate you directing me this to this download.


Vespa to the Storm!
 
#6 ·
The warnings are important, but you have to understand why they are there and for what. You can't give a warning that works for every single person because the range of understanding from one end of the spectrum to the other is wide. So they go with the waning made for the very least knowledgeable of us to eliminate any legal issues. But the fact is your chances of hurting anything if you just use it for loading known good maps for your particular setup and don't alter the map in any way you aren't sure are safe are slim to none. Even a botched download while loading a map into the bike is recoverable. One member did this on purpose to see and was able to stop the download in the middle of it and was able to recover it, and he did this twice i believe. As for loading unsafe maps, that could happen but it's not all that easy to hurt the bike that way. I've seen people trying all kinds of things like loading 1700 maps into 1600's and even altering them to give them just what they think they need for those unique setup. I have yet to see anyone hurt anything. You could likely load any Tbird map out there into any Tbird thats not highly modded at least and probably be fine. yes, they could potentially be damaged after a time but they aren't going to blow up. So all you have to do is ask and those of us who have used it a lot and know the answer will tell you whether you can do what you are thinking of safely. The warnings are a formality that they MUST put there. If you look at any product there will be warnings. You buy a house fan and theres probably a warning suggesting you could even risk death. It's all there for legal reasons. You could potentially die from a house fan, but what are the chances? You get the idea.

Anyways, loading that map i mentioned is easy, safe both in loading it and in the use of the map which was made on a dyno by a well respected tuner on a bike just like yours, a 1700 with aftermarket pipes and free flow filter and cat gone. You can buy a tuneboy or PC and have your bike dyno tuned and you will basically have the same thing but it will cost you. It MAY be better because they are tuning your bike and all bikes can vary a bit even with the same setup. But the difference isn't enough to make one bike run badly using someone else's map from a bike setup the same as yours. Just ask when you use it for peace of mind. I will always tell you if i am not certain enough about the answer too.
 
#10 ·
Backfire.

Thanks heaps for that.
Will check things out tonight after work.

So in most cases. You don't really need the $800-$900 power commander.
Trump dealer told me that they put the standard MAP for their OEM pipes and that I'd have to put the power commander on.
Surely not.
I'll research a bit more.
Thanks again. Regards. Wattsy.
 
#11 ·
Power commander is only needed if the bike's hardware state required a tune and there are no custom tunes available. So it depends on what you do. If you remove the cat and the bike is a 1700 (as i see u have) then there are 3 tunes i know of you could download for it. One is for the 1700 with tors and cat intact and is made to use instead of the stock 1700/tors tune not because it isn't fine, but it is supposed to perform better. Another is for decat (cat removed) with tors. And the 3rd is the same as the 2nd except it's got a bit more fuel added in the performance ranges for use with the same setup except with the seat hack done. That tune is one i altered from the 2nd tune after i removed the air duct piece from under the seat. That with the extra fuel give a really nice boost over the decat tune. Those tunes were made on a dyno by one of the few people that will use tuneecu to dyno your bike. Thats a free app that is another tuning solution along with power commander and tuneboy. So with that free app and a laptop you can load any of those tunes into your bike.

Now, if you have a hardware setup different than what any of those tunes are for, then you have to get your bike tunes. The power commander is one way. Cost ya bout $800 for the device itself, installation and a dyno tuning. Tuneboy is about the same $ except it is NOT a hardware device like the power commander, but a software one like tuneecu. But like i said, there are hardly any tuners who will dyno your bike with tuneecu, so thats not an option unless you live near someone who does, and there are only a handul in the world who will dyno your bike with tuneecu. Those maps i mentioned were made by a tuner up in northern california for a forum member at another forum and he posted them for others.

So in short, if yours has tors or other aftermarket pipes, a free flow filter, and the cat removed, you can use the 2nd or 3rd map. If you have pipes and filter but the cat is intact, i would stick with the triumph tors tune because the custom map i mention for the bike with cat intact does not IMO improve anything much if at all and gets worse gas mileage. the other 2 get worse mileage too, but you get your moneys worth in better power.

if you have any of those setups
 
#12 ·
Dazco.
Thanks heaps for the info.
It's obvious your knowledge base on this is large.
I have the Foran Razorbacks. Cross pipe. No cat.
So I'll look at getting the software loaded and a cable.
Then get the 2nd or 3rd tune.

Will be a little while till I get to this. But will definately post to let it be know how I got on.
Regards.
 
#13 ·
Like i said tho, i'd recommend that if you stay with the cat to just use the stock tors tune because that custom one seems no better overall and gets worse mileage. If you DO remove the cat, then i would recommend using #2. And if you have the desire for more more power you can remove the seat duct and try the version of that map i altered. the power it added was a big surprise to me. I think it more than doubles what you get going from 1700 w/cat and tors tune to the decat tune with cat removed. I honestly believe that from the point where i had the cat and the tors tune to now with cat gone, seat hack and my altered tune that i gained easily as much overall power as i did from getting the 1700 kit installed. But the only thing that makes it a bit of a pain is the seat hack. The part in some cases is screwed to the seat pan both from the outside and inside. So to remove 1/2 the screws you have to remove the seat cover to get to them. Not as bad as it sounds, but not a simple 2 minute job like it would be if only the outside screws were there. Which by the way at least one person said was the case with his. So you can always remove the 6 or 8 screws and see if it pops off.
 
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