Race Bike Runs Like Poop

[Zippy]

OK...I had a crash a few weeks ago in a race that munched my '02 R1 pretty badly. I had races again this past weekend, so I was scrambling to get the bike up and running until the last minute.

I got most of my parts delivered on Friday afternoon, so I was up all night working on it before leaving town at the crack of dawn, Saturday morning.

Anyway, I had to replace/repair (among other things) the tank, sub-frame, airbox, batter tray, etc. While I had the tank off, I took off the emissions cannister. I had long ago taken off the AIS system.

Upon arriving at the track Saturday, I found that my bike was running like dog shit. With a full tank of gas, the fuel warning light would come on and the bike kept stalling.

I took it for low-speed spins around the pits and found that it seemed to be detonating all over the place (not quite backfiring) and that it was sputtering like crazy.

I adjusted the idle and this seemed to help a lot. The bike stopped stalling but it didn't stop the popping / mini backfiring problem or the overall crappy running at low RPMs.

After wasting all day Saturday fixing my bike and missing all my practice sessions. I wound up being able to run all three races the next day (Sunday) and didn't really notice any performace differences while on the track.

But, I'm concerned that I mucked-up something when re-connecting all the hoses when installing the new tank. I would think, reconnecting the hoses and electrical connections would be a breeze, but I'm thinking I may have screwed up something when I removed the emissions canister.

Any thoughts on what might be causing these problems?

[R1Gladiator]

Do you have a power comander? Maped?

Could it be a pinched hose under the tank? Mine was pinched and ran like shit

[Zippy]

Originally posted by r1gladiator
Do you have a power comander? Maped?

Could it be a pinched hose under the tank? Mine was pinched and ran like shit

Nope, no PC.

I suppose it could be a pinched hose. I'll check that, buddyboy.

Thanks.

[manolo]

How about the vent/vacuum lines on the emissions canister? I have heard of guys getting those vents plugged and vapor locking the tank, if you let it vent or sit for awhile, it may start working again...

[Eyespy]

Does the airbox have an O2 sensor like on the 04? If so, make sure you remembered to reconnect the wire to it. Failure to do so on the 04 can cause a similar type of malfunction.

[manolo]

The airbox has an IAT sensor. Are you sure it was your fuel light and not your "check engine" light? That would come on if the IAT was not plugged in.

[ransomkj]

I think a PC would solve the mini-backfiring problem.

[Zippy]

Originally posted by manolo
The airbox has an IAT sensor. Are you sure it was your fuel light and not your "check engine" light? That would come on if the IAT was not plugged in.

No, it was definately my fuel light.

[Swedie]

Was it sandy where you went off the track? Couldn't it possibly be that a load of crap went inside the engine and it had to consume this amount of crap before it would run clean again?

I had a problem with my 04 R1 on monday and it was the exup failing, so I removed it completely. but what I had a problem with was that it would hardly pull at all over 8k RPMs. Under that RPM it ran fine.

[Zippy]

Originally posted by Swedie
Was it sandy where you went off the track? Couldn't it possibly be that a load of crap went inside the engine and it had to consume this amount of crap before it would run clean again?

I had a problem with my 04 R1 on monday and it was the exup failing, so I removed it completely. but what I had a problem with was that it would hardly pull at all over 8k RPMs. Under that RPM it ran fine.

It tumbled in the dirt. But the bike didn't actually get too dirty - not much found inside the bike itself.

It seems to run OK at higher RPMs. Down low, it's a mess. Maybe whatever it is will work itself out over time, we'll see. I'll probably pull the tank this weekend and see if I can tell what's going on.