2004 R1150RT Wideband O2 Sensor Project (and AF-XIED for BMW)

I was entering the highway and began a throttle roll on in 5th gear. The pinging seemed to happen at about 4,000 RPM's and up to 7,000 RPM's.

Have you measured your fuel pressure in the high pressure line and the returning volume of fuel in the return line (at idle) lately. My first two thoughts are fuel and compression increase due to carbon.

How is fuel pressure measured? Is there a thread about this. I did recently install new fuel lines and fuel filters and the pump seems to be working correctly. I did use the pump to drain the tank and the fuel did seem to flow very good. I believe the system is not leaking. The engine has 62k miles on it so carbon build up is certainly a possibility. Yesterday I poured some techron in the fuel tank. I read that this product will decarbon the engine. Is it necessary to race the engine to aide in decarboning the engine? Would it help to set the AF-XIED to "8" adding more fuel or would setting "5" be better adding less fuel and increasing heat somewhat.

This bike was purchased used and most all of the systems on the bike needed some kind of service or repair work done. I may need to go through the entire fuel system checking each component to make sure they are operating correctly.

Techron, a good product, or the Sea Foam I use, will remove some carbon but not if there are serious long-term deposits within the cylinders. Mainly they will clean up the plug electrodes.

My thought is that running any motor with pre-ignition is destroying it a little bit each time you do. I have read that the boxer motor is vulnerable to this type of damage. Running lean will result in pre-ignition [rattle/ping] as will too much ignition advance or the aforementioned carbon build up resulting in compression increase.

This is above my knowledge base but I would run the motor with a richer mixture ["8"] and if that lowers pinging then I would assume carbon is your problem. Unless your year bike has other potential causes for what you are observing. Don't know if your bike has the knock sensor circuit. Normally on my bike the pre-ignition has been heard when there are high ambient temps, lower rpms, higher motor temps and under heavy load [uphill, with increasing throttle..classic 'lugging'].

Again, good luck on chasing this down, but beware of pre-ignition damage.

Phil

I would not go the setting 8 route, no harm but it would be better to find the root cause.

If you started a thread in GSBOXER, there would likely be a lot of help with the general pinging problem.

If you could make up a 3' section of fuel hose, put a female QD on one end and connect it to the upper line coming FROM the fuel distributor you could measure return volume at idle. Should be 2 liters per minute. In order to flow through the regulator the fuel has to overcome the regulator's pressure. Since the regulator rarely fails, this is a good test. Take adequate safety precautions.

Ok, Thanks for the ideas!

Considering all of the information I have read about the "R" bikes and the related pinging issue it seems that they did not ping when new , but only after getting many miles put on them where carbon could build up and cause a problem.

Just thinking out aloud here, but would a pair of these be useful (and would they fit, connector wise) on a water cooled GSA?
I have heard of some owners over here in the UK having remaps done on WC's at Hilltop with promising results, so if the AF-XiED is a viable alternative, I'm in.
I am visiting Mass. in September so could pick a set up while I'm there (along with my GS-911 Wifi and Altrider sump guard)

Check the support thread in vendors. It has been done with good results.

I would like to try this product after my experience with the IICE Air which turned out to be virtually worthless on the 1200.

I put a short 100 miles on the bike today. I have to say, it does feel as if the transitions have smoothed out and the acceleration is more linear.

I need to run a few tanks through to really know, and run with it connected and disconnected on similar roads back to back to really wring it out. This weekend should be the big test.

Look forward to your thoughts. Thanks.

Jim,
Since you O2 sensors are high-mileage, it would be helpful in confirming things if you could take 4-5 minutes of data with the GS-911 just as you started the bike (cold). If you log all realtime values I can run an O2 sensor profile. You have my email address, if you send the CSV file I will make up some plots and post them. Ciao,

That's true but since the only time my bike ever pinged was in the month before my fuel hoses in the tank ruptured its worth looking at that too.

Roger, I will do that this weekend. Most days I ride to work, so I can't do it after from dead cold.

Jim, Thanks. I'll look forward to it.

JVB makes such a production out of everything. I'm waiting to hear his final evaluation. I suspect it too will be a production of sorts.

😅
Well - I'm one of those subscribers.

Sent from my Samsung Note 3

Adding to the ruptured line theory, you mentioned the pump and fuel lines were previously changed. Did you use OEM or aftermarket hose? If aftermarket, was it "submersible" grade hose? Was the hose already in the shape of a "U" for that section or did you have to bend one. If so, could it be kinked? Just some thoughts as I remember these being some of my concerns when I did my RT pump/hoses a couple years ago...

Nice play on words.


No long ride today, just the short commute. It was hotter today but the bike didn't notice. I am really looking forward to the weekend and a good ride.

I did very recently open the fuel tank and replace the fuel pump filter, install a fuel filter and all inside the tank fuel hoses with a Beemer Bone yard kit. It uses a somewhat clear plastic tube clamped into place with supplied hose clamps which are not like the hose clamps found at the local auto parts store. So there are no more rubber hoses inside he tank except for the vent hoses.

You fellas bring up a interesting point in that since the plastic hose is hardly compressable by the hose clamps there could be a pressure induced leak at these plastic hose to metal pipe joints. There is no way to test this unless I remove the pump from the tank and connect it to power and submerse it in a bucket of fuel with the exit hose plugged so I can see if any of the connections leak. If there are internal tank fuel leaks occurring as the demand for fuel rises the engine could begin to run lean causing pinging.