My Experience with the EcoTrons EFI kit

[lolibater]

Bike start and ran perfect on my way home from work, but had a scary encounter. I was in the carpool lane going ~80mph, when all of a sudden the engine just died. All the lights on the dash still worked and everything, and it fired right back up afterwards.

I called my friend before leaving and we came to the conclusion there might have been a short. Does that sound accurate?

I just rewrapped all my connections in electrical tape and heat shrink before the rain started. I imagine this might have had something to do with it, but I ADDED insulation, not removed it. Odd.

Anyways, I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on this one.

[choneofakind]

no idea tbh. did you get water anywhere under the seat that it shouldn't be?

[lolibater]

No water at all. There was heavy mist this morning, but this just happened around 530pm. You'd think it would all be dried up by then.

If it was a short, would it have indefinitely turned all my lights and gauges off?

[lolibater]

So in looking for any exposed connectors, I came across a few things that I took a pic of:



See the red/blue connected to the blue/brown, as well as that bright orange connection in the middle. I'm not sure what the red/blue/brown/blue is, but i electrical taped the **** out of it. I don't think that was the culprit though. The orange one leads to my recently installed blinker regulator to fix the fast LED blinking. I'm thinking it was hanging low enough (a bit lower than in the pic), and might have gotten some road spray on it?

I MIGHT have hit my blinker right when this happened, but I honestly can't be sure.

I also taped up the whole junction box connection, covering all exposed wires:





Hopefully this solves it. Any other places you guys think I should check for exposed wires? It wasn't actively raining when this happened, so I don't think it's the front blinker connections....

[Lychee]

Maybe you tapped the engine stop switch near the throttle. Shorts usually end up with blown fuses or burnt electronics. Do you smell anything burnt? Any blown fuses? I doubt it.

Are you out of gas?

[Lychee]

do you have a loose wire or ground?

[lolibater]

Full tank of gas, no loose anything. All fuses good, no weird smells.
Yesterday was the first time I wore my bulky winter gloves. It's very possible I killed it somehow due to killswitch maybe?
Either way, I gave it a good ride tonight for about 40 min and everything was fine.

[lolibater]

Everything is running great, but I am getting periodic fuel cavitation. I suspect this is due to the pump's close proximity to the engine. THis makes the bike impossible to start after a hard ride for about 30 min. I'm going to header wrap it and see if that helps at all.

[choneofakind]

What's cavitation again? Is that when the fuel isn't cooling?

[lolibater]

Yep, the fuel gets too hot and tiny bubbles accumulate in it. Starves itself. I'm going to try some header wrap. I might have to move the pump if that doesn't work.

[choneofakind]

Where do you have it now? I have mine on the front side of the battery box and have had no issue with that.

Also, is the intake side of the pump tipped up so the bubble line can vent bubbles properly?

[lolibater]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Where do you have it now? I have mine on the front side of the battery box and have had no issue with that.

Also, is the intake side of the pump tipped up so the bubble line can vent bubbles properly?

Mine is close to the block, as I couldn't get it fixed properly anywhere else it seemed. I know the pump is pretty horizontal right now, so i'll try to get it tipped up a bit more.

It's in such a convenient physical location right now, that if I can fix the heat issue with the header wrap, it will have been worth it.

Worst case I have to redo the fuel lines again

[choneofakind]

Yeah, just move the pump back to the battery box. It's out of the way, the routing of the hoses isn't bad at all, and it seems to work. I think EMSRacer07 has his there as well and he hasn't reported any problems either. All I did was flip the battery box around so I had a clean surface to work with, and then drilled a hole in it for the pump mounting bracket. It's nice and tidy.

And definitely tip the fuel-in side up a little. Like 10 degrees, it doesn't have to be a lot. It will help the bubbles flow out and up on their own.

I know I've posted this picture before, but you it shows where the bubble line is coming from. My pump is on the battery box, being covered up in this picture by the coolant bottle:

[lolibater]

Looking at the pictures from the manual, I can confirm I do have the correct end tilted upwards.

I'm guessing it's due to the close proximity of the engine. Header wrap then moving it if that doesn't work. Solid game plan.

[lolibater]

Even though I already ordered the header wrap, which I'll give a shot, I just ordered 25' of fancy ass fuel lines from Motion Pro. Come the crap weather in a few weeks, I'll have some fun times rerouting fuel lines while I watch the rain

Also got some proper stepless ear clamps from Motion Pro as well, so that I can get rid of the worm clamps.

[choneofakind]

I personally wouldn't even worry about the header wrap, but whatevs.

[lolibater]

Got some heat shielding meant for starters today. Wrapped the pump in it, and rearranged it to be at a much steeper angle upwards for the bubble port. Tried to get it to cavitate and die, but couldn't, so it seems to be working. I'll report back if it happens.

[lolibater]

I am finally able to confirm that the heat reflect wrapping has solved the fuel cavitation issue

[satur9]

I know this is an old thread. but I purchased an ECOTRONS kit for a non ninja bike. and its been a pia . the actual mechanical install was fine. and I made sure my bike was in top order before install. im just having tuning problems electrical/equipment . and customer support issues. . I see a few people have switched back to carbs. but I ride year round . and carbs absolutely suck in the winter. and if you can even get your bike to start 20 min warmup times are rediculous. well now its summer and I cant even ride so I dont know whats worse. I may have to start my own experience thread. and yes I am whining but sometimes some things need to be said.

[agentbad]

I have been tempted to go EFI but I think I am going to upgrade to an FZ6 this year and won't need it. With my pod filters and larger main and plilot jet start ups during cold weather are no problem at all. Turn choke on half way and just roll for maybe a 1/4 of a mile and turn it off.

[satur9]

try that at10 degrees farenheit. ever hear of carb icing.ive had that happen.

[lolibater]

Originally Posted by satur9

I know this is an old thread. but I purchased an ECOTRONS kit for a non ninja bike. and its been a pia . the actual mechanical install was fine. and I made sure my bike was in top order before install. im just having tuning problems electrical/equipment . and customer support issues. . I see a few people have switched back to carbs. but I ride year round . and carbs absolutely suck in the winter. and if you can even get your bike to start 20 min warmup times are rediculous. well now its summer and I cant even ride so I dont know whats worse. I may have to start my own experience thread. and yes I am whining but sometimes some things need to be said.

Just came in to check on this thread. What problems are you having? My friend ended up buying my bike, so I still fiddle with the EFI kit from time to time.

[satur9]

its the tuning thats a nightmare.

[lolibater]

Yeah it's never a fun time. Have you been able to talk with @choneofakind? He was the one doing a lot of our map changes, at least when I was around here. He's very knowledgeable.

[satur9]

actually. thats the only reason I signed up here. he is in ne ohio as am I. but a bike other than a ninja is a little out of his wheelhouse. so im still emailing ecotrons. and I sent an email yesterday . hey remember that problem I emailed about a few weeks ago. they respond " send us some pics and stuff" . I respond " I did, a few weeks ago". they respond. hook it up stock read the manual . and let us know how it goes. well guess what genuises I did that three months ago when you gave me the same shitbox reply. besides getting maps here was/is the problem for those who might care or have insight. there is a wire from pulse coil/generator that sends the crank signal to the ecotrons ecu and or cdi. if you want to keep stock non ecu cotrolled ignition. you splice this wire and feed that same signal to stock cdi and ecotrons ecu. so right now this is how my bike is (barely) running. for ecotrons ecu controlled ignition ( highly preferred). the crank signal wire goes directly to ecotrons ecu and the modified signal from the ecotrons ecu goes to their cdi and coil. which they tell me I need but function wise it seems exactly the same as my stock parts..their cdi is plug and play which literally means as long as the crank pulse wire is still going to ecu I only have to hook up 1 wire. and thats the cdi output to ignition coil. sounds easy so far huh. so I hook up that one wire and it doesnt work. well ecotrons responds . I hooked it up wrong so read the manual and try again.. hey guess what. im a professional electrician. if I cant hook 1 wire to the hot side of a coil. then mabey I shouldnt have hooked up the rest of this kit with cdi bluetooth and wideband o2 sensor. here's what gets me though. the generic dc cdi shouldn't care where it gets its signal to fire from, whether its straight from the pulse coil . or pulse coil to ecotrons ecu modified by ecu and then to cdi. so I take the wire from the pulse coil ( which goes directly to stock cdi and take it directly to ecotrons cdi. and low and behold it works. it just doesnt work with the wire which supposedly is the ecotrons ecu modified signal wire . so I email them my findings. (btw I did continuity test on the wires harness end to harness ends) that it seems that the ecu isnt sending the/a correct signal to the cdi. guess what response I get. " read the manual hook it up like that and let us know what happens. so you can see my frustration here with them . unfortunately pulse coil signals and the like cant be measured with a traditional meter you need an oscilloscope which is the only way to confirm my suspicions. I was looking At a pocket oscilloscope on ebay. arm nano dso oscilloscope. but as ive never used an oscilloscope I have no idea whether this cheepo will be good enough .

[Kasatka]

I'm not sure if this is a good place for this; let me know if it'd be better put in another thread.

I've got the Ecotrons EFI kit installed on my 99 Ninja 250. When I first got it installed, for half a dozen rides it started up and ran great. Now, for the last 3 or 4 rides, it starts up and runs fine until it gets warmed up, and then all of a sudden it starts bogging down severely, whether under load or not, and then idling down and stalling out. Won't stay running more than 10 seconds after that until it's cold again.

I've just started troubleshooting this, and I haven't put the computer on it since this started happening, although I'm going to log data and send to Ecotrons ASAP. In the meantime, is there anyone with the kit installed that's had bogging/stalling, only when warmed up? I already drained the tank and put fresh fuel in, spark plugs are new. Does this sound like bubbles in the fuel lines? Fuel pump is in front of the airbox and doesn't seem to be getting very hot.

[agentbad]

https://www.ninjette.org/forums/show...hlight=ecotron