I'm seriously considering buying the ex-box for my 696 for next spring, and I'm doing the due-diligence now so that I don't have any major surprises.
Right now I've got a stock exhaust and stock ECU.
Having read a lot on this board about the issues associated with O2 sensors, non-tunability of stock ECU'ed bikes and the like, I'm worried that I'll install it to find that I'm just $1400 poorer, with no gains in performance. If you would all be so kind, please help me out with these questions...
Should I open up the airbox as well?
What happens to the O2 sensors? Do these plug into the mid-pipes of the exbox kit somewhere? If not, am I going to be seeing the check engine light forever?
Is this going to be in any way tunable? Will that tuning just be for idle, and not for other throttle positions?
Do I really have to take it to a guy with tons of equipment (computers, dyno, other diagnostic equip) in order to get it to perform better than stock? If so, any Boston area (or New England area) recommendations?
Should I just forget the exbox and get the CF Termis like everybody else? (I have to admit that a good deal of my motivation here is to end up with something at least a little different than the norm.)
Should I be patient (potentially another year) and wait for more aftermarket gear for the 696 to come out?
I know that nobody has the exbox for the 696 yet, but I'm hoping that somebody who has had experience with other models could chime in and give me some advice here.
Thanks!!!!
First off I have no first hand experience with the EX box, so take my advice with that in mind.
If you run the Ex box with your stock ecu you can probably trim it to work just fine. If you open your airbox up all bets are off as the open airbox can really cause the bike to run lean. If you richen the bike enough to compensate for the lean condition the o2 sensor will take that fuel back at lower rpm's. I have seensome bike run this way just fine other end up with a flat spot in the mid range.
On the older bikes if you remove the o2 sensor the bike will richen itself up thinking the o2 sensor is bad. this can work out just fine but yes the engine might will be on full time.
Will the bike run stronger? doubt it. The gains will mostly be in sound, owners tend to rev bikes harder when they want to hear the sound more.
but in weight, oh yeah. the box should drop a bunch of weight from stock.
If you open the airbox you will see power gains for sure but you may lose some driveability only one way to find out.
If you are willing to wait and buy oem performance parts the termi kit and ecu should be the safest bet.
I cannot follow the norm myself, bites you in the a** some times
Takster,
I've not fitted an ex-box but have taken an interest as a possible mod for my S4Rs.
AFAIK the design has no particular advantages for power output, it is essentially intended as repositioning as above poster says.
That can improve handling and also gets the muflers out of the way of soft panniers.
The ex-box for previous ducs with o2 sensors had fittings to accept the sensors; imagine 696 will be same.
Tuning possibilities therefore will be exactly as stock.
Not sure about the 696, but on other recent Ducs it appears performance gains come easiest from enriching the stock lean-burn mixture settings, which generally means a replacement ECU and expert remapping.
You might still get a sharper throttle response from exhaust alone tho.
i have the x-box on my s2r1000. runs great. stock ECU, left the airbox alone. i did not need to get the the trim adjusted. my O2 sensor has always been in place as well.
the sound is great. i have had it on the bike for about 5k now, and i dont think there was any change +/- on power. biggest thing other than the sound is the weight difference.
i realize that the bikes are different, so YRMV..
Is it advisable to have the x-box on my 2003 620ie, only have 5 gears.. I just want a cleaner look on the rear. At the moment, I am having high mount CF LeoVince, everything else stock.
I have already get the dealer to adjust the CO value from 4 to 10, previously CO at 4, it is too lean already.
We (dealer and I) have also tested to change the CO value to 15 but it is too rich so we adjust it back to 10.
So, if I have the x-box, might and might not have to adjust the CO, how would the bike performance like? Still the same or totally not rideable.
Any advice is much appreciated.
Thanks