As some of you may have seen, I recently purchased the HM DP cam kit with the ECU for my S2R1K. I have had a few issues with the fueling ever since I bought the bike last year and have been looking for a less expensive alternative than the DP ECU for the bike. I'm sure most of you know that the DP ECU for the Monster sells at the dealer for around $1200 which is a little much for most of us to swallow just to get our bikes to run right.
After much research I deceided to try the kit made for the Hypermotard because it seemed like it would work as the engines are pretty much the same except for a slightly larger displacement. I did post up in tech to see if anyone else had tried it and as it turns out there are several DMFers who have used the ECU but not the cams.
One particular post had me worried because GusDuc has done it and experienced a few problems. I sent him a pm asking him to give me a call and had quite the discussion reagrding the issues (thanks Gus) and it really isn't as bad as it seemed in the post.
Anyway, I had an appointment to have my 7500 mile service done with Eric (formally of BCM fame) and asked if he would do the cams/ecu at the same time. FYI, Eric has his own shop now called Clubhouse motorsports.
Before I do the review I have to say that if you live in the New England area, Eric is THE guy to see for anything that needs to be done to your Duc. Not only is he an awsome tech, he is one of the nicest people I know. He spent a good portion of the day doing the work and by the time he finished it had started raining and there was a pretty severe thunderstorm moving in. So to make a long story short, he offered to let me stay the night because I live over two hours from him.
Now for the review.
Cams/ECU
I'm pretty handy and I like to think I know my way around my Monster but let me tell you, there is a lot more involved than just opening up the covers, removing the stock cams and popping in the new DP ones. You also need to set the CO, the TPS and degree the cams if you want optimum performance. He also synchronized the throttle bodies and set the idle. At one point not long after Eric started working on the bike, Bruce Myers stopped by and I listened in as they chatted back and forth about the cams, timing, and just building performance Ducati engines. He stayed for about 20 minutes or so which is a good thing because if he was there much longer my head would have exploded from trying to understand all the technical stuff they were discussing.
It was a little nerve racking in the fact that once the bike was done it was raining so hard there was no way we could have done a test ride. We had to wait until morning when the sun was finally out. As always, Eric took the bike out first to do a shake down run and make sure everything was cool before I had a chance to ride it. I was like a nervous farther waiting for him to come back with my bike.
My first impression was that it was a little less than expected. The bike ran smoother than it ever has since I've owned it but I really expected it to have more power. I mentioned this to Eric and he hooked the bike back up and did a little fine tuning. He richened up the fuel mixture and now the bike runs incredibly smooth and pulls much harder that it did before. It feels like I gained 8 to 10 HP in the midrange and the top end feels much stronger as well.
I only had one little irregularity that I'm sure is caused by the fact that the ECU isn't exactly designed for the Monster. One time when we turned the key on, the speedo and the tach swept like they always do but then the speedo went crazy and pinned the needle to the max. Simply turning off the key and then turning it back on reset it and it's worked fine since.
So all in all I can say it is a worthwhile mod. If you have the surging issues or you just want a little more power this is the way to go.
I'm also planning on having it dynoed to see what the A/F looks like and to see how much power I gained. Depending on what the A/F looks like I may be installing a PCIII to get it perfect.
