My FCE install experience

S

sidwin

Member
Visit site
Ordered last week got it today. The kit comes with almost everything you need including a set of crimpers.

My dad is an electrician for the Navy for 28 yrs so i was born with a pair of crimpers and solder iron. The crimpers that came with the kit IMHO is a POS and I would have rather saved the money.

Install was fairly simple. A couple of things I wish Ivan would have done is use different color wires on the device. Red/white and red instead of having two red wires. This way if anyone wanted to solder all the wires together instead of using that crap crimper we could have. Another thing I would have done differently is I would have traced the TPS back to the harness and spliced/cut all the wires there instead of having to hack the TPS then also hack the harness. That way the install would look super trick.

This is my first sport bike and i have to be honest... I don't know if this mod did anything. My butt dyno can't tell since everything feels fast. I tried a couple of roll on and off @ over 4k rpm and the bike felt fine. Not sure if I had a problem stock anyways.

I put a KN drop in filter while I was at it but I didn't dremel out the stock air box while I was at it. Bike feels great and I can't wait for the exhaust to come in next week.

Thanks,
Sid
 
sidwin said:
Ordered last week got it today. The kit comes with almost everything you need including a set of crimpers.

My dad is an electrician for the Navy for 28 yrs so i was born with a pair of crimpers and solder iron. The crimpers that came with the kit IMHO is a POS and I would have rather saved the money.

Install was fairly simple. A couple of things I wish Ivan would have done is use different color wires on the device. Red/white and red instead of having two red wires. This way if anyone wanted to solder all the wires together instead of using that crap crimper we could have. Another thing I would have done differently is I would have traced the TPS back to the harness and spliced/cut all the wires there instead of having to hack the TPS then also hack the harness. That way the install would look super trick.

This is my first sport bike and i have to be honest... I don't know if this mod did anything. My butt dyno can't tell since everything feels fast. I tried a couple of roll on and off @ over 4k rpm and the bike felt fine. Not sure if I had a problem stock anyways.

I put a KN drop in filter while I was at it but I didn't dremel out the stock air box while I was at it. Bike feels great and I can't wait for the exhaust to come in next week.

Thanks,
Sid
Click to expand...

Glad to see you having fun modding Sid. Rock on bro!
 
I can see your point on those issues you brought up. My bike already had the FCE installed when I bought it (used) so I can't really comment on the complexitity of the install or the difference in power. What I can tell you is that my bike really woke up after I did the full exhaust and modified the airbox along with the BMC filter (very similar to K&N).
 
sidwin said:
Ordered last week got it today. The kit comes with almost everything you need including a set of crimpers.

My dad is an electrician for the Navy for 28 yrs so i was born with a pair of crimpers and solder iron. The crimpers that came with the kit IMHO is a POS and I would have rather saved the money.

Install was fairly simple. A couple of things I wish Ivan would have done is use different color wires on the device. Red/white and red instead of having two red wires. This way if anyone wanted to solder all the wires together instead of using that crap crimper we could have. Another thing I would have done differently is I would have traced the TPS back to the harness and spliced/cut all the wires there instead of having to hack the TPS then also hack the harness. That way the install would look super trick.

This is my first sport bike and i have to be honest... I don't know if this mod did anything. My butt dyno can't tell since everything feels fast. I tried a couple of roll on and off @ over 4k rpm and the bike felt fine. Not sure if I had a problem stock anyways.

I put a KN drop in filter while I was at it but I didn't dremel out the stock air box while I was at it. Bike feels great and I can't wait for the exhaust to come in next week.

Thanks,
Sid
Click to expand...

Hi there. How long did the entire job take? Am wondering and contemplating on bringing my bike to a shop to have one installed. So did you end up soldering the wires? I want the shop to solder the connections. Thanks.
 
Sid, what year is your bike? When you said "butt dyno" were you expecting a performance increase with this device? If so, that isn't what it was designed to create.

The FCE is not a performance mod. It is to eliminate the fuel cutoff when the throttle is snapped closed then opened again. It is to eliminate that split second "Oh sh*t" moment where you expect throttle response, get half way through an oh sh*t thought and suddenly the throttle (which is already opened by you) comes to life at the apex of a fine corner. :D

Hope that helps... If you didn't experience that moment before the install, then you will notice zero change. Sorry.
 
Last edited:
fullhouse said:
Hi there. How long did the entire job take? Am wondering and contemplating on bringing my bike to a shop to have one installed. So did you end up soldering the wires? I want the shop to solder the connections. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Ivan's instructions for some reason, do not allow for soldering of the wires... in fact, if the connections are soldered, he will not warranty the product when it breaks.... just FYI.

But... the job doesn't take long / isn't complex... it's crimping connectors...
 
The author did a great job documenting the proceedure. The only thing I don't like about the whole proceedure is having to cut into the harness and pulling on connectors that can be fragile to begin with. As an electronics tech for over 30 years, whenever you have to disturb any connector or splice into any wiring, and especially wiring that is not readily accessible, there is a risk that something either did get disconnected or may in the future. When I did my O2 eliminator, and my PCIII I was especially careful to make sure that all connectors were back in good shape and then I put extra fasteners (tape, ty-raps, or wire) on any couplers I took apart to make sure they would stay connected. Many factory plugs are not meant to be pulled apart and reconnected multiple times and I found the plastic in Yahama's connectors o be especially brittle.
 
Good show Sid...

Yep--I installed mine with very deliberate actions (cutting into wiring harnesses makes me that way). I also thought the supplied crimping tool sucked so I carefully micro-soldered mine. That was 2 years ago with no problems at all to date and...it works perfectly as advertised and expected! :hug:
 
fullhouse said:
Hi there. How long did the entire job take? Am wondering and contemplating on bringing my bike to a shop to have one installed. So did you end up soldering the wires? I want the shop to solder the connections. Thanks.
Click to expand...

took about 3 hrs to do it right. I used the crimp and dropped a bead of solder onto the crimp to ensure that the wire and the crimp were going to properly stay together. that crimper is truly trash. u're trying to work in tight spaces and getting that crimper on there is pita. Ivan probably uses a ratchet crimper to put the fce together.

a much better install would be to wire this up at the ecu.
 
WarBaby said:
Yep--I installed mine with very deliberate actions (cutting into wiring harnesses makes me that way). I also thought the supplied crimping tool sucked so I carefully micro-soldered mine. That was 2 years ago with no problems at all to date and...it works perfectly as advertised and expected! :hug:
Click to expand...

same here... my buddy who has a phd in EE told me dropping a bead of solder to force the wire and connector to stick together is what they do. He also told me take sure there isn't any stress on the wires and make sure the solder was properly heat so the solder would be absorbed.

sid
 
FZ1inNH said:
Sid, what year is your bike? When you said \"butt dyno\" were you expecting a performance increase with this device? If so, that isn't what it was designed to create.

The FCE is not a performance mod. It is to eliminate the fuel cutoff when the throttle is snapped closed then opened again. It is to eliminate that split second \"Oh sh*t\" moment where you expect throttle response, get half way through an oh sh*t thought and suddenly the throttle (which is already opened by you) comes to life at the apex of a fine corner. :D

Hope that helps... If you didn't experience that moment before the install, then you will notice zero change. Sorry.
Click to expand...

ivan said that the butterflies open faster with the fce installed because it makes the ecu think to constantly supply fuel. he said that is why his dyno sheet shows improvements under the curve.

as for as fuel cut, i don't know if my bike really had this problem. i have an 06 and everyone told me about the problem so i went ahead and ordered it anyway just to be safe. one thing i do notice about the throttle on this bike is the power feels like an off/on switch. my honda shadow carb didn't feel like that. but i also noticed gen1 bike i drove the throttle felt like that too. i'm just learning more and more about this bike and so far it has been loads of fun.

thanks,
sid
 
FZ1inNH said:
Sid, what year is your bike? When you said \"butt dyno\" were you expecting a performance increase with this device? If so, that isn't what it was designed to create.

The FCE is not a performance mod. It is to eliminate the fuel cutoff when the throttle is snapped closed then opened again. It is to eliminate that split second \"Oh sh*t\" moment where you expect throttle response, get half way through an oh sh*t thought and suddenly the throttle (which is already opened by you) comes to life at the apex of a fine corner. :D

Hope that helps... If you didn't experience that moment before the install, then you will notice zero change. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Many performance issues on this forum have been attributed to the FCE. It ONLY deals with the fuel cutoff and the abrupt throttle action. Of course you won't notice any performance gains or losses....That beiong said, it was one of the best mods I have done.
 
There's no warranty on the FCE if you solder the wires connecting to the FCE. You can solder the connections to the wires on the bike side all you want. If there is a problem with the FCE, you're not going to send your bike back. I put a drop of solder on each of those connections and felt much better about them. The crimper should work fine if you don't know how to solder well.

It took me a whole Saturday morning, but I'm slow.
 
The connectors supplied aren't worth sh*t, my bike would surge and an error code would come up telling me there was something wrong with the injectors?. I ended up soldering the wires and the problem went away, 6-7km's now and no problems. Ivan doesn't like the FCU to be soldered but i saw no alternative and cable-tied it stationary stopping the thing flopping about. As far as performance, i have the 06 model and the snatch is gone, mid-range gains are good and the bike seems to pull smoother. Far $200 i think if you have a 06 it is mandatory, but i would get a PC3 instead of the FCU if i owned another year and if $ no prob dyno tune.
 
I have had no issues with either the connectors nor the crimping tool. The latter is definitely not the highest quality but it works fine if you use it correctly and carefully.
 
The FCE is not a performance mod. It is to eliminate the fuel cutoff when the throttle is snapped closed then opened again. It is to eliminate that split second "Oh sh*t" moment where you expect throttle response, get half way through an oh sh*t thought and suddenly the throttle (which is already opened by you) comes to life at the apex of a fine corner. :D

Oh you are so right on that split second "Oh sh*t". I absolutely hate it. Especially in the early morning wet dewy streets painted arrows on the street around a corner. Why would Yamaha do such a thing? It’s all about emissions. Tell the greenies to drive their precious Priuses to their grave and leave the motorcycling to us. We get better mileage anyway and have a smaller “economic footprint” in the scheme of things.:rant:

Okay, I’m done now.

How do I fix this? An FCE with same color wires and a hack job on my bike’s wiring?:rant:

Damn I’m doing it again.

Okay is there any other fix? I have a PC.

Let me know

Steve
 
Soldering or crimping connectors.

The crimp connections are not bad, but I could tell right away that Ivan (or whoever manufactures the FCE) did a better job with then than I do. I decided to solder all of the connectors to the wires on my bike - crimped them, then soldered with good silver solder. That way, if I ever take the FCE out, I can just plug the wires on the bike back together with good, soldered connectors, Ivan will be happy that I did not solder anything on the FCE if I ever have to send it back to him with a problem.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top