Nice job man, looks great! I actually installed mine today and have it in the same spot but unfortunately I placed the controller over the metal mount where you place it under and I din't realize it until I already ran the wiring and made the connections. I'll have to reset it all next time I get under the fuel tank... so for now mine is just hanging in that spot resting on a poncho bag I have in that spot as well. My wiring is all neat and clean and zip tied to the main wiring so at least that part is good.
I'm running power commander's stock exhaust/stock air map and it runs good. I did try Marthy's sport map (not the advanced gear map) but just the sport one and it made my bike smokey at start up and idle. It was like a gray smoke. Is that normal? I was wondering if it’s because I have block off plates installed if not. I wish I knew more about this stuff.
I also installed new plugs at 9.4 ft/lb torque and with proper gaps. I was a bit surprised to see that the 3rd and 4th plugs were kinda loose before I removed them.
*** I can't get my pictures any bigger than that...
Good job!
Let's tackle your your questions and questions I have from reading your post.
1. Tourquing spark plugs. I am a huge supporter of using Torque wrenches where you can, nearly always. Using one as you did at factory specs is fine. What I am about to tell you is an opinion after working on cars for 40 years... and that's all it is, you know what the say, opinions are like butts, everyone has one. Here is mine:
When you use a torque wrench it's important to know it's calibrated. I have three T wrenches. 1/2 and 1/4' drives, and an ity bity one I recently got the does inch lbs really well. Works great for valve covers and our bike's engine covers. I check one wrench against the other to be sure mine are in spec. You can also have a tool truck guy or store check them. I try to think about the application. Some engine bolts, like head bolts have a stretch to them so it is critical. Some you just don't want to strip the threads, or compress a soft or hollow gasket: that's a spark plug. The result of torquing a spark plug too tight is pretty bad. You have to put a helicoil or other threaded insert in your engine head. If anything goes wrong with that long torque wrench, which is a big lever without much feel, it could happen. Probably won't.... but could.
Here is what I do. Check the gap as you did. Apply a small amount of nickel based anti sieze to the threads (silver color, not copper). Hand tighten until the the gasket meets the head. Use a shorty ratchet wrench by hand. If you don't have a shorty, choke up on a normal one so you have little leverage. The less leverage you have the better. After hand tightening, turn the wrench between a 1/4 turn to 1/2 turn tighter. When I did this method on my bike, using a shorty wretch that is shorter than my palm is long, it was hard to get it turned 1/2 turn. Perfect. It might be possible, but highly improbable you will ever strip out a spark plug thread this way. My 2 cents... somebody might flame me for this opinion. It's old school.
2. I would like to see a close up of the plug tips that you removed. If they are all the same then only need one pic. If they look like the one in my pic, then I don't even need a pic. If not, or if they are significantly darker, that would be good to know answering your question about smoke.
3. Grey smoke can mean a few things. Was it grey, white grey or blue grey? In that it changed with a map change, I'll assume it is really grey. That can mean it is running rich. Which could be the map... but I have not heard of Martin's maps causing this. These maps don't change idle mixture much I don't think. If it's rich enough to blow grey smoke, your plugs would be a darker color. Was it cool out when you started it? White, or white grey is usually water in the combustion chamber. Since an engine is a big pump that compresses air, squeezing liquid water from air, it can be completely normal. That is why water drips out an exhaust pipe. Was it whitish grey and cool out? It should go away after it warms up on your bike though. Maybe you tried this first when your bike was cold, then you went to the other map when it was warmer? Blue grey is usually oil burning and your map switch would not affect this.
I would check everything you did switching to this map, to be sure you were running the right map you thought you were. If it pushes grey smoke continually with that map don't use it. Your block off plates should have nothing to do with this. You might want to message Martin about it (aka, Marthy). He has been very helpful to me. None of his maps smoked on my bike.
4. How many miles are on your bike?
5. The DynoJet map worked great on my bike. Martin's map worked better. Some say every bike is different though....
The spark plug pic below is from my bike at 3,000 miles. I changed them because I was in there doing the block off plates, they did not need changing. They are the original plugs. An old school carburetor guy would consider that plug clean as a whistle and a bit lean. On a modern fuel injected bike like ours, it's normal; and perfect. It will be interesting when I pull them again after all my mods, and running a fairly rich map. I bet they don't look much different. Fuel injection is a wonderful thing!
