Zippers Thundermax Auto Tune

[Speedie1014]

I also ordered one of the refurbished units today. Saved $100 for basically a new unit with full warranty. Sounds like it will ship sometime next week. Backordered on the autotune pieces. With snow on the ground, I can wait.

Looking forward to putting this on the bike! And looking forward to riding again!!!

[Mo-Dog]

I just put the system on my 05' Road King and went through the initialization and IAC stops process. It idles really smooth. I should now be good to go. I want to hook my laptop up to the ECM, link it and put it in monitor mode and throw my laptop in the tourpack when I go out for my first rides. I can't find any literature in the manuals on the "monitor" function. I noticed it has a "playback" that looks like I can playback the ride and watch it in action. Is this true? Any tips, hints or resources on this function?

Thanks

[otterhigh2]

Originally Posted by Speedie1014

I also ordered one of the refurbished units today. Saved $100 for basically a new unit with full warranty. Sounds like it will ship sometime next week. Backordered on the autotune pieces. With snow on the ground, I can wait.

Looking forward to putting this on the bike! And looking forward to riding again!!!

Speedie,

I told you over on EG garage that I would tell you how I liked the autotune when I got it installed, Well I haven't posted about it over there yet but I have had it on for a while and you made a great choice. You will love it. I've had a PC and a SERT in the past, both dyno tuned, but this is the best riding Harley I have ever been on. It's just always right where it needs to be so it pulls from everywhere, and the throttle response is amazing. Let me know what you think when it thaws out.

Scott

[Speedie_]

Thanks Scott. I've been interested in this product from the first time I heard about it last fall. What sold me on the product was the autotune and the ability to really tweak my offsets for the way I like to ride and without having to take it to a tuner every time I want to make a change.

Question ... are the only manuals that come with the unit the ones that are downloadable from zippers website? Or are there manuals that come with the device(s)?

Thanks ... 45 degrees here yesterday .... 20 and falling today ... 10 tomorrow ... Looks like I'll have plenty of time to get this stuff installed on the bike ...

[otterhigh2]

Speedie,

I got manuals but I got my Thundermax before the website was up, don't know what they are doing now. I also got some manuals with the autotune but that was before they had them on the site too. Maybe after you get yours installed, you can take it to Doc's and get a few free pulls on the dyno, I think a lot of people would like to see that but so far everybody is so happy with them nobody will go pay to see what they have. Looks like for your bike I'd load map #352 (probably closest but I just looked real quick) and ride it a few times. It will be good at first and get better fast. I noticed it getting better for about 3 or 4 rides, even though it always tunes, as it gets closer to right the changes become so small that you don't notice them as much. The install is a breeze, set the IAC stops and go. Good luck.

Scott

[otterhigh2]

Originally Posted by Speedie_

What sold me on the product was the autotune and the ability to really tweak my offsets for the way I like to ride and without having to take it to a tuner every time I want to make a change.

I left the canned autotune AFR and saved it as my map and I ride around mostly on it, then I made a fuel mileage map from that one that gets leaner at cruise for highway riding and trips and saved it. It stays near their AFR from just off idle and at WOT but goes as high as 14.1 at cruising RPM's and throttle positions. It works well and increases my mileage by a quite a bit. This spring I may try to find a happy medium and leave it there but I may just keep changing them. It actually takes longer to take the saddlebag and side panel off then it does to change maps.

Scott

[hjdistl]

Originally Posted by Mo-Dog

I just put the system on my 05' Road King and went through the initialization and IAC stops process. It idles really smooth. I should now be good to go. I want to hook my laptop up to the ECM, link it and put it in monitor mode and throw my laptop in the tourpack when I go out for my first rides. I can't find any literature in the manuals on the "monitor" function. I noticed it has a "playback" that looks like I can playback the ride and watch it in action. Is this true? Any tips, hints or resources on this function?

Thanks

You can do that. Works great. Leave the cable hooked up to the TM when you are done. I use a heavy duty small ziplock around the computer connection side, roll up the cable and secure with a velcro strap , put the ziplock on with a rubber band and tuck it all away. Real easy then to do firmware updates etc

A new firmware update came out this week.

I always download the map from my TM and saving int with the bike name and date. Then I start playing around. If I screw things up I just reload the one I just saved and I am back to where I was before.

[Mo-Dog]

I put the new ThunderMax ECM in and my 05" RK (103 stroker + built) just runs great! ..at all speeds in all conditions tested so far. BTW, I took a dyno tuned PCB III out during the install. It has never run this good..ever. I took the bike out yesterday and put about 70 miles on it with 7 stops (turned the power off and then restarted) to get as much improved auto-tuning as possible. Everything is running fine and I'm learnimg the software interface. Question: How do I tell by looking at the module map that it is really tuning itself? I just see a flat line when looking at the AF ratio verses TPS at any rpm range. They are all flat at 13.021.

Observations:
- Idle speed verses engine temp drops as the engine heats up - looks good; drops from 1280 rpm at 65 degrees down a slope curve to 976 rpm at 205 degrees
- IAC stops verses engine temp auto-set just fine - I tweeked the curve ends per the instructions
- AF ratio verses TPS is flat - is this typical?
- AFR correction verses engine temp is nicely curved
- AFR verses engine temp starts rising at 51 F (-1.447) and flattens out at 100 F (+0.058)
- Ignition timing verses engine speed is flat at 0
- AFR at verses TPS @ all rpms - 13.021 - flat - is this typical?

The top right side in the blue band says, "Module Type = EFO Closed Loop"

[otterhigh2]

Yes all of those are typical. When they tune each engine combo, the AFR and timing changes they make are shown on the maps as straight lines no matter how far they are from stock. That gives you and also the Autotune unit a starting point of zero. If you want or need to change anything, you make small plus or minus changes from a zero map. With the PCIII all of the changes are shown from stock so you change a 35 to a 34 or a 36, Imagine if you loaded a PC map and instead of the plus or minus numbers you see from stock, they made the changes and left the numbers at zero for you to make plus or minus changes from there.

To see the changes that are being made, you have to use the monitor and playback functions hooked up to a laptop

Scott.

[Speedie_]

Thanks Scott. I'm sure once I'm ready to install I'll be on the forum asking a few last minute questions. The downloaded manuals sure make it sound easy to monitor what's going on and make adjustments.

Right now I'm not sure if Im more impatient for spring to come or to get these parts <G>

[shinbone1028]

I've installed a Zip kit w/ an autotune. I'm just waiting for the serial to usb adaptor so I can finish.
One question,for anyone that knows,about the O2 sensors.The way I read it,the stock harness connectors are abandoned.Is that right or am I missing a connection somewhere?

[Snaps]

Originally Posted by shinbone1028

I've installed a Zip kit w/ an autotune. I'm just waiting for the serial to usb adaptor so I can finish.
One question,for anyone that knows,about the O2 sensors.The way I read it,the stock harness connectors are abandoned.Is that right or am I missing a connection somewhere?

That's correct. I just zip tied my old ones out of the way and capped them with the plug caps included in the Zipper's kit. The new AutoTune module will come with two O2 sensor cables, one shorter than the other for front and rear, and a communication cable that plugs into the existing data port for communication with the new ECM.

The connector blocks on the AutoTune cables that connect to the O2 sensors are much larger than stock and are hard to fit between nooks and crannies on your bike when you're trying to get a clear path for a clean install.

I installed my O2 sensors first, then looked for a way to run the wiring. It might be easier to thread the sensor itself through the path you want to take with the wiring, as it's less bulky than the connector block, but then you need to be careful not to twist or bind the cable when tightening the O2 sensor. I'd suggest taking a couple of minutes to determine how you want to run the wiring before installing the O2 sensors.

[plymouth4]

I also bought one of the refurbed units from Zippers for $729.00. I was wondering is I will need to buy anything to hook it up to desktop to adjust of download maps? I seen where someone said they needed a serial to usb cable adapter. Thanks

[otterhigh2]

The cable it comes with is a serial cable, so if you don't have a serial port on your laptop or computer you will need one too. I had to get one too as I only have USB ports on my laptop.

[plymouth4]

Do you need a laptop computer to set this up?