marbling a 1700

[rozie]

Im thinking of doing the marble mod on my 15 vaquero. for those that don`t know about it, there is a rubber hose that goes from the back of the right side intake box that draws air into the exhaust system to lean out the exhaust going out the mufflers. from my understanding, this allows the bike to lower emmissions. someone please correct me if Im wrong. the idea is to put a marble inside the rubber hose thus blocking off air to the exhaust system, then reattach the hose to the air box. now when you put after market mufflers on, you hear a lot more popping and back firing that the stock mufflers tried to suppress. for me, I like the sound of the cobra mufflers when accellerating and the little bit of power increase, but when you let off the gas, the back firing is driving me nuts and scaring pedestrians when approching red lights and stop signs. you want to see people run for cover... my previous bike was a 02 vstar 1100 and the marble mod worked on that bike for 50,000 klms before trading it in for my vaquero. the difference being, the vstar was carbed and the vaquero is fuelinjected. I know all about Ivans flash but with the canadian exchange rate and down time, not to mention loosing my warranty,{ my dealer is NOT on board with reflashing} its just not worth it right now.SO for those people that are far more knowledgeable than me, does this sound like it might work or will I do damadge to the engine???

[vangaans]

Yep that will reduce a lot of the popping. The purpose of the secondary air injection systems is to inject air into the exhaust headers to ignite any unburnt fuel, hence the popping. I completely removed the SAI system on my Triumph Thruxton after installing performance mufflers when I owned it.

[BobBear]

The 15 Vaquero has a closed loop emissions control system utilizing an oxygen sensor in the exhaust. Theoretically speaking, if you block off the air injection, the oxygen sensor may signal the ECU that the exhaust gas is richer and attempt to lean it out. Bikes without oxygen sensors see improvement because there is no closed loop to attempt correction. I could be wrong of course so, others with more knowledge may chime in. However, the best solution is an ECU reflash.

[Huddleston]

Notwithstanding your dealer's opinion on flashing the ecu, I have a 13 Nomad 1700 with the ecu flashed and the Cobra 4228 Slip on mufflers. I have no popping on decel.

[mike07nad]

Here is a possible solution for your Dealer not wanting to Warranty an ECU upgrade.

Purchase a second ECU. There is one now on Ebay for less than $200. Send the Ebay ECU to Ivan for the upgrade. $350. Total cost $550 - Probably less than the cost of your aftermarket pipes.

When you take your bike back to the dealer for any work - put the original ECU back in the bike. Probably a 15 min swap.

[ldhthept]

Does the dealer get to decide if they honor the warranty?

[rozie]

thank you all for the replys. my biggest concern was that by blocking off the air injection system that it would cause burnt valves or over heat the heads in some way, but now that I think about it, I believe blocking that hose is one of the steps involved in installing a aftermarket intake. most kits give you the plug to put in the hose, but in my case I will still use the stock air intake with the hose reattached. I also have the oxygen sensor in the right side cobra muffler.

[rozie]

Originally Posted by ldhthept

Does the dealer get to decide if they honor the warranty?

I believe it goes like this .... if the dealer thinks you have a warranty claim they submit a repair estimate to MAKAW and if its aproved then the dealer repairs your bike and MAKAW reimburses the dealer. now around here if my dealer thinks you have moddified the engine in any way he wont touch my bike and leaves me looking for a new dealer. in my case the only other dealer is 400 miles away. IF he tells MAKAW the bike has been tampered with then your SOL for warranty.

[rozie]

I put the marble in the hose and reattached it to the air box. that took about 20 min. went for a long ride, about 100 miles highway and city traffic. the bike starts fine and runs about the same. no increase or decrease in power, and no codes or check engine light, BUT about 80% decrease in popping and backfiring when slowing down approching traffic lights. from 2000 rpm to idle you get a little muffled popping two or three times but not like a shotgun or rifle going off beside you. in city traffic the temp ran up until the fan came on twice but the popping was about the same but the power was down as usual, so back on the highway and the temps come down and life is good.