Greg's Bandit 400 Fuel Injection Project...

[greg737]

  But make sure you actually have a 93 model and not just a 92 model registered in 93. Mine says 92 but is actually a 91 model.

Yes, a while back I confirmed that the engine is definitely a 1993.

The things that confirm this are:

The VIN number on my Bandit's frame has a "P" in the 10th position, which is the Year Code position (the '91s have an "M" and the '92s have an "N").

Of course, that VIN information doesn't absolutely mean that my Bandit has the 1993 engine installed.  As you pointed out, a 1993 GSF400 could possibly have a 1992 engine in it.  Also, one of the 3 prior owners of my Bandit could have swapped engines for some reason.

So, I dug further and discovered that (according to Suzuki records) 1993 GSF400's with VIN numbers ending with the digits (starting from the 11th position) "2100001" and onward definitely have the 1993 engine installed.  My VIN ends with "2100038" (which apparently makes it the 38th 1993 GSF400 built with a 1993 engine).

Digging further... I needed a way to confirm that the engine itself was a 1993.  I eventually found that the 1993 engines had a different Trigger Wheel and a different CDI.  While the 1993 CDI box looks externally identical to the '91 and '92 CDI boxes and it has the same two plugs, the 1993's internal CDI circuitry is different and the wiring into its wiring harness plugs (the "pin out") is slightly different.

My engine has the 1993 Trigger Wheel:



For comparison, the 1991 and 1992 Trigger Wheel looked like this:

[ventYl]

Bandit cooling system is one step in long Suzuki air/oil-cooled engines (despite the fact that cylinder head and upper part of cylinders is cooled by water) evolution. Bottom of engine including pistons is cooled by squirting oil (and center is air-cooled - ribs are not for aestetics only). This is what SACS stands for in engine specs. Oil squirting the bottom of pistons was exactly the way how Suzuki was able to make (IIRC first ever) air-cooled motorcycle with more than 70HP (kW?) back in late 70's. Previous attempts were unreliable.

[greg737]

Found some time to get back into the garage.  November weather was very nice here in Spokane, WA.  Warm enough to ride comfortably and very little rain (no snow at all).

One task I had planned was: Changing the contour/profile of the rear portion of the Bandit's seat. 

From the beginning of this project I've planned to install a Solo Cowl in place of the bike's passenger seat.  This is something that I have to do because I've relocated the bike's battery into the passenger seat area to make room for the FI system's Fuel Pump.  The battery is now located in the space where the passenger seat used to be, plus a whole bunch of other Fuel Injection System electrical and control components are now there too.

When I started looking at the original B4 rider's seat profile I didn't like the way the rear end of it pitches upward.  I wanted a rider seat that stays flat until it meets the Solo Cowl (like the seats on later Suzuki models like the GSX-R600).  I plan for the front end of the Solo Cowl to have a small pad mounted to it (this will substitute for the rear end pitch-up of original rider's seat).

I purchased a "lightly used" GSX-R600 seat off of Ebay.  These are plentiful and cheap on Ebay.  By disassembling this I got the hard plastic seat-pan and the contoured foam seating material.


To get a nice, new-looking seating surface for this project I purchased a new GSX-R600 seat cover from Luimoto in Vancouver B.C.




I cut down the rear end of the original Bandit seat, then I cut off the front end of the GSX-R600 seat.  I pop-riveted the two pieces together.




Next I had to make a couple of cut-and-glue changes to the GSX-R600 seat foam to make it conform to the front end of the Bandit seat-pan.  Then I covered the whole assembly with the new Luimoto GSX-R600 seat cover.




So here's what the B4 looks like now:




(In these last two pictures it's important to know that the B4 is up on a rear-stand so it looks like the seat is sloped uncomfortably downward as it goes forward, which it does not do.)

[Squishy]

So what are you going to do about the hole/space behind the seat?

Btw that solo cowl is huge 

[greg737]

But... now it's December and we've got snow and ice on the roads!  Noooooooo!

The fun is over.

I guess be any more test-riding and tuning the B4 for a while. 

Things were going really well with my Fuel Injection system tuning efforts.  The most important item I was making progress on is the ignition timing table.  When I first defined my project's ignition spark advance table I put in very conservative values.  This was just a safety-oriented move, intended to keep the list of "things that could go wrong" as short as possible.

Once I got the fueling table smoothed and crafted to a point where it didn't have any sudden lean or over-rich problems it was time to start moving the spark advance up to where the engine would make its specified horsepower.  The danger is moving the spark advance too far which could cause detonation/knock.  This could ruin the engine. 

There's no easy way to determine the exact degree of ignition spark advance to use.  Instead it's all "rule of thumb", "rider's seat of the pants" and researching to find available ignition system specifications from other (similar) motorcycles.  All this has lead me to set the maximum advance at 41 degrees BTDC.

The engine now feels very willing and the revs climb quickly during acceleration.

[Squishy]

Can't you install a knock-sensor?   

[greg737]

So what are you going to do about the hole/space behind the seat?

Btw that solo cowl is huge 

To take up the space around the rear sides of the new seat profile I'm going to build an add-on to the rear of the seat itself.  The add-on will be made from part of the original rear end of the B4 seat-pan that I cut off while making this new seat. 

I'll cover it with foam and seat material to create an effective gap coverage.

Btw that solo cowl is huge 

Well then, you should know that the Solo Cowl you're seeing in these pictures isn't my creation.  It is a Gimble product.  And the Gimble Bandit 400 Solo Cowl was a direct copy of the discontinued OEM Suzuki Solo Cowl.

Or... if you're simply saying that your personal impression of the Solo Cowl installed on the B4 is that it makes the rear end of the bike look "big" or "heavy" that's fine with me. 

I agree that it has that feel to it when viewed from the side.  But I like it because I think it has a bit of the "GSX-R Slabby" look, a bit of that old-school Suzuki mojo.

Example:

[TJS]

Way to stay with a difficult and technical build!

[greg737]

As my B4 project bike has moved into its final stretch, with lots of riding to work its tune into shape, I've grown to hate the mirrors that one of the prior owners installed on it. 

These mirrors are butt-ugly pieces of hideous black plastic, but that's not the worst part.  These crappy mirrors have a very short reach to their stems which means I can hardly see anything behind me.  All I can see is my own elbows.  To see anything behind me I have to move my head while simultaneously pulling my elbow in as far as possible.

Here's what the mirrors looked like on my B4 when I brought it home:


So I searched around on Ebay and found a nice set of OEM mirrors (from a 1992 GSF400):






Much better now, being able to easily see behind with just a glance.

[greg737]

Spent some time in the garage today, filmed a Cold Start as a bit of documentation of the Fuel Injection project.

Cold day in Spokane, about 32 degrees and it snowed a bit last night.

(To those who are easily bored: consider yourself forewarned so you won't complain about wasting 11 minutes of your life watching a motorcycle warm up)

At this point in the project I've tuned the parameters in my B4's Microsquirt ECU to the point were it will start from cold with just a push of the starter button.  The Microsquirt applies adjustments to fueling and ignition advance derived from several temperature-dependent tables: Priming Pulse, Cranking Pulse, After Start Enrichment, After Start Enrichment Taper, Warm-Up Enrichment, Cold Ignition Advance.

The Microsquirt will initially hold the idle RPMs at about 1,500 to 1,600 then as the coolant begins to warm up it lowers the idle to approximately 1,300 and keeps it there.

http://vid679.photobucket.com/albums/vv158/EWflyer/GSF400%20cold%20start%20Dec%202015_zps4iadbuhv.mp4

[bdouvill]

Thanks a lot Greg for sharing your experience and your knowledge. This seems like a success to me too. And you bike is really nice. 

[ventYl]

the bike looks nice and the rebuild looks very profesionally done too. damn that bike has more gentle idle during warming up than mine when warmed up completely. i have to re-do carb balance :S

[greg737]

Thanks for the complements on the bike's appearance.  I appreciate it.

You know how it goes with this sort of thing, I know were all the flaws and little failures are so I always see them when I look at the bike.  But it's okay because I'm much more into the technical side than the appearance side.  I decided at the outset of this project to only do enough cosmetic work to achieve a "20-20" bike (it looks great from 20 feet away as it goes by at 20 MPH).

That's enough to make me happy.

[greg737]

Back in the garage today, working on a few things and while I had the spark plugs out of the bike I decided to put them under my (nerdy, cheap Chinese techno-trash) USB microscope at about 50X magnification.

Cylinder #1








Cylinder #2








Cylinder #3








Cylinder #4

[ventYl]

how many miles do they have? the look pretty clean.