When I get a chance to find a PCV for cheap enough, Im gonna ditch the PCIII and get that + Autotune. Just dont wanna spend a lot on it. That or I might get something to monitor the AFR and tune myself based on readings. Is it worth it? I dont know because I havent done it yet. The PCV offers a greater range of tuning abilities, I believe, compared to a PCIII is another reason. That plus Autotune is enough to entice me.
SkyDork, does the ECU on a Gen 1 actually have the ability to ajust for pressure and air density change? I was always under the impression that the earlier FI bikes lacked the ability to compute and compensate for any change at all.
All fuel injection systems have this ability. They have to or they just simply wouldn't work properly. The '00 ZX-12R (first fuel injected bike) had this ability to compensate for pressure changes. The mere fact that the ram air on these bikes means that if the ECU/Fuel Injection couldn't compensate to hold an AFR value, the bike would be horribly lean at speed due to the ram air and horribly rich as the elevation changed. All fuel injection systems have to do this.
Also, the PCV does have an expanded tuning range compared to the PCIII. (100% vs. 1000%). But this will only matter if you're running some really tweaked motor where 100% of the injector duty cycle won't cut it. But then you're looking at higher fuel pump pressure, race fuel, etc. If most of your fuel trim values are 20% or less, what good is having the ability to go all the way to 1000%? :headshake
The best way to compensate for relatively sudden altitude changes is with forced induction...that's that they do with Cesnas and other small aircraft. Otherwise, as it's already been said, as you increase elevation and the air thins out, your ECU is just going to deliver less fuel (to match said lack of air) and you get less power.
Or, you can run super-oxygenated race fuel all the time; or, constantly blast NOS in the higher elevations...but those are probably not good ideas.
Cesna motor...
This is only somewhat accurate. That Cessna motor is high-end. It's forced induction, but the lower end Cessna 152's and 172's are normally aspirated carbed O-360 motors. Only the newer models are fuel injected IO-360s. In both cases, there is a mixture control in the cockpit and it's the responsibility of the pilot to manually adjust the mixture in flight to maintain the power level. Best endurance, best power, etc. are different settings on the mixture lever. You have to use the Cylinder Head Temperature gauge to set the power depending on the altitude. Not all aircraft engines are forced induction like this.
You are a bit wrong here. The PC-V and autotune are working as real time as it gets. The trim map is just where all the the changes are made and stored,but during the autotune process the bike is actually working on the trim values+basic map. If you add a switch so that you turn the autotune on/off ( that switch can later be used as a map switch,but not simultaneously with the autotune function) you can easily feel or see the difference if you have the LCD screen or if you have the wb2 as autotune.
My understanding is that you have to accept the recommended fuel trims from the auto tune module to get those to work in the PCV. The auto tune will constantly update and make recommendations, but until those are accepted, you aren't using them. :dontknow: But maybe you are correct on that. Regardless though, it won't be any more accurate or add any power based on altitude changes.