Airbox oil fix and ecu upgrade

My 961 Sport is away for the oil in the air box fix ,throttle body ,and ecu change over.

2014 model, SC ECU, 7000km, over 1 liter of oil drained out of the air box. erratic starting idle,
dropping to 1 cylinder.

Does any one have any feedback on their experience with the changes ?

Is there a tappet cover available without the banjo bolts that are blanked off ?

cheers
Paul

The very first oil in air box fixes were supplied with banjo -less rocker covers. Then when mine was completed only the banjo blank off plugs were supplied . So I bought the banjo less rocker cover with my own money. That fix works good and stops the oil discharging to the air box. I still have the SC ECU. If or when the SC ECU goes bad then I will have to pay for it.

I never did get oil in the airbox on my 2013, but being I had a host of other problems, the factory Okayed many upgrades including the new banjoless valve covers while still under warranty. I had multiple oil leaks, no more.

Tony

Can you recall the cost of the new tappet cover ?

Another option i was thinking of is remove the banjos and use aluminum blanking caps.

Also this upgrade is reducing the 3 breathing outlets down to 1 .
More crank pressure and increase the chances of oil leaks.

Hopefully the new ecu will fix the inconsistent idle issues

cheers
Paul

AF1 Racing in Austin just replaced a faulty Lambda sensor and updated the mapping (not sure what ECU I have on my 2015 961) it's now running better than it ever did, no more idling issues. This and the breather upgrade have made me a happy man.

pingu-nz said:

Tony

Can you recall the cost of the new tappet cover ?

Another option i was thinking of is remove the banjos and use aluminum blanking caps.

Also this upgrade is reducing the 3 breathing outlets down to 1 .
More crank pressure and increase the chances of oil leaks.

Hopefully the new ecu will fix the inconsistent idle issues

cheers
Paul

Click to expand...

150.84 GBP

Not sure if the upgrade went well . :cry: :cry:


Plastic plug on right hand breather broke and came off on way home , wee panic attack when i pulled into garage with breather fumes and smoke everywhere.

Oil catch bottle half full after 200 km ride home,

Bike is very jerky under 3000 rpm . Dyno jet wheres your power commander !!!
However 5000 rpm up is magic , but hard to tick around town at the speed limit ,

So anyways
Banjo bolts getting removed and anodized plugs being installed.
Maybe bigger catch bottle for the oil !!

Back in the corner of the garage until the plugs arrive, any wonder these are low mileage bikes sold second hand.

Cheers
Paul

After the breather upgrade on my 2015 model I have no oil in the catch bottle after 500 miles. All I've seen in the catch bottle is a little water after riding through a heavy rain storm.

I don't use the catch bottle. I have a slightly wider diameter clear tubing (like from a fish tank filter) and leave it unplugged. My oil level has been constant for over 2 thousand miles and my air filter looks like new with 8 grand on it. I may get 1/2 a teaspoon of oil in the airbox. 2013 Sport.

pingu-nz said:

Not sure if the upgrade went well . :cry: :cry:


Plastic plug on right hand breather broke and came off on way home , wee panic attack when i pulled into garage with breather fumes and smoke everywhere.

Oil catch bottle half full after 200 km ride home,

Bike is very jerky under 3000 rpm . Dyno jet wheres your power commander !!!
However 5000 rpm up is magic , but hard to tick around town at the speed limit ,

So anyways
Banjo bolts getting removed and anodized plugs being installed.
Maybe bigger catch bottle for the oil !!

Back in the corner of the garage until the plugs arrive, any wonder these are low mileage bikes sold second hand.

Cheers
Paul

Click to expand...

Hello Paul , Verify if the dealer installed the whole update kit . If the check valves were NOT installed in the oil feed and return lines you will have problems. Also , the rocker cover needs to come off if you plan to remove the banjos to take out the nuts on the back side etc.. It will be easy for you to verify if the oil return check valve was installed . look at the oil return line just in front of the engine timing cover. The line should be cut and a check valve installedjust after where the oil line turns up to go to the oil cooler. The feed side will be hard to see as it is inside the oil pump. If the bottle was only half full after 160 miles then you may be ok. If the dealer didn't clear the crankcase from earlier wet sumping maybe that's all it is. Shame that rubber plug couldn't stay on for you. That ruins what may have been a good experience for you. remember that there is not a lot of room in the rocker cover for additional nuts and washers . Things have to be kept as slim as possible in there.

Yes Tony

The dealer has done a excellent job of the upgrade.
All the parts look to be in place, its just the plastic bung that has failed, and i don't want the same happening miles away from home again.
I plan on removing the tappet cover to remove the banjo bolts.
The anodized bungs are the same 14mm x 1.5 thread as the banjo bolts so should screw into the existing threads and nuts.
Does anyone know what octane fuel the ecu was mapped to ?
Could this cause the surging and popping under 3000 rpm.

Lets call this work in progress :lol: :lol:

Sounds great , let us know how it goes.

The under 3 grand issues went away after the SBN mufflers were installed.
Orange County Indian Motorcycles installed the breather update and no oil under the bike after 120 mi. Ride up Mt Hamilton and back to Livermore on good twisty roads.
I need to get my 961 on a Dyno before I start playing around. I'm pretty happy with it now. I can't wait for Laguna Seca next year!

trevorpacker said:

AF1 Racing in Austin just replaced a faulty Lambda sensor and updated the mapping (not sure what ECU I have on my 2015 961) it's now running better than it ever did, no more idling issues. This and the breather upgrade have made me a happy man.

Click to expand...

Hello trevorpacker , Just wondering about the lambda sensor AF1 replaced for you . Can you be more specific as to which sensor was replaced ? This may be a problem for others on this forum . Thank you and good to hear your bike is running and idling great

Hi Tony

Had a problem with idling speed occasionally going up to 1800 RPM + when motor was warmed up. Short Motads are fitted and correct map installed last year.
Left cylinder appeared to be running rich, spark plug dark. Right plug appeared normal. turned out the right hand side O2 sensor was faulty and stuck on leanest correction factor.
AF1 replaced the O2 sensor, damaged LH intake boot, flowed and cleaned injectors and updated the mapping. Both cylinders are now running the same correction factor and the plugs are both looking the same normal colour. Bike runs great and no idling issues.

I do want to say that AF1 racing in Austin did a great job of diagnosing this and the second replacement of gearbox seals (first was done by another dealer who also did not diagnose the difference in spark plug colours I reported to them) AF1 did all of this including, at my request, riding the bike twice for extended runs to ensure plugs were correct colour. No additional costs, all done under warranty. I highly recommenced them.

Trevor

Update

Airbox oil not fixed

Today on a ride, catch-bottle puked oil all over back tyre brake caliper and exhaust :shock:

For the last 500 km the bottle has showed 5mm of oil in the catch-bottle.
No oil has been added to the bike half way on the dipstick .



I emptied bottle on side of road and limped home,catch-bottle was full again .

Removed seat and air filter,oil in the air-box.. why wasn't this showing up in the catch-bottle before.







I inspected the lid on the catch-bottle,the hole was that small a sewing pin couldn't push through .

So that means the air-box issue isn't fixed on my bike .

I would suggest anyone with the catch-bottle fitted on there bike check the internal size of the hole to make sure oil can get through otherwise it could be building up in the air-box without you knowing it ,

pingu-nz said:

Update

Airbox oil not fixed

Today on a ride, catch-bottle puked oil all over back tyre brake caliper and exhaust :shock:

For the last 500 km the bottle has showed 5mm of oil in the catch-bottle.
No oil has been added to the bike half way on the dipstick .


I emptied bottle on side of road and limped home,catch-bottle was full again .

Removed seat and air filter,oil in the air-box.. why wasn't this showing up in the catch-bottle before.



I inspected the lid on the catch-bottle,the hole was that small a sewing pin couldn't push through .

So that means the air-box issue isn't fixed on my bike .

I would suggest anyone with the catch-bottle fitted on there bike check the internal size of the hole to make sure oil can get through otherwise it could be building up in the air-box without you knowing it ,

Click to expand...

Paul,

Did the dealer install the new large "S" shaped plastic manifold on the crankcase breather behind the cylinder block that comes with the breather kit?
This manifold is supposed to catch/accumulate any oil passed by the crankcase breather preventing it from getting to the airbox above.
It the rocker cover breather is blanked off from the airbox, only way to get oil in the airbox now is if it is coming from the crankcase; past the new manifold.

I'm still waiting for my breather kit (ordered it in April) but your experience is not exactly confidence inspiring to me.

Fred

Yes Fred

It has been installed by the dealer,
I would presume there would be a instruction sheet for the correct installation.
Which now means the oil is coming via the crankcase breather.
Maybe its always come from the crank breather and not the tappet cover ?


cheers
Paul

pingu-nz said:

Maybe its always come from the crank breather and not the tappet cover ?

Click to expand...

I would say it appears this is the case now.
Damn.

Hello Pingu-nz , Is there any oil being wet sumped to the crankcase ? When you park your machine for the night or for the week does the oil level drop at all ? If you are still wet sumping the air/oil separator cant stop that much oil at one time. Do you have the newest return side check valve ? The first return side check valve I had installed on my bike slowly let oil back into the crankcase. If I drove the bike everyday this was not a problem because the leak off was slow. BUT If I waited a week then I could see the level had dropped on the stick , Mind you I still had oil in my oil tank it did not all leak away. Then when I started and drove it there would be some oil discharged into my airbox. It is the process of excessive wet sumped oil when the machine is parked that causes this. You should replace the stock Norton air box oil drain hose with a larger diameter hose like the one Richard-7 supplies with his Trans vent kit. This hose is much firmer and wont collapse like the original one does. Also make sure that there is not any obstruction in the brass oil drain fitting at the bottom of the airbox as well. I will say that the oil breather update is a vast improvement over what we had originally. In 8 hours I would loose my entire oil tank supply to the sump. This is not the case now. Also the original breather coming from the rocker cover was continually pushing small amounts of oil to the airbox as you drove. The rate on my machine at 70MPH was 1ML per mile driven NO JOKE ! The current breather fix is a VAST improvement over what we had ! Also the best way to get an accurate oil level check is to drive the machine leisurely a couple of miles first , then park and check it . Idling alone does not bring enough oil back to the tank in a reasonable amount of time if you've wet sumped some.