RESOLVED: 3 weeks troubleshooting, still stuck

[Neville Lush]

I checked vacuum on each throttle body: All seem good, including the "suspects" #2 & 3! Needle oscillated wildly (as per your warning) but clearly shows good vacuum.
When measuring directly (not teed in) on the tubing feeding the MAP sensor, I'm down to practically atmospheric again.
Disconnected all hoses from the 3 into one fitting and measured vacuum on each body via its vacuum hose, good vacuum on all 3..
Pressurized the 3 into 1 fitting, no leak.
What witchcraft is at play here?

I have had the same scenario before and once again last week. The owner had bought a new MAP sensor, plugged it into the wrong plug ( some wires blue) and got a code, plugged it into the correct plug ( pink wires) , cleared the code and the bike ran, but super rich. Got to me, not mentioning the error. After a while I zeroed FL switch table, bike was fractionally better, so unplugged MAP and blocked hose. Bike idled at 13.4:1 AF. Plug in MAP runs at 10:1. New MAP coming in post. Give it a shot maybe, it cost nothing to try....

 

[Valaas]

When i was young we had a little sand blaster for plugs and a machine to test the firing and about half of the plugs would not fire when put at 150 psi.
we are talking 200 psi on the rocket. so you have been told twice.

I'll put other plugs in today. That's easy. But I honestly doubt the problem is the NGK irdium sparks that has been working fine for the last 5000 kms. My logic has come up short several times anyway so I'd be a fool not to try

 

[Valaas]

I have had the same scenario before and once again last week. The owner had bought a new MAP sensor, plugged it into the wrong plug ( some wires blue) and got a code, plugged it into the correct plug ( pink wires) , cleared the code and the bike ran, but super rich. Got to me, not mentioning the error. After a while I zeroed FL switch table, bike was fractionally better, so unplugged MAP and blocked hose. Bike idled at 13.4:1 AF. Plug in MAP runs at 10:1. New MAP coming in post. Give it a shot maybe, it cost nothing to try....

Thanks Neville, absolutely worth a try!

 

[Valaas]

Going back to the 70's and snowmobiles, I found if you put a new plug in a wet fowled engine, and fouled the new plug, (before it had a layer of carbon on it) they were usually NEVER any good after that, even if you cleaned and heated them dry.

Plugs have seen 5000 kms, but I'm going to test another set, yes. The thing is, though, everything including these sparks worked fine until the intrusive cam chain operation. That's why I doubt sparks has anything to do with the root cause.
My bet is that RIIITurbo is right and the 8-900 hpa MAP-sensor readings are pointing to the root cause: My messing with gear that is supposed to provide airflow and fuel requirement data to the ECU.
I don't understand why it's status quo after zeroing out the F/L swith table, though. That should isolate away any MAP associated faults.
Neville gave me a good suggestion to further remove possible MAP-sensor interference though. Could be the step needed to get proven combustion to the passive cylinders 2 & 3

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

Another thought. If you hookup to Windows TuneECU and run it while watching the L table. Note the cells it highlights with the live cell tracer. Then switch off and adjust those cells' values to be the same as the values in the cells over in the area of the table that it SHOULD be running off at idle (I.e. 800-1000rpm and ~600hPa). Save map as a temporary test map and load to ECU.
Try run engine again.

It will prove that there is nothing else wrong, just that there is a vacuum leak and the MAP is seeing (or transmitting) the wrong value.

 

[Journeyman]

My lesser experience would have initially said cracked vacuum hoses/caps, the coil leads, or the timing has jumped a tooth, but I bow down to all the heavy hitters presently in your corner. Watching intently to see where all of this leads....

I'd definitely change those plugs though... (as per @Rocket Scientist)

 

[Valaas]

Just an update:
Elastomers (4 vacuum hoses, transition pieces w/orings & clips, 4 blind caps, injector o-rings upper&lower) arriving Friday
MAP sensor ETA Friday
6 NGK Spark plugs ETA Friday

=> Will get a lot of answers this weekend

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

Is there a 3-1 merger on the way?

 

[Valaas]

Is there a 3-1 merger on the way?

No, I have sealed the oe merger joints with 2 component epoxy and vacuum tested. It is positively airtight.

BTW I have also ordered a glycol filled vacuum gauge. The readings I got from the cheap liquidless gauge were as you prediced all over the dial

 

[R-III-R Turbo]

Ok. I hope you're planning on replacing one part at a time, so we can understand what solves the problem.

Starting with the 3-1 and tube from it to the MAP sensor is what I'd do, given that seemed to be where you narrowed it down to