Wed, 29 Apr 1998 09:36:54 +0200 - Message No. 2749
From: Martin Franz

Subject: Tuning an AT


Hi friends,
I promised some of you, to report th results of rd07 tuning (most of the
work was done together with manfred, so also check his mail about that
topic).
The overall result is: conservativ tuning, i.e. without opening the
engine itself, will not make too much difference. 

In detail: tuning object was an 1994 RD07, tuning consisted of
installing a Dynojet Kit Stage I and using different muffler (me: BSM
Vampire Carbon, manfred: Arrow). I also modofied the air filter housing
alla Raymond F.

Result: unfortunatly, Manfreds and my bike already where modified..so
there is no good before/after diagram. Measurement was on DynoJet
workbench, setup was done by Horvath, a well known specialist for
dynojet kits). The arrow exhaust (after cutting away some pieces :-))
was slightly better than the BSM.
Without the open racing mufflers, there where only very little
improvment.

Positiv:
the AT reacts more fast to throttle commands. The power curve is very
steady, you have 95% of the power at already 6.300 RPM giving a "turbine
like" impression...
The sound is great !

Negativ:
driven hard, you can reach 10 Liters for 100km, quite good :-))
the 3rd party mufflers don't have a heat shield by the foot stand, I
already have a 10x10 hole in my trouser...added ventilation for greece
:-)
Both racing mufflers are, uhm, a "bit" loud. Manfred closed the arrow a
bit again, to not destroy the windows of his house when he starts the
engine :-). We both will receive an incredible bill, if the police
catches us...

Besides:
with DynoJetKit, the filter housing modification (i.e. raymond tuning)
has absolutly no effect, besides some negativ reaction when closing the
throttle.

Where work will continue:
I think, we reached the "end" of conservativ tuning. Room for further
improvment seem to be the camshafts, as the torque starts to fall at
6.500rpm, giving the impression of bad fill grade (fuellgrad) of the
cylinders at higher RPM's. Honda Struzenberger has different cam shafts
(nockenwelle) for the AT...maybe we can get those for a reasonable price

Personal result: (IMHO !!!)
if I would buy a new Africa, I might not do this again...it was a lot of
fun, but too expensive for the archived result. On the other hand: my AT
has now a great sound, but it was a hard task to remove the "loud is
out" sticker from my topcase...

best regards, Martin


dipper@normans.isd.uni-stuttgart.de