Phat Performance Parts is one of the sponsor of this forum, and also a dealer for Cobra. A few weeks ago, they asked for a couple of forum members to help them out and do a field test of the new Cobra Fi 2000 PowrPro fuel management unit. I responded to this, and was accepted. I posted my review on the chat thread, and was asked by Phat Performance to put it here as well, as I ride an '06 Harley Ultra. The '06 was the last year that did not have Ox sensors.

I have previously installed a Stage One airclearner with K&N filter, Stage One download, Andrews 21 gear driven cams, and a set of modified Road King mufflers. I have also installed a Boyesen X-Wing behind the air cleaner. http://www.boyesen.com/xwing-vtwin My oil temps usually run at 230 degrees, although on a mountain trip to Arizona this summer, in 90 degree heat, the oil temps hovered around 260 degrees after interstate driving at 75 mph.

I had not installed any type of fuel management before this test.

My correspondance with Anthony, from Phat Performance, included this:

"We are looking for an honest review. If you are unhappy with the product, feel free to share your opinion. Hopefully you will enjoy this product and share that info with the forum.

"Per your HDForum private message: "I can do a review complete with pictures of the installation, comparison of gas mileage before and after installation, "seat of the pants" dyno, overall performance, positive or negative. I can also do a roll on acceleration timing before and after installation, such as a third gear hard acceleration from 3000 - 5500 rpm."

"The above test are exactly what we are looking for. We greatly appreciate your help on this. We've been selling a lot of these for metric bikes and everyone has loved this product, I'm sure you will too!”

 

If you have any knowledge at all about the EPA vs our favorite avocation, i.e., riding motorcycles, you know motorcycle manufacturers have been strangled the past few years by ever stricter EPA clean air laws. Motorcycle magazines are full of ads from various companies, all claiming to be able to help recover the lost power in your V-Twin....ThunderMax, Power Commander Dyna Jet (how many different ones do they have?), Vance and Hines Fuel Pak, Cobra, Daytona Twin Tec, Terry Components, Wiseco, IEDs, etc, etc.

Where does that leave us...the guys and gals that just want to ride ? Mostly confused? Terms like “mapping, ignition advances/retardation, cam overlaps, infra-red head temperatures, cats (not the kind with four legs and claws), etc, etc.

Is there a simple solution to make our beloved Harleys run better, cooler, and produce maximum power, without us having to be computer geniuses to figure it all out?

That is the purpose of this test--To see if the PowrPro lives up to its advertising.

 

In August, 2007, Joe Minton, in American Rider magazine, started a series of articles about different tuners. In October, 2007, Minton tested the Cobra Fi 2000 . This is the unit with the three manually adjustable pods, and gave it a very favorable review, along with how to dial it in using “Telephone Pole Tuning.” As with similar tuners, there are drawbacks. Any change in equipment, altitudes, temperature, etc will affect its performance, and there is no adjustment available for ignition timing. The big benefit to a tuner such as the Fi 2000, is that the user needs no computer to download maps, and it’s relatively easy to understand, especially if you understand basic carburation, with idle, midrange, and main jets. It will work on engines with or without Ox sensors. They can be purchased for less than $200 from various sources.

In 2011, Cobra introduced a new product called the PowrPro Fi 2000, with a hefty price tag of over $500 . They advertise it as a fully automatic tuner giving the most beneficial air/fuel mixture every time you accelerate, by adjusting the fuel mix up to 80 times per second.

 

The following is a typical annoucement that appeared on numerous internet sites concerning the PowrPro Tuner.


Cobra Engineering has just introduced the new Fi2000 PowrPro Tuner to the motorcycle market. The Fi2000 fuel-injection tuner uses the latest smart chip technology to continuously read the bike’s EFI delivery at more than 80 times per second every time the throttle is opened to optimize the air/fuel mixture at all throttle settings. With its Continuously Variable Tuning (CVT) (patent pending) technology, the Fi2000 PowrPro is set to revolutionize motorcycle fuel-injection tuning.

With PowrPro you can say good-bye to old-school EFI “mapping mania” and O2 sensor hassles forever. When your bike accelerates, PowrPro reads the engine’s performance up to 80 times per second to optimize fuel delivery at all throttle openings under acceleration, under every kind of load and under all existing environmental conditions to deliver maximum acceleration.

“Recent times have brought sweeping changes in motorcycle technology, specifically in the art and science of controlling fuel mixture,” said Tim McCool, president of Cobra Engineering. “We’ve progressed from finicky carburetors to rudimentary fuel-injection delivery to programmable EFI systems. But now the world of motorcycle fuel-injection calibration changes completely and permanently with our Fi2000 PowrPro. Riders will have the peace of mind to know that no matter if they are riding into a headwind or with a tailwind, if they add a full exhaust system or free-flowing air filter to their bike, the Fi2000 PowrPro will instantly and automatically optimize fuel delivery to give them the best performance possible with their equipment combination and environment.”

This system calculates the bike’s rate of acceleration much like a dynamometer. That allows the PowrPro to measure and adjust fuel flow to the injectors in microseconds for super-fast fuel tuning—automatically. No external data, such as new EFI mapping, is necessary.

Older so-called auto-tune systems rely on O2 sensors that must be installed in the exhaust pipe to adjust the air/fuel ratio according to a pre-set map—but varying conditions can render that EFI mapping less than ideal. And regardless of how many dyno runs you perform, you always end up with only one EFI map—which may not provide the optimum setting for the way you’ll be riding tomorrow, next month or next year.

With PowrPro installed, it’s like having a built-in dyno that not only reads how the bike is performing in real time in the real world, it also adjusts the fuel delivery for ideal EFI performance—multiple times per second. Whenever you twist open the throttle, PowrPro goes on, assuring that the fueling system and the bike are operating at optimum efficiency.

Unlike other systems, PowrPro offers plug-in performance: no bungs, no O2 sensors, no computer hook-ups or downloads, no sorting through a bewildering array of EFI maps to find one that’s just right. And there is no need to run the bike on the dyno to tune or verify tuning settings. You simply plug the PowrPro into your bike’s existing wiring harness and immediately enjoy continuously variable tuning as PowrPro delivers the optimum fuel mixture instantly and dynamically under all riding conditions.

And no matter which components you change in the future, whether it’s a new exhaust system, a freer-flowing air filter setup or even a big-bore hop-up kit with new camshafts, PowrPro continues to analyze and tune your engine for peak performance.

 

Start of Test:

The Suzuki M109 crowd in particular have raved about the PowrPro on their forums, but Harley riders haven't really been using it, probably because there are so many other well known tuners already being used.

As I knew I had a couple of weeks before I would receive it, I started devising my own form of “telephone pole tuning.”

Using my Droid X phone on a Ram mount, I pointed its video camera toward my speedometer and tach, and recorded some full throttle acceleration runs on a level country road using various criteria. For instance, third and fourth gear from 3,000 to 5,500 rpm, and full throttle acceleration from 60 to 90 mph in fifth gear. My tank was full of 91 octane, non-oxygenated fuel, and I had no extra weight in any of the saddlebags. I made several runs for each criteria, and then loaded the videos onto my home computer. By playing them back, I was then able to time each run with a stop watch to get a basis for the comparison.



The one thing that became very apparent was this: The times were totally inconsistent, varying as much as two seconds or more on identical runs. Going out a second day, and being as precise as I could, this pattern of inconsistency continued. I even took time to check and adjust my clutch, just to make sure that wasn't an issue. In visiting with Anthony about this, he didn’t sound surprised, and assured me I would really be impressed with how the PowrPro would even out the fuel delivery.

This past Tuesday, the PowrPro arrived by UPS, and the test is on !

 

The first thing I noticed was how light the box was. Opening it, I found the PowrPro to be extremely well packaged for shipping, totally surrounded by foam. Included were three pages of directions, two zip ties, a piece of velcro, and a 90 day guarantee. The PowrPro units are year specific, so I immediately checked to make sure I had the one for a 2006 Ultra, which is 692-1602AT . As an ‘06 Ultra did not yet have Ox sensors, there were only two leads from the unit, and a ground wire.





Reading through the directions, it looked to be a simple install. I would have to remove the air cleaner and the seat, and remove the three bolts holding the gas tank in place and raise it high enough to get to the injector connectors under the tank. As the majority of the work would be done on the right side, I left the Ultra on its side stand, and removed the right saddlebag.

I then removed the Road Zeppelin seat, disconnecting its wire from the harness, and set it aside. I removed the battery clamp, lifted the battery slightly and removed the ground connection and taped it off. The additional wiring you see in the picture are the Gerbing heated gear hookups.



I then removed the air cleaner, but left the backing plate in place. You can see the Boyesen X-Wing in the backing plate.

 

Removing the three bolts holding the gas tank in place, I had to cut a couple of zip ties to free up enough slack in the harness to raise the tank, only to discover the hang up was a rigid plastic vent pipe, that I disconnected back by the battery. You can see it in this picture....There is a junction right by the red battery cover where it disconnects.





The ‘06 does not have the quick disconnect gas lines, getting clearance under the tank proved to be the most difficult part of the install. I propped up both ends of the tank with a folded towel, giving me just enough room to get my fingers underneath it, and disconnected the snap connectors from the two injectors.



Carefully routing the wire harness from the PowrPro, one connector on each lead snapped onto the injector. It doesn't matter which one goes on either injector. The smaller black connector on the PowrPro lead, in the center of the picture, plugged into the Harley connector shown on the right. Tucking everything back in under the tank, a zip tie around the upper motor mount holds the PowrPro harness away from the hot heads.

 

The install directions state to mount the PowrPro under the seat, behind the battery. I have some issues with that. There’s a lot of “iron” in that area, such as the back rest bracket, that could cause damage to the unit should it vibrate loose. There is also an indicator light on the PowrPro---a light I would not be able to see without removing the seat. The ground wire would also have to go across or around the battery to get to the ground post.

Under the right side cover, however, there is an almost perfectly shaped spot to mount the unit, which is what I did. There is even a slight notch in the side cover/frame just the right size for the harness to exit. By mounting it there, instead of under the seat, will enable me to just remove the side cover to check that the unit is operating properly. I then routed the ground wire easily to the battery bolt and reinstalled it, checking also the positive connection. Carefully lowering the tank back down, I made sure there were no wires pinched, and rebolted the tank, and remounted the air cleaner.

 

There is an indicator light on the PowrPro that will blink several times as soon as you turn on the ignition, and then go off, indicating a successful self check. A few checks showed me that it self checks quicker than the ECM on the bike, so I know that when the light on the dash goes off, the PowrPro will also be ready for ignition. Once the bike is started, this light should come on and remain on.

At this point, I was a little apprehensive, having read a few of the posts on other forums about initial start up problems. However, click on this picture to see what happened in my case when I hit the start button.

 

First impressions:

The engine fired right up without any of the problems some other users on other forums reported, such as initial erratic idle. I did notice that blipping the throttle off idle causes the indicator light to blink slightly, whereas the directions state it should be steady on. By slightly raising the idle speed, and then blipping the throttle, the light doesn’t flash. I make a mental note to check this later.

Wrapping up my tool roll, making sure I have everything with needed to “uninstall” should the need arise, I put on my leathers and helmet and take my first ride. The air temp is 69 degrees, and the engine is cold. I have about a mile to the edge of town, with three lights, all of which were red. So far, so good, and no noticeable change. Leaving town on the open road, I drive normally, shifting up through the gears, with traffic both in front and back of me. It’s about three miles to the first country intersection, and I slow and take the corner in second, and gently roll on the throttle on I usually would, and the first thought that went through my mind was “Holy crap!” The bike literally leaped underneath me, instead of the gentle acceleration I was expecting. I continue to ride as I normally would, warming the bike up, and head back to the house, where I collect my Droid and Ram mount. It is 30 miles to the nearest station selling non-ethanol gas, and that’s where I’m headed, to fully warm up the bike and top off the tank and do some comparison runs.

On the way, I repeatedly slow and shift down and do some gentle accelerations. I notice no change in sound at a steady speed, and do notice an increase in exhaust sound when accelerating. I’m assuming that is caused by more fuel in the cylinders. I do ever increasing RPM roll ons, and everything remains smooth. Arriving at the gas station, I check the oil temp, and it’s right at 210 degrees. The air temp is 70 degrees, as compared to 74 degrees when I made my earlier timed runs. I open the vents on my lowers, and head out of town to a quiet county road for the comparison testing.