Fuel Injection

 Does anyone make an aftermarket fuel injection system that would work on a
Kawasaki Z1 and is
streetable?

Ken

--
"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will
promote the General
Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated
powers, but an indefinite
one, subject to particular exceptions." --James Madison

 

Kawasaki Z1

Not to my knowledge. I daresay the systems fitted to the early injected
Kawasakis could be made to fit with a lot of buggering about, but
otherwise you're on your own.

Or just fit carbs ;-)


--
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Suzuki TS250ERx2 GN250.  Only seven bikes now.
Try Googling before asking a damn silly question.
chateau dot murray at idnet dot com

 The Older Gentleman wrote:

I honestly can't see any practical benefit whatsoever from fitting
FI to a bike such as the Z1 that has so many choices for carburetors,
including but not limited to the OEM carbs.  Whatever the OP might
want to achieve by switching to FI I have no idea, but if it's for
any other reason than to simply see if it can be done and as a
learning experience (and it certainly can) it's bound to be a
complete waste of time and money.  There's really nothing at all
wrong with properly sorted carbs.

 

I thought that fuel injection was more efficient than carburetors and an
electronic FI can adjust the mixture based upon temp and atmospheric pressure.

Ben

 Ben Kaufman wrote:

Efficient- not necessarily, but in theory all of the factors you cite
are true.  In practice, FI systems have any number of characterstics
that make them not necessarily better, and in some cases they can be
a good deal worse (for the home mechanic) than carburetors.

My 2007 FJR is a case in point, the factory fuel
injection as it comes from Yamaha isn't bad, but it is widely regarded
as needing tweaking due to lean mapping right off idle and at part
throttle, so badly that a great many people fit an aftermarket Power
Commander or similar system to get around this problem.  In a
carbureted bike, a slight jetting change or adjustment of fuel level
or needle height will usually accomplish the same thing at much
lower cost.  And it's hard to beat the throttle response of a well
sorted set of carbs, but from what I read, the best modern FI systems
are getting to be very good indeed.  Also, the FJR system as delivered
in the 2006-2008 models had a fault in the ECU that made them not work
properly during altitude changes, unless the throttle was opened a lot
more than would be sane on a mountain switchback, leading to possible
stalling.
Shutting the bike off and restarting it got around the issue, but
Yamaha, to their credit, did come up with a reprogrammed ECU which
addressed this problem, if you're interested, Google for "FJR altitude
sickness".

I realize that the FJR's problems are not representative of all bike
FI systems, but my original answer still stands, on a bike that did not
come with FI from the factory, and there isn't a direct bolt-on from
a bike that is basically otherwise the same (later model with more or
less the same engine, or another engine that has a very similar
displacement and cams, etc.) it's going to be a huge amount of work
for very little gain, if any.  I'm not saying it can't or shouldn't
be done- only that it should be done with one's eyes wide open, and
not making an a priori assumption that the results will be better than
putting on a set of properly chosen and set up carbs.

Unless you have the resources of a large user community that has put
FI on such an engine to draw upon, or you have years of experience and
a shitload of gear for mapping a FI system, I can almost guarantee it
will be a lot of work for no significant benefit.