| Author | Message | ||
     Pizzaboy |
i ordered the Crane Hi-4E ignition kit for my S2 last week and it came in today... and 1 hour after it was dropped off at my house by the mail man, it was installed! it was a super easy kit to install. i think the hardest part was just getting to the allen head bolts to replace the module and the coil. they are tucked in pretty well and i was not about to remove the upper fairings and the gas tank just to make it a bit easier. the HI-4E kit is a little cooler than the regular HI-4 kit, in that the E means its a multiple spark per stroke system... Both being a single fire as opposed to the factory dual fire setup. i tuned the module for the single fire, multi spark system and used the OEM timing curves. i adjusted the timing advance pretty agressively, though. i chopped the spark plug wires to length, zip tied everything clean, and was ready to go. initial seat of the pants feeling was all smiles. the spark didnt necessarily feel hotter, though its safe to assume that the system is firing up to 9 sparks per stroke now, and the spark has apparently over two times the energy of the factory coil. i did notice the feeling of having a pretty agressively timed bike now... and it feels good. i may find a local dyno in the near future and screw with the rear cylinder timing to try to squeeze any more juice out. the idea of independantly adjusting each cylinder's timing is a pretty cool feature. over all i am really happy with this upgrade. it worked well in conjunction with my mikuni HSR carb upgrade of last week. my bike has woken up very noticibly. this is probably about all i am going to do to the bike this summer.. this fall i believe ill be ripping into the engine and installing thunderstorm goodies throughout. im in the market for those parts now. i REALLY love how nice and easy this thing is to work on, and cheaper to upgrade compared to my jeep that i dumped hundreds of hours, and tens of thousands of bucks per year, for like 5 years straight. i realize that its probably sad that i consider my bike to be a cheaper hobby hahha | ||
| Werewulf |
bravo...what did you do about the fitment of the single fire coil? it didnt conflict with the fuel tank? any pics? | ||
| Pizzaboy |
the side of both the coil and module are pretty much the same size and needed no modification to make them fit properly.. all of the holes match perfectly also. it was incredibly easy. ill load up some final pics tomorrow! | ||
| Bad_karma |
Tony Not sure about the E version, but my Hi4 throws a solid white spark much stronger than the stock coil ever did. Joe | ||
| Phillyblast |
Pizza, The big thing you'll love about an ignition upgrade on the S2, and that will help when you do more upgrades, is the stock ignition had a "soft" limiter starting around 5500 RPM that kicked in a ton of retard - IIRC it was for noise emissions since it lowered what was considered the max rpms used for drive-by testing. So even though it would rev to 6200 or so it would really only pull to 5500, if that. Upgrading the ignition on my S2 when it was stock only bought about 3 HP but drivability went waaay up, as you have noticed. btw check around on badweb - I couldn't find the thread on a quick search but there are several - a number of folks did XB/04 sporty heads with xb9 pistons and 536 cams and were well over 100 RWHP on pump gas. Depending on your ebay-foo it could be done for around a grand to 1500 bucks in parts if my off the cuff math is correct. | ||
| Pizzaboy |
the more i drive it the more i like it. i have been playing with the timing advance today and set it a bit further since i havent seen any pinging yet. i agree, philly, the response is much better from everywhere in the powerband. and i am glad you told me that because i became curious when i was playing in the upper rpm range... it pulls all the way to 6100 which is where my rev limiter is set at the moment. it used to be that the last 500 rpm was like impossible to get through. I LOVE IT! philly, did you do that combo on your S2?? id like more info on the specific upgraded parts, im really interested in going that route, PM me!! thanks! | ||
| Phillyblast |
Tony, I didn't go that way but I did my upgrade four years ago  . - I'm currently running 1250 Axtell cylinders, XB heads with a 15 degree squish to match the Hurricane pistons, and E cams. If I were going back into the motor today without any further head work I would do the 536 or 575 cams - the E cams are noisy - but I'm really happy with the current setup. I like how they perform, but they are noisy so that's pretty much why I'd switch them out for another cam. It makes about "current generation" power i.e. what an XB with aftermarket muffler and open airbox would make, and at the time the E cams on paper looked like the would do better in the low-mid range than the 536s which is where I spend most of my time, so that's what I went with. Keep in mind I'm still running the stock 2 inch header and a Supertrapp with (currently) like 12 disks to keep the neighbors happy.  It was also a spendy upgrade so if you're interested in bang for your buck, and who isn't, this particular combo of XB9 pistons/12 heads jumps out as an option worth investigating I still can't find the posts on the peeps that did the upgrade but here's to the best of my knowledge the parts list etc.: 1) set of 04-up sportster heads or XB heads 2) XB9 pistons 3) SE 536 cams Add in gasket set and getting the cylinders honed, rings, etc. Of course keep in mind this will put your compression at about 12.3-1 or thereabouts with the domed XB9 pistons and the 1203 stroke. Folks have reported no problems with this combo on pump gas but I don't have first hand knowledge, so I'm not going to raise my right hand etc. etc. and if it's the daily driver vehicle IMHO I would sacrifice the extra power for lower compression but . . . I'll PM ya sometime soon so you have my email addy David | ||
| Pizzaboy |
that would be great philly! i feel like there are so many different options for making power on this bike that i dont really know what direction i want to go.. and what would tailor to my personal style the most for end resulting power, time, and money investment... and of course i still want to keep it a very reliable daily driver there is a crap load of combos that i can do with the XB plant parts, i really like the 1250 kit from NHRS though, also... yet at the same time im ALMOST thinking it would be really cool just to find a complete thunderstorm powerplant and do a simple engine swap without ever tearing into my engine. there are just too many good options out there, its almost frustrating to find the one thats right for me!! | ||
| Rick_a |
I don't like Crane ignitions. We see a lot crap out at the shop after one or two years (mainly the Hi-4[E] and especially the nosecone mount ignitions). I used one briefly...and liked it a lot, but it died after only two weeks. It would work configured as a dual fire but not single. I went old-school and got a Dyna-S. Many people have used the Dyna 2000 with great success and I've never personally heard of a problem with one. | ||
| Jayvee |
I added Dyna 2000 and the single-fire coil, runs fine, but it killed my turn signal flashing. Runs so good I'm just doing without, for now, using hand signals. I'm even using the Dyna brand ignition wires, so I don't know what happened. The lights all work, just won't flash right. Sounds better, especially at idle, but as far as power I'm not sure it's any improvement over the Race Ignition I had before. No dyno, sorry, I wish... | ||
| Werewulf |
i just installed the daytona version in the nose cone... i hope its not going to give me problems...especially when im 500 miles from home.. | ||
| Werewulf |
one more thing.. in all the motorcycles and performance cars that ive owned, i rarely have actually felt any difference from merely changing the ignition... so if you can feel a difference, thats a good thing. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Werewulf - I run the Daytona TwinTec nosecone ignition (I'm guessing that's what you mean by "daytona version") in my FLHP. Been there for nearly 20k miles, rain, snow, hot, cold...no problems. | ||
| Pizzaboy |
ill note your experiences, rick. after one week, it seems to be running wonderfully. i have since put about 500mi on the bike with the ignition and love it. i have set the timing advance a bit higher again.. it is still on the oem switch but on number 9 for advance at the moment. very noticable difference compared to the stock ignition and still no pinging or other things to note. here is the module mounted.. for someone like me who can find hours of entertainment looking at a newspaper blowing in the wind, it is no shocker that i get great entertainment by the blinking light on it when the engine is running! ... plus it looks dead sexy above my new (180 rear) pilot power tires that i believe to be one of the best street bike looking tires out there! ...tragically these recent mods have been in vain- my poor stock-sportster-egnined bike can still not safely pull a text book wheelie =[ very sad  (Message edited by pizzaboy on May 16, 2008) | ||
| Pizzaboy |
heres the single fire coil also. fits like a glove! my bike used to be 'parkway blue' (read 'purple')... and the previous owner thought it would be cool to put matching purple ignition wires. these black ones are quite a bit thicker at 8.5 compared to the rev tech 7's that used to be on there before. nice!  | ||
| Rick_a |
Beautiful bike...except for those passenger pegs! A good adjustable electronic ignition can really smooth things out...my mechanical advance ignition is pretty rough and rowdy...but I like it. | ||
| Pizzaboy |
Beautiful bike...except for those passenger pegs! hahaha tell me about it!!! that is one of my last peeves on the bike; im still looking for a set of cool aluminum pegs that dont seem overpriced... i think $70 for a pair of pegs is too much.} |
