Fuel injection on a Valkyrie

[CamTom12]

Well, I’m officially tossing the carbs.

I’ve got kids and a job and occasionally the bike has unplanned periods of disuse. I try to drain carbs and whatnot but who’s perfect?

After the latest carburetor rebuild my left bank has been leaking into the cylinders even with the petcock off. I have to shut the petcock off about 1/2 mile from my destination to run the float bowls low enough that the carbs don’t drain. I’m through.

Anyways, I’ve read about some folks modifying goldwing 1800 intakes. I like that idea, but I’m going to put it as my backup plan.

I picked up a set of triumph 675R throttle bodies from a salvage shop and they are nearly perfect for on-center spacing and ~40mm narrower than the Valk carbs. Which means I’ll have 20mm top and bottom for adapters to keep the stock runners/air box.

The thing I’m not super happy about is that I’ll either have the fuel rails hanging out in the breeze (might look cool?) or I’ll have some pretty complicated linkage between the banks (which would then be hanging out in the breeze).

Plus the standard EFI issues of where to mount the pump/regulator. The 675R has dead-head rails so if I could get something like the 2014 Valk fuel pump/regulator (like Pago Cruiser was considering for his motor swap) in my standard tank that would be ideal. I’ve thought about building a small cube-ish section below the tank (but welded to and sharing main tank volume. This would give a flat surface for the “new Valk”pump assy to seal against and would also give a little more volume.

Planning to microsquirt. Maybe I’ll get fancy with lean cruise or something. But I’ll never rebuild or pay someone else to rebuild these carbs again.

Anyway, just some initial thoughts here. I’m going to work on planning it all out this summer/fall and start tearing it apart in the winter.

[h13man]

If you have a "life" and live in God's land, where do you think you're going find time,parts availability and the cost for shipping to your area? I suggest find a bike that's already FI. BTW a manual Pingle will resolve the leaking fuel. My ride came 11,000 mi. and a Pingle plus my almost 40,000/10 yrs. with no fuel issues as of yet.

[CamTom12]

That’s a fair point, but I’ve got plenty of time these days after the kids go to bed. Wasn’t the case when they were younger but things are a bit easier right now. We haven’t started sports yet, so in that golden window of semi-autonomy but not riddled with extracurricular activities. And for whatever reason I tend to stay up late 

The one bank of 3 TBs came complete with injectors, fuel rail, and Idle control solenoid. Cost me $60 delivered  .

Now that I’ve gotten to hold it up to the bike and verify possibilities, I’ve started shopping around to see what the rest would cost. I think I can get this thing done for $500-$800 in parts to include the Microsquirt. The hardest part will be the tank mods to get a fuel pump in there. Well, that plus figuring the throttle linkages.

I’ll design the TB adapters and have a buddy of mine print them. We’ll see how the heavier duty plastics hold up. If I need to get them CNC’d later I can do that locally.

[Toovalks]

Look up OKI and Toovalks from 4-5 years ago... been there and done that....

[Toovalks]

Sorry...just noticed that you've already been there... don't come here often any more.....

[Avanti]

I do not see where anyone finished a fuel injection project on naturally aspirated Valkyrie.

[CamTom12]

Sorry...just noticed that you've already been there... don't come here often any more.....

No worries - did you get yours running?

[Bagger John - #3785]

I've seen several F6 (1500) setups that were fuel-injected. One (JeffK) was a blower bike. The others were normally aspirated.

A few of these I've spotted in the wild were done by people who weren't aware of the VRCC, so more than the folks on  this board have been creative at some point.

As others have stated, install a Pingel petcock (or if you want to retain the stock Valkyrie fuel selector knob, swap for the petcock from a CBR600F-series.) I used an F3 part; search this forum for the thread containing the Honda P/N if curious.

My ultimate EFI solution was to buy a couple Concours 14s.

[CamTom12]

I ordered a cbr petcock last night, hopefully that cures the hydro locking for now.

I’m still moving forward with the plans for FI though. It’s a project I’ve been wanting to do for about 10 years but now the parts are starting to get fairly affordable.

My wife says I can’t not have a project, so it might as well be this one  

[CamTom12]

Here’s some pictures of the 675R throttle bodies:







They came with injectors, fuel rail, throttle position sensor, and idle air control. They’re a little larger in diameter (I think, going from memory from the last time I had the carbs off), but the on-center spacing is nearly perfect - I think only 3 or 4 mm off (again from memory but I did measure that).

I think I might be able to get a 675R fuel pump assembly in the bottom of the Valk tank if I add a deeper sump, which would be ideal since they’re designed to work together already.

[ryno9100]

Any luck getting these lined up? I'd love to replicate this at some point in the future.

I'm too young for all this carb business. (only pulling your legs)

[Jims99]

Would it be possible to gut the Valkyrie carb and sleeve it, then add the throttle body between that and the air box. That way it would still look stock. I’ll keep my carbs, I ride enough year round to keep them going. If you could figure a way to inject a modified carb or hide it and leave a hollow carb , you could over a lot more interestied. Good luck, I know there’s a lot of interest.
Also to install pump, use a belly tank. More room and probably easier to hide. I know nothing about fi, just throwing in my 2cents.

[Savago]

IIRC, there was a Valk turbo bike using EFI that was posted here a couple years ago.

In any case, I wish you the best of luck my friend!
 

[CamTom12]

I haven’t really made any progress on this – a small brake job has turned into a full front brake rebuild on the bike, plus trying to finish the annual inspection on my airplane has taken the priority right now.
 
I still need to source a returnless fuel pump assembly.  Thinking about one from a Triumph 675R but an alternative would be a ~2014 Valkyrie fuel pump as they’re angled to fit a “standard” style tank, and wouldn’t need as much area added to the bottom of the stock tank. Not sure yet if that one is returnless.
 
I thought really hard about a belly tank for the fuel pump, as I really wanted the extra capacity.  The big things that are driving me away from a belly tank are the proximity of high pressure fuel lines to the exhaust/rear tire/road surface.  So far I haven’t completely ruled it out, though. It would definitely make recreating a kit a whole lot more manageable for anyone that wants to try. An important thing there would be to find a pump assembly that mounts to the top or side as that would get the hoses further from the ground. Plus figuring out a way to illuminate a low fuel light when the main tank runs dry.

This is still very much in the planning/figuring stages anyway. Aside from the brakes which I should have done this week, the Valk is running well and I want to ride it as long as I can this summer/fall before I start tear-down for this mod. So unfortunate unless someone has any ideas that might help or I make any progress on planning/ordering bits, this thread might get a little dull until winter

[CamTom12]

Would it be possible to gut the Valkyrie carb and sleeve it, then add the throttle body between that and the air box. That way it would still look stock. I’ll keep my carbs, I ride enough year round to keep them going. If you could figure a way to inject a modified carb or hide it and leave a hollow carb , you could over a lot more interestied. Good luck, I know there’s a lot of interest.

The unfortunate thing about trying to convert a carb to FI is that you’re on your own to build/source/integrate things like fuel injectors, the fuel rail, the throttle position sensor, and an idle air control valve. It won’t look as pretty but using an existing bank of factory built throttle bodies reduces a ton of the complexity involved in a project like this.

[98valk]

"I’ve got kids and a job and occasionally the bike has unplanned periods of disuse. I try to drain carbs and whatnot but who’s perfect?"

all u have to do is use Sta-bil 360 in every tank, not drain the carbs and u will not have problems.
Pretty simple compared to the time, effort, tuning, laptop needed, $$$$ etc., making a fuel injection system for very little benefit over a factory individual runner carburetor system.

[CamTom12]

"I’ve got kids and a job and occasionally the bike has unplanned periods of disuse. I try to drain carbs and whatnot but who’s perfect?"

all u have to do is use Sta-bil 360 in every tank, not drain the carbs and u will not have problems.
Pretty simple compared to the time, effort, tuning, laptop needed, $$$$ etc., making a fuel injection system for very little benefit over a factory individual runner carburetor system.

What can I say, I’m also a glutton for a project. And I like EFI, I’ve been tuning it in various formats for almost 20 years.

[98valk]

if I remember correctly there were three members who converted their valkyries to FI.  I believe Jeff K was one of the members and ended up owning all three FI valkyries.