Yesterday i bought something to experiment on. Just a little thingy… Ow well, i might as well tell you i bought a second 916 with a 996 engine conversion (dual injectors and 996 ecu) with 136 hp.

But i bought it cheap, the owner sold it with one cylinder off and the bike not running. He thinks it’s a crankshaft bearing that went bad. The cylinder (in the box) looks like everything is ok. So to i’m taking her apart to learn and diagnose.

Time to buy me a Haynes workshop manual?

The thing that made me buy the 2nd Ducati 916 was this:

I think it would be fun to turbocharge a Ducati 916!

I read up on some ways of controlling boost other then letting it run on base boost. This looks like fun to buy!

Things to think about:

• compression is now 11.5, turbocharged compression should be lowered.
  - Boost vs compression post.
• where to place the turbocharger; under the oil cooler / front cylinder (just using exhaust gas from 0ne cylinder) ór under the seat (my butt can’t stand the heat / heat shield?).
• how to get enough oil and water to the turbocharger.
• intercooler? And if yes, where to put it.

It’s nice to have a project bike alongside my summertime fun bike. Best of both worlds!

I can’t wait until the sun begins to shine again!

All items were packed separately in anti static bags and after unpacking all of them i decided it was time to open up the 916′s ecu to see if it would let met pull out the chip.

I needed to make a custom L-shaped tool as my fingers were to big to slide under the chip and pry it out. A bent small screwdriver ore something will let you pry it out from both ends and voila,… The socket is empty and the 28 pins chip is out.

The Moates Burn 2 and Ostrich 2.0 come with no documentation. So i have downloaded all i could find on the Moates website (usb drivers, manuals, tutorials, …). I found the information to be somewhat scatterd across the site. Some files are a bit old. But they will do the job.

With the Flash & Burn tool installed and the original 916 chip in the Burn 2 it’s time to try and read out the original chip. On my first few reads i got a 1k description file. Not the whole 64k binary. A bit of reading i found you have to enter the following data:

Chip addressing
Start address in Hex: 000000
End address in Hex: 00FFFF

Buffer addressing
Start address in Hex: 000000
End address in Hex: 00FFFF

The chip you select is the 27C512 (read only).

Then you “read chip” and “save buffer to file”. This will let you specify a file name and save the original read out.

Here is my original chip content: Ducati_916_G-ice_original_11022012.bin.

Next trick was opening the bin in TunerPro RT. The result was as baffling as when i opened a Saab non turbocharged bin file in TunerPro RT. There are so few maps! The maps are basically a fuel map, ignition map and some engine heating / air pressure maps. I think i need to go a bot deeper and look at the file with WINOLS and or a disassembler like IDA PRO to check if there are a few more maps to play with. But i’ve never used these, so i need to digg in to those first.

Aside the chip reader i have bought a chip emulator. This Moates Ostrich lets me hook it up to the Ducati in the original chip socket. When the Ostrich is connected the micro processor inside will pretend to be the original chip. However it will also (at the same time) hook up to TunerPro with a USB cable. When i change data in TunerPro the emulated chip data will change also. This way you can do some live tuning with the bike running.

It is however hard to ride the Ducati with a laptop on the bike, so what is the advantage i hear you shouting to the screen. You do not have to reflash a chip and click it in the ECU every time you do a little tweak. You can just hook it up, change the data and off you go for another test run.

Uploading data to the Ostrich was done in a few seconds with TunerPro. I clicked a socket booster (to ensure better data streams from the Ostrich to the ECU) in the original ECU socket. Hooked up the Ostrich and (after the drained -15 deg battery was charged again) started up the Ducati.

So far so good, no fuss, no setbacks, everything i hoped that would work just did!

The next step is to compare some 916 bin’s to my own bin to see what was altered for specific performance gains.

The Saab is a 2001 9-3 convertible, original a SE 150 HP version. I’ve changed a lot in the past few years, i’ll make a small list of the things that come to mind:

- 3″ to 2.5″ stainless steel exhaust with race cat
- Original MHI TD04 15t #5
- Full aluminium intercooler
- Henko 275 lph fuel pump
- Saab Viggen clutch
- Siemens Deka 630 cc injectors, now swapped for 875 cc injectors
- EBC discs and pads
- Hirsch 18″ alloys
- Viggen seats & door panels
- All out audio upgrade with stock radio (4 ch EQ, 6 ch AMP, compo set, rear bass, trunk bass)
- Saab 9-5 biopower software with about 300 hp / 440 Nm on E85

The Saab is where i learnt my software tuning tricks. T7 suite, a brilliant free tool by Saab DIY tuner “Dilemma” aka Guido helped my a lot, it paved the way to understanding the insides of my Saab.

I’ve still got a lot of wild plans for the Saab, ill give you another mouth watering list:

- Viggen skirts and bumpers
- Hirsch carbon dash
- Short shifter
- B204 short block with Wossner pistons & Verdi rods
- MHI TD04 19t #6 or #7, Disco potato or bigger, i have to choose
- New fuel lines
- 345 mm front disks with porsche calipers
- Vented 9-5 Aero rear discs
- TCS
- Aero gauge with turbo pressure meter
- . . .

I’m planning a few detailed write ups and photo shoots on future upgrades, so bookmark for upgrades!

They might be helpful to examine and compare maps before i attempt to take on my own bike.

To read and understand the files you need to load a description file. This one has been made by Desmo11, who in posting some findings, did a lot of the hard work for me!

- Ducati bin description xdf.

Some stock bin files:

- Ducati 748 stock bin file.
- Ducati 916 stock bin file.

A tuning experiment:

- Ducati 916 bin file for a 52 mm half exhaust.

Treat the files with care, do not use them on your bike without proper feedback on the result. I advise you to at least have a wideband lambda on your bike when experimenting!

I have 4 helmets lying around in the house, 2 are still in one piece and ware able. But all helmets look a bit “not me”! In my head was the movie “the expendables” where Jason Statham rides a Ducati and has the coolest helmet ever!

A bit of reaserch reveiled the helmet is a Icon Airframe Rubatone with a dark smoke visor. Unfortunately there is no Icon dealer with stock in The Netherlands. After emailing some dealers who told me they would order it for me, but i would have to buy it. That seemed a bit cross, so i took a chance and ordered it on eBay.

After waiting over a month for the helmet to clear customs (USPS is the worst ever!) i could finaly pull it over my head. And it fits, snug like it should! I like the feeling around my ears, they appear to have more room in this helmet.

When i first took the bike out for a spin with my new helmet on it took some getting used to. The helmet is more stable and likes to keep my head straight. My other rounder helmets make it easyer for me to look at the other lanes at high speeds. But a big dissapointment for me is the noise. When i pass 100 km/u the wind noise is a lot more then my other helmets. So today i spent me evening google-ing for add-on’s to make my helmet the best ever.

This is what i ordered, time will tell if it will help:

(Motrax StopWind Deluxe)

When i read some of the reviews a found a solution to my fogging up the screen problem to try, so some eBay shop sold me this:

(Respro Foggy Mask)

Hopefully these add-on’s will let me enjoy my helmet without having to use earplugs, even for short distances!

Hardware in the Ducati:

The P8 chip was in the 916 Strada (one injector per cyl), SP, SPS and 996 SPS models (2 injectors per cyl).
The Marelli 1.6 was in all 748, 916 Biposto and Senna (one injector per cyl) and the 996 Biposto and S models (two injectors per cyl).
(Taken from the Haynes Manual)

Chip: 27C512 / SST 27SF512

ECU: Motorola processor MC68HC11
MC68HC11F1VFN4
2F37E
SSAS9813

You can use this chip to flash and replace the original: 27SF512.
The 27FS512 is pin compatible with the 27C512 (the difference being how they are programmed).

Random links:

Random Ducati tuning links:
- Opening post in a tuning research forum thread
- Speedzilla ducati tuning topic with .bin files and some software  / hardware tips
- Project start / MyECU
- a 996 topic about moates en double / single injectors
- Trouble emulating the chip with a Moates Ostrich 1

Software Ducati tuning links:
- Tunerpro, een .bin editor

Hardware Ducati tuning links:
- Moates.net eprom flasher / emulator

Software & hardware Ducati tuning combo links:
- Jeffries MyECU

a Ducati in the shed, cool! But could that Duc be upgraded to run smoother / faster / better (without sponsoring the local shop too much)? I’m hoping this quest will prove to be useful to myself and others that share my interest, now and in the future!

I’m planning the following steps:

Step 1, research:

• what hardware can i find to read / write eproms?
  ebay? webshops? forums? reviews?
• what software can i find to read / write eproms?
  free? buy? list of different types? the best one is? Why?
• what hardware & software do i need to monitor the Duc’s performance gains and possible screwups?
  innovate LC1 wideband lambda just like the Saab? Do i need to beware of high EGT’s? Can i measure (nearing) knock? knocksensor?

Step 2: tuning (and a little background info for you to read):
Software tuning means optimizing parameters to get the result the user wants. This could be economics, power, torque, balance or a combination of some of these wants. The principle is relatively simple:

• Optimizing ignition advance.
  The “big bang” of the combustion in the cylinder should take place just after the piston was at the top of the cylinder (TDC / top dead center). The mixture of air / fuel should be ignited before that time to achieve  this result, this is measured in degrees before TDC. Modern injection engines have a sensor that measures where the camshaft is in its rotation as to determine the correct ignition point for each cylinder. To much ignition advance is bad as it causes the “big bang” to occur before TDC trying to force the piston the wrong way down, we call this knock. This can be caused due to to poor fuel quality (low knock resistance), heat or software error.
• Fuel optimalisation.
  The result of a combustion can be measured with a lambda probe. A lot of engines are kept at lambda 1 (stioch 14,7 on petrol) on low loads and idle. When a engine is expected to produce power it will heat up due to the combustions in the cylinder, when this heat reaches melting point of the cylinder wall or piston it will cause damage, that is why we want to inject more fuel then is necessary for a perfect combustion in the cylinder at high loads, to cool down the cylinder wall and piston. In my car i try to achieve lambda 0,8 (stoich 12,5) at full load. This is a turbo powered engine, i do not know if my Duc will need the same amount of fuel to keep her happy.
  Adding fuel at the wrong time or adding to much / little fuel can cause missfires. missfires is when there should have been a combustion but it did not happen. Missfires are also bad, un-ignited fuel enters the exhaust and can burn in the exhaust where we don’t want anything burning.
• Finding the hidden features.
  Sometimes there are software developers features in the software, can we find them and turn them on?

In this project my one and only true friend will be Google.

I would love to get feedback / additions / help / links or just find online Nerds like me interested in tuning their Ducati and taking on this project together.

There seems to be a lot of cool stuff happening lately. I’m doing even faster stuff to the Saab offcourse. I recently picked up a Ducati 916 to play with and found myself looking around if the Saab tuning stuff could help me figure out the Ducati’s insides.

Well, i hope it will and i hope you will follow my writeup of the car / bike wrecking events that lead up to the fastest, smoothest Saab and Ducati i ever owned.

Kind regards,

G-ice