More IMS 4.5 installs

silentwolf wrote:

As I remember back in the day IMS wasn't even interested in making a tank for us WRs?

Yeaaaaaah...but then there was me and my persistence. *coughs* I'm a bad influence. It's kinda neat when you call there and get the 'Hey Lynn, how's it going?' IIRC, a few guys have bought the IMS who had the Safari and either kept the Safari for another bike, or sold it.

still zero issues with mine as well. 200 miles of dirt/trail/backroads saturday without a single hiccup.

Gotta love a hassle free setup.

For those with Scott SUB Steering damper setup:

You will need to grind about 1/4" inch off the backends of the subframe oblong seat mounting holes. The seat will bend in the center resulting in a couple of fabric wrinkles in the middle. This is because the tower pin bracket acts as a spacer which pushes the tank up about 3/16" to 1/4" inch.

I screwed one of the mounting points on my seat try to force the bolt in. There was too much lateral sheer pressure which cause the threaded metal mount to spin around the poly seat pan. I had to cut the bolt.

Should be enough fuel range you think??

I seem to be doing things a bit back to front here - extra fuel capacity then fussing with increasing the performance!

I've got the IMS 4.5 tank on - and very nice too.

Now want to do the flapper/airbox mod.

I've undone the phillips screw to loosen the solenoid, disconnected it's connector, unplugged the flapper solenoid from it's vacuum hose, turned the flapper solenoid 1/4 turn and removed it.

Now I seem to be supposed to disconnect the vacuum line from the throttle body - but this is the line that runs to the T-piece and on to the tank.

Can I just connect the vacuum hose from the tank directly to the throttle body? then remove the surge tank and glue the flapper down?

Cheers

John

I saw a post somewhere about a gas cap for the IMS tank that does not require a vent hose. Can't seem to find it now. Can someone point me to it??

Edit. Ok, I think it is the Acerbis locking cap.
http://www.justgastanks.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_3_355_13&products_id=360

Have you been having fuel starvation issue? I ran mine below the main fuel pump today and it was hesitating . I might try tapping into the other vacuum line to see whats up?

The only other thing is that I stuffed some EVO tank foam into the tank. Don't see why this would make any difference?

rydnseek wrote:

simonpig wrote:

Any of you use the open vacuum port (available after taking off the AIS/Servo/Flapper instead of "t"ing into the other vacuum port?

Is it ok to do this? I did and seem to work ok?

that was what i used. I had a small piece of hose with a golf tee in it for the plug for the ais/flapper mod. I pulled it off & used the longer hose to connect to that line, then to the tank. I cut off some of the excess so it would not bind or get pinched.

Hi all,

Went for a ride today and it was definitely hesitating when the fuel was lower than the pump. I tapped into the line that you all told me to......

47une wrote:

Went for a ride today and it was definitely hesitating when the fuel was lower than the pump.

In the front tank or the rear tank.... ?

Front tank only, rear tank has been fine.......

Jäger wrote:

47une wrote:

Went for a ride today and it was definitely hesitating when the fuel was lower than the pump.

In the front tank or the rear tank.... ?

I repositioned my vaccuum tap-in to behind the cross tube and snipped the 4 inches of extra line like Crooked Creek did and now my starvation started at 278 miles and was pretty bad at 283 when I got home. Thing is, shining a flashlight in shows the fuel level bridging both wings and the pump well so the vaccuum pump shouldn't even be needed yet. Accelerating uphill fixed the starvation while it lasted so it seems to be a fuel level problem but my fuel level looks higher than at 260 miles when I had problems before.

I'm remembering the old starvation problem and I used to get 5 miles or so of no starvation after letting the bike sit overnight and thinking it might be a pump cooling problem.

Today I found that coasting and shutting off the ignition for 10-20 seconds and clutch-starting gets me a mile or so of good fuel flow before sputtering starts up again. A good downhill stretch where I can get 40-60 seconds of ignition-off-time can get me 2 miles of sputter-free riding. I'm racking my brain trying to figure what would cause those symptoms.

Turns out my fuel starvation issue was caused by a poorly placed vacuum line on my part. The seat pinched it off. Rerouted it, good to go, so far. Will report if the issue comes back.

Took the 4.75 gallon tank out to test it to see if it would run dry, and ended up stranded with the gas available in the wings. Whats going on? The stuttering happened a week earlier on a trip the the Pine Barrens, but I was really close to a gas station, so decided not to tempt fate and filled it up before heading home.

Because of this, I took the seat off, made sure all the vacuum lines were connected, tight and attached properly to the throttle body (took the AIS off, so had that port available) and cut exess hose off to avoid kinks, so I can confirm it was connected properly.

The only thing that might affect it would be that I have Big Gun EVO Tank foam squares to avoid fuel sloshing. I don't think this would affect anything as it doesn't drop deep into the wings.

Placed a call to IMS. Recommended checking the fuel pickups to make sure theres no foam remnants. Purchased the foam specifically because the claim was that they cut the foam in such a way to not leave "shavings" in a tank. Also recommended to check that zip ties aren't too tight. (something I made a note of based on comments on this thread, but I'll respect the process and go through it all.

Any thoughts? Anyone being affected, please speak up.

simonpig wrote:

Took the 4.75 gallon tank out to test it to see if it would run dry, and ended up stranded with the gas available in the wings. Whats going on? The stuttering happened a week earlier on a trip the the Pine Barrens, but I was really close to a gas station, so decided not to tempt fate and filled it up before heading home.

Because of this, I took the seat off, made sure all the vacuum lines were connected, tight and attached properly to the throttle body (took the AIS off, so had that port available) and cut exess hose off to avoid kinks, so I can confirm it was connected properly.

The only thing that might affect it would be that I have Big Gun EVO Tank foam squares to avoid fuel sloshing. I don't think this would affect anything as it doesn't drop deep into the wings.

Placed a call to IMS. Recommended checking the fuel pickups to make sure theres no foam remnants. Purchased the foam specifically because the claim was that they cut the foam in such a way to not leave "shavings" in a tank. Also recommended to check that zip ties aren't too tight. (something I made a note of based on comments on this thread, but I'll respect the process and go through it all.

Any thoughts? Anyone being affected, please speak up.

I also ran my tank down to check the vacuum part.. i don't think mine is working properly, either. It started to cut out as soon as the level hit the wings. I kept it running by sloshing the tank from side to side, & i made it to the gas station. I'll take everything apart & check it soon, but i did get 4.1 gal. through it, which left about .6 gal in the wings. I don't have any accessories in the tank, but i did connect to my flapper line. I'll make sure all the lines are straight & unkinked.. perhaps that is all it is.

So the physics of this thing is the vacuum from the engine provides suction for the tubes, drawing fuel up & then down to the pump. Is there a check valve to keep it from being sucked into the engine? And there must be another valve to prevent the line to the fuel pump from drawing the fuel.. I'll have to look up how it works so i can check the operation of mine.

Not quite. The vacuum from the engine is running a lift pump inside the tank, which pumps the fuel up to the stock pump, so there is no way to draw fuel into the vacuum system. The pump is a diaphram type, and requires a pulsing vacuum to make the pump work. Constant vacuum pressure will not operate the pump, which is why you must be plumbed into the AIS vacuum line. The other vac line under their is constant vacuum.

I am wondering if configuration of our suspention will affect how much fuel is kept in the "well" arond the stock fuel pump. If you have done 2 inches of lowering in the rear and only about an inch in front, then the bike has a different overall slant from front to back. Add to that any extra sag if you have it set on the soft side.

Hmm, I was going to order one of these before the group buy ended, but now I am not so sure based on the fuel delivery problems some of you are having. I currently have a Safari and haven't had any issues with the lift pump. In fact I filled up a couple nights ago and put 3.35 in the Safari with 192 miles on the tank.

Well I'm still getting 270 miles into a tankfull before trouble starts so consider that.

Heck maybe you can swap in your safari booster pump and fix the problem we're having.

By chance did any of you who upgraded to the larger tank previously use the 3 gal? I'm looking to pick up a used one if anyone wants to sell it.

Ok. Went through everything.

• Checked that the hose wasn't kinked. I pulled the hose off the vacuum pump and could feel the pulsing vacuum by putting my finger over the hose. Interesting to note that with the hose open, the engine runs rougher and louder. At the same time, theres more power though, since I think the engine is getting a shot of air straight to throttle body and the FI and compensating by giving the engine more fuel at every given rpm.

• The feed tubes were free and clear. No shavings.

• By leaning the bike over so that gas was present only the wings (more on the left, still some in the right, but none going at the base of the main pump) that the left pickup line was not picking up fuel?

• Could it be that vacuum pump is messed up straight from the factory? This was always the case actually since that the same situation was happening when I did that test initally installing the tank. The only difference was that after priming the main pump, I only let it run for a 15-20 second and without reving the engine. Based on forum notes that the main pump needed priming, I thought everything was OK.

Finnaly got around to testing my vacume pump this AM. She started ctting out real bad once it was only running on fuel from the wings - vacume pump. I had a look in the tank to try and see how the fuel looked coming from the vacume pump in relation to the main fuel pump inlet. But it was hard to see. I could here the main pump sucking air even though the engine was still running.

I think I will try to position the fuel line from the vacume pump so it shoots right at the inlet to the main pump. See what that does. It will be a few weeks or so before I do this. I plan on getting a new fuel pump. Mine is a 2008 and still has teh factory fuel pump in it. I don't want to get out on a ride and have the fuel pump give up.

On the plus side. When I was at slow speed reving the engine when it was cutting out, I got to practise a few wheelies. THe WR lifts the front wheel nicely!

I just thought I would add myself to the list that have not had any trouble with this tank. It took a bit of persuasion to get the seat on, but not that much. No trouble with the vacuum pump...(only ran it to a 4.6 gal fill up so far). I have dumped it hard (yeah, several times)...no issues and no leaks (nice to have the radiator protection).

Only problem is the guys I ride with are going to a smaller tank since I apparently volunteered to carry fuel for everyone...she is now fondly known as "the Camel"

I'm on the fence between the Safari and the IMS. While I'd like to have the extra capacity of the IMS there are three things that have me concerned.

1) The extra width... seem like it would be much easier to damage the tank in a crash.

2) The weight of that much more fuel.

3) Sloshing of fuel when the tank is not completely full.

Has any of you that ones the IMS had any of these problems?

It seems like 1 probably isn't a concern if the tank plastic isn't too brittle.

3 could be resolved by stuffing the tank with fuel cell foam, although you'd lose a small amount of fuel capacity.

Haven't tried the Safari, but the extra width on the IMS 4.8 did bother me with stock handlebar setup. You need to adjust your handlebars further back so that your knees are gripping the narrowest part of the tank—you will also be sitting a litle further back in the seat. If you do that you won't notice the width, and I think it'll help with the handling to balance the front/back weight ratio. That said, I'm will be going with a 3 gallon tank to split the difference, and also to avoid the potential added complexity of having a vacuum pump.

Arkmage wrote:

I'm on the fence between the Safari and the IMS. While I'd like to have the extra capacity of the IMS there are three things that have me concerned.

1) The extra width... seem like it would be much easier to damage the tank in a crash.

2) The weight of that much more fuel.

3) Sloshing of fuel when the tank is not completely full.

Has any of you that ones the IMS had any of these problems?

It seems like 1 probably isn't a concern if the tank plastic isn't too brittle.

3 could be resolved by stuffing the tank with fuel cell foam, although you'd lose a small amount of fuel capacity.