Does anyone out there have Dave Dodge's drop in cams in your Magna? Since my bike is apart and engine out for the wheel/brake mod, paint, etc., I thought if I am ever going to do this, now is the time. But, I just don't know if it is worth the money. I would appreciate a frank review from anyone who has added these to his/her bike. If you have, is there a noticeable increase in power?
i remember reading a few posts on the MRF about those, it was awhile ago someone did try them. i don't think they had a good experiance with them. i seem to remember not having much change at all, but i don't think they had the dyna 3k ign. module either. you would probably have to use a different curve to allow for the valve overlap. i know he also sells different springs and lifters or somehting for a stage 2 kit or something like that. if they weren't so expensive i'd have a go at it, but i think they were about $700 or so plus you have to send him your old cams in exchange. i think i'd only do it if i had an extra set of cams laying around, so you could switch back if you didn't like the results. good luck! if there is anybody going to do it, man i know you will!
Yeah, I would do it if I knew there was a noticeable boost in horsepower. However, I worry if it requires the Dyna 3000 as I have had terrible luck with mine. In the span of one year, I have had it crap out 3 times and have had to have it replaced under warranty all three times. A buddy here has a Dyna 3000 in his Magna too and has had it crap out four times in one year. Something is really wrong with the ones Dyna has produced over the last year or so. I have my third one now and have not put it back in the bike yet. For now, I am sticking with the stock Honda unit. I'm just afraid that if I put the Dyna back in, it will crap out in a few months and I will have to pay for the repair now that the warranty is finished.
i dunno.. mine's been fine, although i've heard of a guy on the MRF board who fried his harness where it plugs into the dyna. he thought it was his electrosport regulator that did it though. make sure your ground wires under the left colored side color are attached to the frame. i think they mount to the bracket that holds that coil. i think thouse ground wires go straight to the dyna. other than that, i really dunno what it could be, unless you have to use it with their coils, but they say the factory ones are ok to use... man, that sucks. i wonder if that's why they quit making them, too many problems?
Chad. I'm using the Dyna coils and the Dyna wires, so the coils and wires should not be the problem. Also, there is a ground wire under one of the bracket bolts on the left cover side, so it would seem to be grounded properly. At any rate, it is pretty frustrating for an item that cost almost $300.
i forgot you were using their coils too.. hmm. that's strange.. yeah i can see your frustration. well, hopefully the last one they sent you will be ok. i wonder if they are going to re-issue them at some point with a new design.
I would have thought that I was just having a massive amount of bad luck were it not for my friend down the street, with a 97 Magna, who has also gone through several of these units in one year. When it happens to one person, it is bad luck. When it happens to two people, it is a product defect.
agreed. at least they have stood by and replaced it. maybe not fixed the problem, but got ya 3 new ones :) what are the symptoms when it starts to go bad for future reference?
Sometimes it causes difficulty starting the bike, sometimes it is massive amounts of backfiring, but usually it just causes the bike to run like crap while riding: sudden loss of power in the engine, no acceleration followed by a sudden burst of acceleration, engine suddenly shutting of while you are driving, etc. Yeah, the guys from Dyna have fixed it under warranty, but that warranty is now over so I am stuck with any future bills. The thing that pisses me off is that my stock Honda unit is now 15 years old and works perfectly. One year with the Dyna unit and I am on my third one. That's not good. The Dyna guys are trying to claim that it is because there are "extreme" weather changes where I live (their words, not mine). Over here, we get into the mid 90s in the summer and down to the teens in the winter (but usually in the high twenties to thirties). I spent half of my life in Michigan Chad, and the temperatures here are not really any different from those in Michigan. I remember hot, humid summers and cold winters, so I don't buy this "extreme" temperature excuse.
yeah sounds like bs to me too, kind of CYA stuff i guess... that really stinks. STUPID DYNA, lol. i got my carbs together today. just had enough time to put 'em on and start it for about 20 mins. it still runs like it is missing occasionally. i think i have it down to the left front cylendar. i can put my ear up to any other exaust and hear put-put-put, but on that one it goes like that but then the put-put-put sounds like it goes dead for 2-3 secs. then starts right back up again. at idle, it stays around 1k, but flutters a little bit and occasionally under load it will knock or maybe backfire? i dunno.. didn't do that last year at all. maybe it's time for a carb sync. i did resync them by eye on the bench when i put the new mains in. could be it. i was wondering if maybe my dyna could be going bad too now that you said that. i don't have another to swap to be sure though, sold it last year. i should have held onto it i guess.
Unless it is giving you pretty serious problems while driving or starting, it doesn't sound like you are having a problem with the Dyna. Mine never had any issues at idle; only at startup and at speed. Did you check the plug on the cylinder that is having the problem?
i checked before i pulled the carbs for cleaning a few weeks ago and i checked them all because i adjusted the pilot 'd' screw and i had the same problem before cleaning. this started after i put the new jets in, after i tried to bench sync them. the plugs were all new, looked good, and all the same color. i'll pull the plugs again and check before i do the carb sync with the gauges. that's probably all it is, lol.
and by the way, your problems with the dyna sound like it could also be the vacuum shutoff. i did have mine do the same thing, even before the dyna. i had a pinhole in the vacuum line that feeds it right near the nipple on the cylendar. also, you have those butterflies attached to a vacuum source. maybe for troubleshooting, you could disable those first. maybe they have a hole in a line or a diaphram? can you put in the stock ign. module and the problems just go away?
I promise you can't tell if a plug is firing correctly by site alone, no matter how good it looks.. Start your engine and let it warm up long enough to boil water when you squirt it up close to the head if you find one that's not as hot as the others you might try replacing just that plug, or move the plugs around to see if the problem changes cylinders. If it's been a while you could just replace all the plugs and eliminate that as a problem. just a thought..
Yep, when the Dyna starts to act up, putting the stock CDI back in solves all the problems. Runs like a dream with the stock CDI and runs like a dream for about two or three months with the Dyna before it craps out and dies. I am 100 percent certain that each time it happened it was the Dyna ignition, and Dyna has confirmed this each time by testing my old unit and referring to it as a "failed" unit.
i'll swap the plugs around and see if the problem follows. great idea! i just replaced them this spring, but maybe i dropped one and cracked it, i don't remember. i do remember dropping a plug, but i thought that was one of my old test plugs, lol. maybe i have that one in there :) hey george, did they happen to say what is failing on the unit?
Must be the different power you use over there.. (http://i43.tinypic.com/2q8ymhk.jpg)
Quote from: Chokse on April 05, 2009, 07:40:10 PM
Yep, when the Dyna starts to act up, putting the stock CDI back in solves all the problems. Runs like a dream with the stock CDI and runs like a dream for about two or three months with the Dyna before it craps out and dies. I am 100 percent certain that each time it happened it was the Dyna ignition, and Dyna has confirmed this each time by testing my old unit and referring to it as a "failed" unit.
Chad. They didn't say. They just told me that it failed due to extreme weather changes..... all three times! I haven't a clue what actually went wrong, but my wire connections are all good (CDI is grounded to the bracket on the left side) and I have never had a problem with the stock unit. Same goes for my friend's bike.