I recently picked up an '05 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R. It is a 636cc sportbike that is so much fun to ride that recently all I  want to do is take it out. This thing is a stick of dynamite -- it feels like it is always ready to go faster than it currently is... And I mean always. However being such an advanced piece of machinery, you know that it is controlled by tons of electronics -- Yup, we are going to hack my motorcycle.

What we will being doing is converting our North American ECU to Euro Specs. The 05 has an exhaust valve to control the flow of exhaust to get the most power possible. However, on US/CDN models they have a thing in there to adjust the valve at high rpm's to decrease the noise, due to US noise regulations. By adjusting this valve to we will hopefully give the bike 10-13hp gains on the top end. This is a free mod, and a 10hp gain for nothing would be amazing! Lets get to working on the bike.

(* A quick note - I-hacked.com doesn't take any responsibility for what your about to do. Use this information at your own risk and responsibility.)

This information is possible by the contributions of several great members of kawiforums.com. I would like to personally thanks Q-Ball, Bertja, GreenEnvy, MooSir2u, KeithM, and several others.. Without you guys we wouldn't have this information.

To covert your 2005 North American ECU to Euro spec ECU you will need to find the dead end 4 wire plug or cap under the front seat (look for a connector with 4 little rubber plugs on one end). This is how it will look under your seat. It will be taped *black tape* to the cable under it.

Close up of the block with the top half removed.

What the inside of the block looks like.

Open the connector up and locate where the black w/yellow stripe wire and aqua w/green stripe wire terminate. You can either stick in a wire jumper to connect these two wire ends together or pull out the appropriate plugs and use proper spade connectors in the cap to complete the circuit. Whatever you do, make sure it's isolated from other wires and the frame or anywhere it could ground on.

Pic of a wire jumper"

"jumper" installed on the black w/ yellow and Aqua with green pin outs

Put everything back together, start it up and let it warm up, then take it out for a test ride. Remember that it will only make a difference at 13k rpm and up, won't make a bit of difference below that and it won't sound any different either. Now go find a person with an '05 and a slip-on and show him what he missed. Oh - I almost forgot, no FI light problem either.

Cap back on, I'd wrap it in black tape to keep water out...

Ok.. Time for some DYNO RUNs! :)

and the verdict...

IT WORKS!!!! 9.2HP GAIN!

The Following data is taken from Bertja's Dyno run.

"Now here in Denver we have no air... we are 5280ft above sealevel. Also it was a cold day and we ran the first dyno run with the bike around 150F shown on the screen.

1st run. Stock 2005 ZX-6RR ran at 2:38:16 PM 92.5 HP
2nd run. ECU wires jumpered ran at 2:39:36 PM 101.7 HP

As you can see... The runs were done VERY close to each other... and this is what we got.

Things to factor.. cold bike first run... so maybe a 4-5 HP gain... But on the dyno chart you can SEE were the bike with stock ECU drops off and heads SOUTH but when the bike is jumpered the chart goes NORTH. The guy running the dyno said he could feel it was stronger. And the numbers show it."

The Following data is taken from KeithM's Dyno run.

Well there you all go, talk about cheap horsepower! There is no ill effects on your bike by doing this (that I am aware of anyway) but just make sure that you remove the jumper before you take it to the dealer!!

Ok, I know what you are thinking -- and probably going to email me about.

Can this be done on an 04? How about an 03? 02,01 or any other ZX-6R?
Sorry no. This mod can only be done on the '05. The previous year bikes DON'T NEED IT as they don't have the valve that we are adjusting.

How about a Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, or some other make of motorcycle?
Well not this particular mod, but I am not going to say that there isn't a mod out there to gain HP.. In fact if you know of one send it in!