Okay so as most of you know I have been playing with the 400 for a while now making it Lighter, faster and more importantly smoother, So when I talk about ECU flashing and fuel mapping the most important thing that comes to my mind is just ride smoothness and responsiveness and that's exactly what you get from a well done flash.
The guys over at FT aka flash tune where kind enough to send me a flash tune bench kit for next to nothing, Though the problem was that this happened very early in the year and the bike at the time didn't have much research and development done to be able to get a proper and well tuned flash so I decided it was best to hold off on recommending it to everyone as a lot of the 400 owners are young guys and I didn't want them messing up their bikes on my word even though a few of the older guys here took my advise and purchased the kit anyway with great results even early on.
Okay so now in December 2018 I can finally confidently recommend the Flash tune kit both bench and harness to all 400 owners looking to get more power or just a smoother throttle response from their bikes.
Make a account at https://ftecu.com/
Buy either the bench kit or side bike harness "Ill be talking about the bench kit in this review" then download the flash tune software.
for me it was as simple as removing the ECU from the bike, plugging it into the flash bench kit, loading up the appropriate flash from within the software "very simple just find the ECU number from the sticker on your ninja 400 ecu, mine was 1304" then from there simply press flash. "note it will ask you to to turn of the ignition or remove the ecu, please do so by actually removing the ECU itself and not unplugging the USB or power".
after that simply re-connect the ECU back into your 400 and go for a test ride. For me "having a full system" the flash made the bike feel a whole lot smoother, rev higher, decrease if not remove all popping and even made the bike run a lot cooler. Using the Kit you can also disable the EVAP system so that if you decide to physically remove it you will not have a error code or check engine light which is also a nice benefit along with the ability to control at what temperature the fan will turn on, I changed this due to living in conditions where it easily reaches 110 F " Thats 43c" but the fuel map in itself will make the bike run comfortably cooler as well since it throws more fuel into the rev range between 4000 to 7000 rpm where the bike in its stock form is very lean.
Another great feature is the ability to share your maps directly on the flash tune software between other members, So those who purchase the kit with a ecu similar to mine feel free to ask and ill share my ecu flash settings with you.
The engine after the flash sounds a lot healthier, acceleration is spot on and throttle response is just ... Smooth. I also noticed the rev limiter hitting 13k rpm even though the ability to adjust the limiter isn't there yet which is strange but not unheard of as people over at PCV have also reported that with custom fuel and ignition timing maps they're also hitting 13k rpm.
The customer service was also very helpful and responded very quick when ever I had questions. I was also always ensured that the ninja 400 will continue to receive many futures updates and improvements to the Flash so I am very happy about that.
So I suggest anyone looking to a quick and easy way to flash there Bike to get the best performance and engine health to go with FT ECU, The guys at tst industries are commencing a ninja 400 super bike build and they will be using the FT ECU kit for the flashing of their bike so if things go good we might see custom engine parts from them along with custom flash files where some of us in the race scene can push this little bike even further.
here's my overall view of FT ECU Bench kit
ease of use
4/5
quality
5/5
customer service
4/5
Updates
4/5
engine performance
5/5
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The guys over at FT aka flash tune where kind enough to send me a flash tune bench kit for next to nothing, Though the problem was that this happened very early in the year and the bike at the time didn't have much research and development done to be able to get a proper and well tuned flash so I decided it was best to hold off on recommending it to everyone as a lot of the 400 owners are young guys and I didn't want them messing up their bikes on my word even though a few of the older guys here took my advise and purchased the kit anyway with great results even early on.
Okay so now in December 2018 I can finally confidently recommend the Flash tune kit both bench and harness to all 400 owners looking to get more power or just a smoother throttle response from their bikes.
Make a account at https://ftecu.com/
Buy either the bench kit or side bike harness "Ill be talking about the bench kit in this review" then download the flash tune software.
for me it was as simple as removing the ECU from the bike, plugging it into the flash bench kit, loading up the appropriate flash from within the software "very simple just find the ECU number from the sticker on your ninja 400 ecu, mine was 1304" then from there simply press flash. "note it will ask you to to turn of the ignition or remove the ecu, please do so by actually removing the ECU itself and not unplugging the USB or power".
after that simply re-connect the ECU back into your 400 and go for a test ride. For me "having a full system" the flash made the bike feel a whole lot smoother, rev higher, decrease if not remove all popping and even made the bike run a lot cooler. Using the Kit you can also disable the EVAP system so that if you decide to physically remove it you will not have a error code or check engine light which is also a nice benefit along with the ability to control at what temperature the fan will turn on, I changed this due to living in conditions where it easily reaches 110 F " Thats 43c" but the fuel map in itself will make the bike run comfortably cooler as well since it throws more fuel into the rev range between 4000 to 7000 rpm where the bike in its stock form is very lean.
Another great feature is the ability to share your maps directly on the flash tune software between other members, So those who purchase the kit with a ecu similar to mine feel free to ask and ill share my ecu flash settings with you.
The engine after the flash sounds a lot healthier, acceleration is spot on and throttle response is just ... Smooth. I also noticed the rev limiter hitting 13k rpm even though the ability to adjust the limiter isn't there yet which is strange but not unheard of as people over at PCV have also reported that with custom fuel and ignition timing maps they're also hitting 13k rpm.
The customer service was also very helpful and responded very quick when ever I had questions. I was also always ensured that the ninja 400 will continue to receive many futures updates and improvements to the Flash so I am very happy about that.
So I suggest anyone looking to a quick and easy way to flash there Bike to get the best performance and engine health to go with FT ECU, The guys at tst industries are commencing a ninja 400 super bike build and they will be using the FT ECU kit for the flashing of their bike so if things go good we might see custom engine parts from them along with custom flash files where some of us in the race scene can push this little bike even further.
here's my overall view of FT ECU Bench kit
ease of use
4/5
quality
5/5
customer service
4/5
Updates
4/5
engine performance
5/5
