I purchased my '04 FXD-I back in August. I am the third owner and the person I purchased it from really had no idea what was done to the bike except the obvious V&H Short Shots. I am upgrading to a PC III and a Ness Big Sucker. I cant find an existing map that has the Short Shots, so I was going to use the one for the Long Shots and see how that works. My question is if my ECM had been flashed at some point, will I notice a big difference if I load a map that is designed for a stock ECM? Or visa -versa? Do I need to take it to the Stealer to re-flash to stock?

 

If adding a PCIII, that map would override a possible ecm flash. The only time you'll notice a difference is if/when you get your bike dyno-tuned but I wouldn't suggest wasting that money on just pipes. If you have plans of upgrading your motor (cams, big bore kit, headwork) then it would make sense after those mods have been completed.

 

Interesting. So why does the PC website offer two different maps per exhaust/AC configurations: one for Stage 1 ECM, one for stock?

 

Actually the Stage 1 download will affect the PCIII, the only way to know for sure if you have one is to have the dealer, or someone with a HD diagnostics machine hook it up and it will tell them if it has the download.
You really do need to know.

 

Could you explain why the stage 1 download would affect a PCIII map and not a clean, unflashed ECM?

If the PCIII is simply adjusting whatever settings it receives from the ecm to start with, then the bike in question would run very rich using just a canned map from the PowerCommander site. To resolve it, it sounds like a simple dyno-tune would be necessary but financially wasteful for just a stage 1 set-up.

 

the pc111 only adds fuel at various rpms as dictated by the map... it dosent actually adjust to anything it recieves from the ecm...

 

The PCIII is not an auto tuner like the ThunderMax or PC V, so it adjusts based on a canned map, it has to know what it has as a baseline in order to be accurate.

If you look up and compare the maps they are quite different based on whether you have a Stage 1 or not.

After lots of soul searching and research, I bought the ThunderMax AutoTuner so I don't have to Dyno the bike anytime I make a change.
The PC III does a great job, but it could be better or maybe simpler.

BTW, I will have my PC III USB for sale very soon.

 

Wrong, of course it adjusts what it gets from the ECM, it wouldn't work if it didn't, it does not auto tune, it adjusts based on a canned map.
It can do more than just add fuel, but you really need to know what you are doing to adjust the maps.

If you do comparisons of the maps you will find they are quite different just between the different maps for 2 into 1 pipes with everything else being the same.

 

I would think the map for "Straight Shots" would be closer to the Short Shots.
I was doing comparisons of the map settings for my PC III when I built my pipes I have now, I was amazed how different the maps were for different 2-1 pipes all else being equal.

 

it only adds fuel as determined by rpms and throttle position as programed into the map... so if a map is programed to add fuel at a value of 10 at throttle position 20 at 1500 rpm its going to add that amount of fuel weather the ECM has been flashed or not... thats why some canned map providers offer maps for flashed and non flashed ECMS...