Hmmmmm,interesting.They claim that champion makes harley plugs but maybe there is a difference.With the bike i'm on now i have never really noticed a difference between the matching champion plug vs the harley plug.On my old evo ultra i did notice a difference(she liked to ping also).This is why when it comes to plugs and filters i stick with OEM.For what little bit more they cost ,Its piece of mind i guess.Hopefully that works out for ya.On a side note,what cured my ping best in the evo was a power commander and learning how to use it.Just something to ponder.

 

My 103 would ping with load prior to having a real tuner. Tried to cheap out with the xieds along with slip ons and intakes. I also tried the colder plugs with little change. Fp3 solved all my ping issues but I left the cold plugs in. Runs great and I cant get to ping if I try (hills/hot/loaded up) and no change. The tuner will likely be a long term fix for you and get you a better ride.

 

1340, I don't want to turn this into a spark plug hijack, but there are hundreds of posts over the years with regard to exact plugs that "match", the fancy irridium plugs, the triple spark, accell and on and on. All with some negative byproduct. Many change back to the OEM plugs and the negatives go away.
To the OP I strongly suggest you still do the Techron treatment and go with external breathers. Start running your RPM's up higher and blow the farts out of the engine on occasion.

 

I don't imagine it could hurt anything checkers. I will admit I tend to baby my bike. I never lug it but it rarely ever sees 4K rpm. I'll keep your advice in mind. For now though it's still running like brand new. I rode about 100 miles today, combination city and highway, lots of idling in traffic etc. and it hasn't pinged one time.

 

Been there done that. It's the tune. Too much spark advance and or too little fuel. I fought this problem for while. Took it to a reputable tuner and problem fixed.

 

As I said it's running fine now. Too early to say it's fixed but I'm willing to keep riding it as is until and unless the problem shows up again. I'm happy with it as is as long as it doesn't ping. I'm sure a tune would be great but it would also be expensive. I paid a lot of money for the bike based on how good it ran on the test ride. I'd rather not start pouring money into making it run better if I don't have to.

 

If you thing that going from HD to RA8HCs are changing the motorcycles performance. you likely have something else wrong with your bike.

Add.
Try the 6s and see if they help.. Look for the silver / gray ***** on the porcelain.

 

I would agree with you had I not experienced it firsthand. And I actually went from HD to RA8HC to E3 and back to HD. The ping was worst with the Champions. Now, is it possible the difference in gap is what caused it? Or, could there have been something wrong with one of those Champion plugs? Anything's possible but they sure did look good when I took them out. I really don't believe anything is wrong with my bike. It runs too good for that. Even when it was pinging it still ran good. Now that it isn't pinging I plan to leave well enough alone and just enjoy riding it.

 

The important thing to note is that the you motorcycle is tuned to meet emissions. When you deviate from the way it is tuned, you can create issues. One thing you seem to note is that it pinged with the stock plugs but not as much. If the champion plug light the fuel a little better is that the cylinder can build pressure quicker, detonation can occur.. There are ways to change this, closing the gap can slow flame propagation plus give more consistent initial ignition. Hardtail mentions this. It's one of the reason that when you tune a bike you want to make sure the plugs are new..

 

Technical support guru at NGK says changing one heat range on their spark plugs changes combustion chamber temperature 200 deg.

Reading plugs appears to confirm.