Ok guys, I've been riding for 32 years now. Been all carb's until my last purchase, which is a 2008 Nightster. I have a few questions regarding EFI.

First off let me tell my intentions as far as this bike is concerned. I have added Vance &amp\\; Hines shortshot staggered pipes. The only other mod I plan on doing is the air cleaner. Last bike, I did heads, cams, dyna ignition, carb... It never ended. This bike, I am going low maintenance. Air cleaner / pipes and ride the crap out of it.

I have a lean fuel condition. Popping through the pipes. I have experienced this before, but making this scoot richer is a little more challenging than the last one. I checked the head pipe gaskets, twice. The problem did'nt (pop) up until the pipes were changed.

Now. Do I blow a ton of money on a SERT for just pipes and a air cleaner? Do I purchase a PCIII?
Do I go Fuel Pak?

Dealership did offer a download to try to fix the problem. Do I waste my money going that route?

Any suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.

 

Call jamie at fuelmoto he will fix u up and is a great guy. i just installed a power commander on my fatboy and it is great.

 

The EFI has several hundred values assigned per cylinder for various throttle-position / engine-rpm combinations which represent the amount of flow through the engine. It comes from the factory calibrated for the factory parts. When you change those parts, the calibration becomes wrong so the fueling calculations the computer makes become wrong.

On the newer engines with O2 sensors in the exhaust, the computer will see that its calculations are wrong and compensate as much as possible. But the problem lies in the fact that the computer cannot check itself in all situations. It can only check in the lower throttle-positions and rpm areas. What it learns it needs to do in those areas are then transferred also to the areas it cannot check.

This is all well and good when the computer has proper information about the flow patterns through the engine. But aftermarket parts will rarely, if ever, alter the flow characteristics in a manner which has a similar change from stock in all areas of operation. So the corrective measures that get transfered to the non-self-checkable areas will usually be incorrect. They may be close or they may even be further away from where they need to be than if the corrections were not transfered there.

So, you need to either natively reprogram the computer with proper download [which you can be certain there is no such thing anymore, if ever, for those parts], a SERT, SEST, TTS, or similar, or you need to attach an external device with which to modify the fueling and probably timing as necessary. The most capable and so far as I know at this time the only external device which can address timing is the Power Commander. The only real down-side to it is that you will be giving up the limited auto-tuning of the engine computer because you will be bypassing the O2 sensors. With a proper download, if it existed, you would be running at the factory-lean settings in the areas where the O2 sensors are being used. With the SERT/SEST/TTS you can maintain use of the sensors and auto-correcting along with setting the fuel a little richer than stock in the self-checking areas. But they must be properly set up by a knowledgeable person with the proper dyno/sniffing equipment.

There are other units which will address the fueling, but my recommendation lies somewhere within the previous paragraph. For the least amount of money I can heartily recommend http://fuelmotousa.com/ if that is the direction you want to go. For retaining the most capability of your engine computer the TTS seems to be the ticket at this time.

 

Contact these guys.&nbsp\\; http://www.techlusion.com/

For about 250 bucks you can install and manually adjust yourself.&nbsp\\; If you need help with settings I can get you very close by asking my local shop.&nbsp\\; Can be removed easily to return to stock if the need arises.&nbsp\\; The end.

 

Okay, I was deliberately going to not mention that unit. But since it has arisen, you can get the PC-III for maybe twenty bux more, and it is far more capable and just as easy to use. Not only will it allow you to add fuel, which is all the techlusion can do [I cannot escape the illusion connotation in that name], but with the PC-III you can remove fuel [and you just might need to in some places], and you can add or subtract ignition advance. Definitely the best piggyback unit available. But with either of them, you will be leaving some functionality on the table. What you will have to decide, and you should not rush into this decision, is how long you plan to keep this current ride and therefore how much you want to spend to have it be the best it can be.

The SERT/SEST/TTS will be married to your individual engine computer and thus will not transfer to your next bike. I forgot to mention that earlier. Just another factor to weigh.

Jamie at fuelmoto will preload the PC-III with a suitable mapping for you and he doubles the factory warranty to two years. They provide most excellent support, as well.

 

glens,

I want to thank you for being most informative. I will look further into PCIII, I also will look at the TMax. Though I believe it is overkill for what I need.

I plan on keeping this bike for quite some time.

 

Okay, you are welcome by the way, now you bring the TMAX into the discussion. That unit will use wide-band O2 sensors everywhere if you want it to. There is another similar product by Daytona Twin-tec which does that as well. The main difference between them is the TMAX uses rpm/throttle for timing advance whereas the DTT uses rpm/manifold-pressure for the timing control. They are similarly-priced.

Were I going that route, and have considered it seriously when future funds [if they ever] become available, it would be the DTT unit. I prefer the load-based timing control. Since it still seems far away from me, I have the luxury of now seriously considering the new TTS tuner, produced by the makers of the old-and-now-obsolete H-D SERT. It has some greater capability to manipulate the stock computer than H-D would allow to happen with it as an H-D product.

I would heartily suggest either it or the PC-III as solutions to your situation.