Absolutely not, carbon on the pistons causes hot spots which then causes preignition and in these Harley motors can easily be avoided when going to a nice breather system, I've seen a picture of a v-twin with 8k miles and the piston looked terrible then a picture with 27k miles and it was a world of difference pictures attached, the crap system is the main culprit of carbon build up
I have seen these photos before. And I don't buy it. There is no way that second piston has that many miles on it and looks that clean. At least not any I have ever seen.
also owners not revving these up often enough..old school blow the carbon out still applies..owners that spend most of their time shifting at 3500 and not going past 4000 rpms ever will make these prone to more carbon buildup
Well, I aim to make my 2018 RGU a test mule. Once I pass 100k miles I will overhaul the motor. No intention to pull the heads off before then. Mine is factory stock and is just past 33k miles.
My expectation is that this bike will suffer no functional problem from carbon buildup.
Okay guys thank you all very much for the posts and replies. Below are pictures of the pistons that just came out of my bike. It has 29k miles on it. A stock 2017 CVO 114. In October of last year, 8 months now we did add Reinhart DBX 45 slip ons. For what it is worth I did add the correct per the book oil quantity on the last change I did myself and have been getting oil out of the breather for the last 3 to 4 k miles.
I used to have a go fast boat with twin 540 BB’s with Whipple stage II superchargers putting out 900 HO each. I would pull the heads every year or two and never any carbon build up. Had a Jeep with a built 350 v8, zero issues and also a Jeep with the older 258 inline 6 that I had to pull the head to replace lifters and no carbon.
So when I saw these my first thought was what is going on and what am I doing wrong? I was home with these parts before I ever saw and inspected them so have not spoken to the dealer. They did not raise any concerns to me either about them.
Never any sumping, transfer, oil burning etc. The Cylinder walls and cam are beautiful. Just this stupid carbon.
The bike spends the majority of it’s time between 2500 to 3200 RPM.
Last edited by Cosmic Razorback; 06-10-2020 at 05:53 PM.
Okay guys thank you all very much for the posts and replies. Below are pictures of the pistons that just came out of my bike. It has 29k miles on it. A stock 2017 CVO 114. In October of last year, 8 months now we did add Reinhart DBX 45 slip ons. For what it is worth I did add the correct per the book oil quantity on the last change I did myself and have been getting oil out of the breather for the last 3 to 4 k miles.
I used to have a go fast boat with twin 540 BB’s with Whipple stage II superchargers putting out 900 HO each. I would pull the heads every year or two and never any carbon build up. Had a Jeep with a built 350 v8, zero issues and also a Jeep with the older 258 inline 6 that I had to pull the head to replace lifters and no carbon.
So when I saw these my first thought was what is going on and what am I doing wrong? I was home with these parts before I ever saw and inspected them so have not spoken to the dealer. They did not raise any concerns to me either about them.
Never any sumping, transfer, oil burning etc. The Cylinder walls and can are beautiful. Just this stupid carbon.
The bike spends the majority of it’s time between 2500 to 3200 RPM.
That is a little thicker. But not that much different than any Harley motor I have ever taken the heads off of. And I have taken the heads off of six Harley engines
Okay guys thank you all very much for the posts and replies. Below are pictures of the pistons that just came out of my bike. It has 29k miles on it. A stock 2017 CVO 114. In October of last year, 8 months now we did add Reinhart DBX 45 slip ons. For what it is worth I did add the correct per the book oil quantity on the last change I did myself and have been getting oil out of the breather for the last 3 to 4 k miles.
I used to have a go fast boat with twin 540 BB’s with Whipple stage II superchargers putting out 900 HO each. I would pull the heads every year or two and never any carbon build up. Had a Jeep with a built 350 v8, zero issues and also a Jeep with the older 258 inline 6 that I had to pull the head to replace lifters and no carbon.
So when I saw these my first thought was what is going on and what am I doing wrong? I was home with these parts before I ever saw and inspected them so have not spoken to the dealer. They did not raise any concerns to me either about them.
Never any sumping, transfer, oil burning etc. The Cylinder walls and cam are beautiful. Just this stupid carbon.
The bike spends the majority of it’s time between 2500 to 3200 RPM.
Wow, that's pretty crusty.
I did a breather bypass with 6 miles on my bike, maybe going to do a big bore this winter so will see how things look at that time.
Also running the engine cold all the time. You need to get out there and get the engine up to its normal operating temperature.
Originally Posted by 18deluxerider
okay my two cents. also runing the engine for short run intervals. when the min run time is one hour run time on the highway. at temp it clears all that out. also interstate operation at speed...
Those that follow me and the wife know that we seldom leave home if we are not going 200 miles or more. My bike has never been started to run up to the store and back two miles from home. Actually the last two rides before these parts were pulled was a 1052 mile Iron Butt in 19 hours immediately followed by a 575 mile round trip ride to Myrtle Beach with speeds from 45 to 75 MPH. So I do not think either of those contributed to my carbon build up.
06-10-2020, 03:39 PM
