I am new to Harley's. I bought a forty eight back in July and absolutely in love with her as my first motorcycle. I am looking to change the air cleaner for a screaming eagle heavy breather and am looking at a D&D bobcat exhaust. My question relates to the ECM. Should I install my parts then go to a dealership and have them download the the specs to my ECM? I have seen discussions of "SERT's" I have an idea of what they are but Im not sure how it works exactly. I went to my local dealership and they stated it would be around 400 bucks for a download and tune. Just checking for other ways to get this done. Thanks!

 

I went with the Power Commander 5 from Fuel Moto. They will install a tune on the PCV before shipping it to you for your specs when you buy it from them. They also have lifetime updates if you change anything. For a bit more you can pop for the Power Vision as well. Read here:

http://www.fuelmotousa.com/harley

 

I also have a power commander. I think mine is a 4.

I had to put the tune/map on myself but it was fairly easy.

I just plugged the Power Commander into a laptop, selected my air kit & pipe setup, and hit go to download the appropriate ecm map onto the system.

I had a V&H air breather and V&H short shots. If memory serves I couldn't find the map for that exact pair but the support folks said that all high volume air kits were essentially the same as far as ecm maps go. They suggested I choose a SE as Mr air kit in the wizard. It worked and the bike runs like a dream.

 

Congrats on the 48. I have one and they are great bikes. Fun and reliable.

As for the exhaust, many of us new to these bikes have gone through what you are trying to figure out. Here is what I learned.

1. Aftermarket mufflers should not require any changes to ECM
2. SE AC might benefit from changes to ECM via a Stage 1 download. This has been debated many times.
3. Aftermarket full exhaust requires some mod to the fuel management system. This is what you would need.

The dealer download may or may not do much of anything beyond raising the rev limiter. Some dealers do not even offer it. If you are thinking of a full exhaust, then this is not your solution.

I went with a PowerVision to flash my ECM, versus a tune via a dyno. I got the pre-configured tune that matched my set-up, flashed my ECM, put it back in the box and it now sits in a drawer. It was an expensive flash to my ECM, but my bike runs great and it did not require a visit to a local dealer. No regrets at all.

I did not use them, but FuelMoto is a reseller of PowerVision and it seems like they have many happy customers.

Good luck on your search.

 

I have the SE mufflers and V&H VO2 AC installed, and my bike runs perfect w/out any ECU tweaks.
Suggestion. Install the parts yourself, and see how your bike runs.
Shell out extra $$$ only if you notice the bike does not fuel correctly.

 

I will save up some money for the power commander, it seems like a cheaper alternative. I don't want to risk damaging the engine by not modifying the ECM.

 

A lot of guys have a love power commander. The one thing that I didn't like about it compared to seprt,tts,or power vision is that it is always on bike. The other 3 will only be connected while tuning, flashing, etc. Point being is if the power commander has a failure it is in series with the ecm so you would be stranded or back to stock until fixed.