Need some help guys,

I have an 07 FLHTC and am getting ready to let her breath better. I know what mufflers I am going to get, but am having trouble deciding on which intake system to go with. How about a little help as far as pros and cons of the different systems. I really appreciate the help.

David Von Stein
Middleburg, Florida

 

Others may have more enlightened opinions. Here's my take: K&N, SE, and Big Sucker will perform essentially equally. Get what you want from an appearance perspective. I got the Ness Big Sucker and I run a K&N element. I think the Ness element is a knock-off while the K&N is the real deal. I got the Ness because I wanted to dump the football a/c cover in favor of a round one. Round covers don't work with the K&N intake. They work with either the SE or Ness.

Now for responses from those who know what they're talking about...

 

My RK had a SE A/C when I got it, but I replaced it with a Ness BS because it looks cleaner (no handle-looking thingy on the top). Either one will let you run the football cover or an evo round cover or any number of aftermarket round covers, or a TC cover insert only for a totally open filter. Performance-wise, there's no difference between the two.

 

YUP!

 

a pic is worth 1000 words....

 

Personally I'd stay away from the Ness big sucker or any other air cleaner where the head breathers are permanently molded into the air cleaner backing plate. It may be a nice feature if they ran the oil mist into the intake tract but they run it to the air cleaner backing plate....Then the oil mist collects and runs down into the air filter....eventually dripping out onto your bike and pant leg. Another side effect is the oil breaks down the rubber in the rubber surround of the air cleaner element.

I know all this from the first hand experience of my father in law. Just this last weekend when he discovered the rubber on his air filter was shot, we perused several catalogs before he decided on buying a new Kuryakyn High Five air cleaner. The kuryakyn units come with a spacer ring that is between the air cleaner and the intake and the oil mist is vented there so it is sucked back into the motor and never gets into the air cleaner housing.

As popular as the big sucker seems to be everywhere I look, there must be a lot of people without these problems. I can only guess that they do not like to 'play hard', run extended periods on the interstate at 80 mph, or just don't have any performance enhancements. My father in law, like myself, has a big bore, with heads, cams and everything else to make a bagger run strong.

It's possible you would never have these problems, but I know of at least two people who tried the big sucker that have had this problem and I'd stay away from them.

 

Ness Big Sucker = #1....

 

NESS - You can get it with the CHROME backing plate

 

i uses the Ness bs as well.
It comes with a aluminum backing plate. Instead of spening 40$ on a chrome one where all you see it the two top 'ears' i just spray painted the ears gloss black. I think it looks good. Plus i was able to use my stock HD 'football' cover. I really like the way you can clean and resue the filter element. After two cleanings, the extra cost has paid for itself.

 

I installed the Ness big sucker and PCIII yesterday and you can hear big sucker taking in the air. What a huge power improvement with the 2 of them together. Highly recommend it. Jon