Hi. I need a little help here. I bought an FY07 FLHRC in May. I love the bike (jumped from a Honda 750 Aero). Like many of us I took long vacation from motorcycling to raise kids and be "responsible". I am now an old man, being 58, The FLHRC is probably going to be my last bike and I don't have a lot of need to be loud or particularly fast, but I want to enjoy this bike and I also want it to last.

When I bought the bike, I didn't have any real desire to do performance mods, but now I'm becoming concerned with at least mitigating the heat issue. I feel the bike runs hot - 278F oil temp in DC traffic last week. Most of the time oil temp runs around 220 - 230F.

In light of what I see here on this forum as well as what I read in the magazines (ref Joe Minton's recent articles in American Rider), it seems that those of us with the TC96 engine are at risk for compromised engine life unless we do something to bring the heat down,regardless of other performance modifications we make. HD has to comply with EPA levied restrictions( despite the fact that GAO assigns minmal pollution effect to motorcyles) and cannot tell us that there is a heat issue or provide workarounds in any official capacity. My dealer just say "Yeah, it's normal, that's the way they run."

I believe HD has done quite well in meeting the challenge to date, and will shortly be migrating to liquid-cooled engines, For those of us with the air-cooled TC96's, we need to look to the aftermarket. This leaves us with:

PCIII
Fuelpak
Cobra Fi2000r o2
ThunderMax
SERT
ECM Flash
Ness Big Shot
Revtech DFO (not sure this works with TC96)
Terminal Velocity II (looks like for 103cu in from 96 cu in)

Did I forget someone? - probably.

My question is ( I took a long time to get to it.) What is the best one to get if a person does not feel real comfortable tuning,given they all basically do the same thing one way or the other? I don't really know what it means to do "seat of the pants" tuning. At this point I think I want to take care of the heat issue, but I don't want to box myself into a corner if I install ST1 AC or slip-ons down the line. I am not particularly interested in putting the bike on a dyno; the local shop wants another $300 to tune it - that means if I add AC, then I have to factor in another dyno; same with exhaust. I can't afford to do all this stuff at once.

What do you all think? What has your experience been? - Seems like a lot of people have done fuel management suff.

THNKS

 

The sad thing is to fix the heat issue, according to the dealers, is if you put on an aftermarket ECM (or adapters) it voids the warranty. Even the SERT can void the warranty, though local dealers will "overlook" that issue if you purchase it and have them install it, and Most dealers are stuck in MOCO mode of doing standard downloads instead of accurate mappings.

Though there the issue of they have to prove those adaptors or ecms caused whatever failure, we are out of a ride for the duration of the battle or we are out the money to fix what should have been "right" to start with.

So those under warranties are stuck between a rock and an extremely hot place.

 

Thundermax IMHO, is the best. Will tune itself. I have had a PCIII and it was better then stock, better but not great like with the TMax.
If you would ever need to take it in for warrenty just plug in the original ecm and take it in.

 

Simple Fix... As you stated you don't care to do any major changes but want it to run cooler...

1) Change over to a GOOD Syn oil like AMSOIL or MOBIL1 TwinV
2) V&H FuelPak is the most reasonable way to go for the Fuel Management System (Very User Friendly - a 30 min install & set-up & works very well...) (E-Bay around $205.00 - FREE SHIPPING)
3) Ness Big Sucker Air Kit - (again easy to install and more bang for the $$$) (E-Bay around $107.95 - Free Shipping)
4) Exhaust\Slip-ons RUSH Slip-On's might be right up your alley and you can pick the loudness that you may like (30 min install) (E-Bay around $179.99 + $22.95 shipping)
5) Get a set of RJ's Orignals (Vendor here) (15 min install and they work) From $139.95

This will improve your Heat Condition & Improve your Performance

 

I think it will first rely on your budget. The higher end DTT or Thundermax along with a/c and true duals will solve most heating problems from the info I have gathered from HDF and other places. However, much of same effect can be achieved with the PCIII a/c and slip ons. I just installed a mildly used PCIII and the bike runs better but the H pipe on my right side is still hot. Saving money to put the true duals on as soon as I can. Hope this helps

 

I just bought a PCIII, K&N A/C, and Rush slip ons from Jamie at Fuelmoto. Hope to install them this weekend. My main objective is the same as yours, cool the engine. (I did want some pipes louder than stock but hopefully not obnoxious).

For what it is worth, the V&H Fuelpak makes no adjustments to the A/F mixture at idle. That is what I didn't like about it. If you buy the PCIII from Jamie he will program it for you based on your bikes add ons. No need for a Dyno. No extra fees.

Lots of choices. It took me forever to finally decide. Good luck with your decision.

 

I have the DTT with WEGO IID. The bike runs great. No need for someone else to touch my ride. The heat issue has been cured due to AFR changes and the bike performs like it should, I also have installed Rinehart T/D`s and an SE air filter kit.
I`m letting the auto-tune do it`s thing and will readjust as needed. It`s easy to setup and tune. It the best system by far for my money.