Ok, so I normally wash the bike during the day but I did it at dusk tonight. After I was done toweling drying it, I let started it and and let it run for about 10 minutes in the drive. Sun is setting and it is almost dark when I go to pull it in the garage. When I looked down I notice the headers under the heat shields were glowing. Never noticed that before. Any ideas????? All I have on it are Rush slip on that the dealer put on and no other engine work.

 

yeah, my bike got a glow on when it was stock. My mates softy does the same thing. they run hot.

 

You need to pay your "Harley Tax."

Otherwise known as a Stage 1 upgrade. HD can't legally do it because it's not EPA compliant. We have to do it to make our bikes run cooler and stronger.

Sorry to break the news to you. The tax will run you anywhere from $500 to $1500 depending on the parts you use.

 

Simple, it's an air and oil cooled engine. If it ain't moving, it ain't coolin'. Ten minutes just sitting still and idling is too long. Even a little movement, like when in slow traffic helps.... But it's not good just to sit and idle for long periods of time.

 

These things are tuned VERY lean to make the EPA happy. A tuner to richen it up a little will help.

 

As others have posted, your slip-ons are making an already-bad problem worse. If your bike is a TC96, it shipped with a 14.7:1 AFR to meet EPA requirements. The freer-breathing slip-ons add more air to the mix, making the AFR even leaner, which means hotter. Ideally, you'd like to see the AFR at 14.0:1 or even below 14:1. From the link above, you can see that at least one knowledgeagle insider recommends against even riding loaded and two-up with a stock TC96 bike.

Add a freer breathing air cleaner and some sort of AFR tuner and it'll run cooler and stronger.

 

It is not uncommon to see the header pipes glow at idle in the dark. I had an 89 Evo that would turn them cherry red at idle. It, of course was not EFI, I changed jets to enrichen it and the milage went to the basement so I put the originals back in it and it finally burned an exhaust valve at 54,000 miles. On inspection the cylinders looked new. In my experience it does no harm for HD's to run lean.

 

Cycle World, American Rider and numerous other publication's technical articles have proven that just adding on less restricted mufflers does not lean the bike out beyond what the stock ECM can compensate for keeping the AFR as mapped in the closed loop mode. When running in open mode, the stock AFR mapping is richer.

I have a '07 Ultra. I have been stuck in traffic not moving for 10-15 minutes in temps that are in the 90's (just recently when all the interstates and back roads were shut down on my way home from work due to a police chase and shooting).

My headers have never glowed. In fact, the only time I have ever seen exhaust headers glow (turn red/orange) is from running too rich.

I can't say why your bike did. I doubt seriously it was due to your slip on mufflers though.

 

It isn't due to the slip-ons, but increased breathing from the aftermarket pipes makes the A/F mixture even leaner than it was before. These bikes will turn headers bright red when viewed in the dark, right out of the box from the Moco. It's intentional - they have to set the AFR there to meet EPA standards. That's not to say it's *good* for the longevity of the engine, which isn't EPA's concern.

The only way enrichening the mixture could possibly result in higher EGTs would be if the mixture were set LOP (lean of peak), impossible to do on a Harley (but pilots do it all the time). In that case, enrichening the mixture would cause EGT to increase to peak EGT, then EGT would begin to decrease again.

If a mixture starts on the rich side of peak EGT and is enrichened more, the only place the EGT goes is DOWN. Again, this only applies when there's a manual mixture control available. On a Harley, we do it with a fuel mixture adjustment device such as a Power Commander or the like.

 

Except for the burned exhaust valve, right???