Best bang for the buck power increase?
#1
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Best bang for the buck power increase?
My 2010 Road King is barely broken in, but I'm already dreaming about new pipes, air intake and a fuel manager.
Please tell me what recommendations you have for best power increase for the money spent. I'm sure many of you have tried various different combination's of pipes, air intakes and fuel management systems. I'm looking to tap your vast knowledge base so that I hopefully get it right on the first try. Pipes with a low deep rumble are preferred to the loud ones. Thanks for your advice!
Please tell me what recommendations you have for best power increase for the money spent. I'm sure many of you have tried various different combination's of pipes, air intakes and fuel management systems. I'm looking to tap your vast knowledge base so that I hopefully get it right on the first try. Pipes with a low deep rumble are preferred to the loud ones. Thanks for your advice!
#3
Entirely depends on what you're starting with. Stock - high flow air cleaner, pipes and a remap. Then a cam swap. Then larger jugs, head work and higher compression pistons.
If you're smart you'll decide what your plan is and do as much as possible at the same time to save labor and tuning costs. Trouble is there's probably 1001 opinions on what the perfect combination is right here on this forum. For what it's worth, my personal opinion (what works for me) would be jack the displacement up to 103 (more is asking for overheating and reliability issues). While you're in there consider porting the heads, adding ACRs and possibly increasing the compression a little (no more than 10:1). Choose a cam that gives you the torque characteristics you want (you'll want to consider your riding style and the speeds you typically ride at). The SE255 is a popular choice if you intend to stick with chain drive. Select one of the SE high flow air cleaner options. Select a 2 into 1 into 2 pipe of your choice. A popular choice right now is the V&H Power Duals. Select a pair of mufflers based on your choice of sound, back pressure and appearance. Based on what you've said so far the FatShotz (Screaming Eagle) which are street legal and have an EPA stamp but can be tuned by adjusting the baffles. With this much work you'll definitely need to remap the EFI so you'll need a tuner. Again lots of opinions - I'd stick with the SE Pro Tuner.
If you don't want to do all this work just do A/C and pipes. You can always do more later.
If you're smart you'll decide what your plan is and do as much as possible at the same time to save labor and tuning costs. Trouble is there's probably 1001 opinions on what the perfect combination is right here on this forum. For what it's worth, my personal opinion (what works for me) would be jack the displacement up to 103 (more is asking for overheating and reliability issues). While you're in there consider porting the heads, adding ACRs and possibly increasing the compression a little (no more than 10:1). Choose a cam that gives you the torque characteristics you want (you'll want to consider your riding style and the speeds you typically ride at). The SE255 is a popular choice if you intend to stick with chain drive. Select one of the SE high flow air cleaner options. Select a 2 into 1 into 2 pipe of your choice. A popular choice right now is the V&H Power Duals. Select a pair of mufflers based on your choice of sound, back pressure and appearance. Based on what you've said so far the FatShotz (Screaming Eagle) which are street legal and have an EPA stamp but can be tuned by adjusting the baffles. With this much work you'll definitely need to remap the EFI so you'll need a tuner. Again lots of opinions - I'd stick with the SE Pro Tuner.
If you don't want to do all this work just do A/C and pipes. You can always do more later.
Last edited by davessworks; 01-26-2010 at 11:52 PM.
#7
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#8
I'll get roasted here but here goes You asked best bang for the buck. My local dealer does 20% on accessories. For less than $250 you can get a stage 1 intake/ECU flash and it is 100% warranty compliant. YES, a PCV/SEST/TTS is BETTER, but bang for the buck? If you plan on cams/CID/etc in the future, skip the flash and go for one of the above. But for a noticeable increase for low $$, this will do....
#10
+1 on the Fuel Moto Stage 1 package. For less than $800 you get a new intake, new slip ons, and a PC V with the map already downloaded. The increase is 14 HP. Thats money well spent. If you do the intake you really need to do the exhaust too. The motor is nothing more than an air pump. If you increase the intake you need to increase the exhaust flow. I'm gonna wait and do mine after the 1k mile service.