Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[longlast]

  My 07 Ultra on start up is good cold. After she's wormed up, it's up & down. It may fire straight  away, it may turn over 2/3 times,  it may pop back though the intake, it has also back fired threw the exhaust  a few times. Some times I think "is it going to start" I'm using the manual recommended Reg. unleaded.

I was wondering if a fuel additive would help for easier hot starting or if a additive should not be used at all? I don't see any mention of using an additive in the manual.  SO I thought I'd ask before putting any in. BTW bikes only at 10K on the clock. so I ruled out pugs and electrics.
Advice  appreciated. 

[Lever]

Has the bikes engine been modified?  .... need more information

[longlast]

Has the bikes engine been modified?  .... need more information

I'm second owner don't have any info. of motor mods all I know it's got V& H pipes other then that it's stock. The motor runs well  lots of power.
I know an additive is to help keep injectors from gumming up and better starting of motors also to help plug from fouling up, I don't have the knowledge on HD motors (I'm in learning mode)  to be  sure if an additive is okay to use on todays HD motors. Would it do more harm then good on an air cold motor?

[Fired00d]

  My 07 Ultra on start up is good cold. After she's wormed up, it's up & down. It may fire straight  away, it may turn over 2/3 times,  it may pop back though the intake, it has also back fired threw the exhaust  a few times. Some times I think "is it going to start" I'm using the manual recommended Reg. unleaded.

I was wondering if a fuel additive would help for easier hot starting or if a additive should not be used at all? I don't see any mention of using an additive in the manual.  SO I thought I'd ask before putting any in. BTW bikes only at 10K on the clock. so I ruled out pugs and electrics.
Advice  appreciated.

What is the octane rating?... In the US we use Premium which is what the recommended octane rating would be here. As it regards the additive... many here will say it's just "snake oil"... if you have your bike properly tuned it's not necessary.

 
Ride Safe,
Fired00d
 
Fired00d
 

[grc]

I'm not sure what the rules are in Britain, but in the USA the oil companies are required to put injector cleaners in all their gasoline.  It's rare over here to need to add any kind of additives, even though plenty of folks buy into all the advertising and dump stuff into the tank anyway.

The starting problems you mention tend to be related more to the tune than to the fuel.  They are also quite common.  If the bike has never been tuned by a competent professional, odds are the problem could be easily corrected with some minor changes to starting fuel settings.

I noticed you mentioned using regular grade gas.  What is the octane rating of your regular gas?  Harley recommends 91 octane minimum, which is premium grade over here. 

Jerry

[longlast]

I'm not sure what the rules are in Britain, but in the USA the oil companies are required to put injector cleaners in all their gasoline.  It's rare over here to need to add any kind of additives, even though plenty of folks buy into all the advertising and dump stuff into the tank anyway.

The starting problems you mention tend to be related more to the tune than to the fuel.  They are also quite common.  If the bike has never been tuned by a competent professional, odds are the problem could be easily corrected with some minor changes to starting fuel settings.

I noticed you mentioned using regular grade gas.  What is the octane rating of your regular gas?  Harley recommends 91 octane minimum, which is premium grade over here. 

Jerry

Yes Reg. unleaded, the pumps don't display the octane on the Reg. I've been using it because my manual states,
 Quote from the manual; YOU MAY FIND THAT GASOLINE BLENDS ADVERSELY AFFECT THE STARTING, DRIVEABILITY OR FEUL EFFICIENCCY OF YOUR MOTORCYCLE. IF YOU EXPERIANCE ONE OR MORE OF THESE PROBLEMS, IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU OPERATE YOR MOTORCYCLE ON STRAIGHT UNLEADED GASOLINE.
So I've been using straight (reg.) unleaded. The premium over here is in the 90s octane rang would you recommend changing to it?

[Lever]

How mat miles on the bike

[grc]

Yes Reg. unleaded, the pumps don't display the octane on the Reg. I've been using it because my manual states,
 Quote from the manual; YOU MAY FIND THAT GASOLINE BLENDS ADVERSELY AFFECT THE STARTING, DRIVEABILITY OR FEUL EFFICIENCCY OF YOUR MOTORCYCLE. IF YOU EXPERIANCE ONE OR MORE OF THESE PROBLEMS, IT IS RECOMMENDED YOU OPERATE YOR MOTORCYCLE ON STRAIGHT UNLEADED GASOLINE.
So I've been using straight (reg.) unleaded. The premium over here is in the 90s octane rang would you recommend changing to it?

What that means longlast is that gasoline blended with things like alcohol may create problems (blended fuels), and when they say straight unleaded gas, they aren't talking about regular octane versus premium octane.  I'm not familiar with the octane ratings of the fuel in Britain, but since your engine is the same as the one in the US bikes, you should find out what fuel in your country corresponds to the USA 91 octane rating and use that.  It's not what's causing your starting problem, octane is just the measurement of knock (detonation) resistance.  Running a lower octane rating than the engine manufacturer recommends can lead to detonation that damages internal engine components over time.

Jerry

In the USA our gasoline octane is specified as the average of the RON and the MON (Research Octane Number and Motor Octane Number), commonly listed as R+M / 2.  Research octane numbers are higher than motor octane numbers for the same fuel.  If your country still uses just the RON method, and I believe it does, your octane numbers would have to be higher than the 91 figure Harley uses in this country.  You might want to contact the Harley distributor for your country to find out what fuel you should be using.

[Twolanerider]

Harley recommends 91 octane minimum, which is premium grade over here. 

Jerry

Everyone just needs to keep in mind the differences in method.  UK and many others use RON while the North American standard is AKI (R+M/2).  Octane rating of 90 via the US standard is about 95 in the UK or anywhere else using the RON standard.

[Lever]

Might be your compensator... any knocking noise on start up

[longlast]

I was just doing some checking. I see that (if I got this right) Reg unleaded is more for lower compression motors and the premium is more for higher compression motors to help stop pinging and so forth. SO HD motors are high compression. (with out sounding too foolish)

Thanks guys, I will contact the dealer. I'll post what they say. Their closed today I'll call tomorrow 

[Twolanerider]

I was just doing some checking. I see that (if I got this right) Reg unleaded is more for lower compression motors and the premium is more for higher compression motors to help stop pinging and so forth. SO HD motors are high compression. (with out sounding too foolish)

Thanks guys, I will contact the dealer. I'll post what they say. Their closed today I'll call tomorrow

Pinging (detonation) is a result of several things working individually or in conjunction with each other.  Heat is a foremost consideration.  Whether that heat comes from higher compression, timing, fuel ratio or ambient factors is (mostly) irrelevant.  If an engine is hot enough to detonate fuel prematurely in a cylinder that's a bad thing; no matter the reason for that heat.

Octane ratings have nothing to do (directly) with engine performance or more power.  A higher octane fuel isn't in any way "more powerful" than a lower octane fuel.  The additives in a higher octane fuel are there simply to make it less prone to detonation.  So adding a higher octane fuel fuel in a tank with no tuning changes made won't get you more performance or make the bike "run" better.

HD engines have the higher octane spec not because they are high compression (in stock form) "performance" engines.  It's because of heat.  Lean fuel settings and air cooled engines.  Honestly, just between you and me (it'll be our secret) I've always thought it's also something Mother Harley at least used to do to make us feel better.

Since the common misperception has often been that the only reason an engine needs higher octane fuel is that it is some kind of a "performance" engine Harley owners could be made to feel like they were getting something hotter than a stock Evo or TC ever really was because, so the MoCo told us, we needed higher octane fuel.  Oooooh.

[bakon]

My buddy runs the cheapest gas always. But he also ran out before us on trip. I figure the cheap gas caused the timing to retard due to knock sensor. This caused him the use more throttle to keep up. This burning more fuel

[Para Bellum]

Longlast, All good info above about tune and octane.  I know you said only 10K on the odometer, but if those are the original spark plugs and wires, they may start to deteriorate from age.  Probably not the cause of the starting problems, but might come into play with regular running.

The '07s had a lot of compensator problems.  Has yours been replaced?

[Lever]

Really don't think it's a fuel issues cause the  op said the motor runs well makes lots of power
that's why I brought up. The comp.
As the previous poster did as well
saying 07 had issues