I am not feeling welcome!
I went through this with my 06 street glide and ended up putting new pipes and tuning it. After that the bike ran great, i put over 30k miles on it and then bought this.....I really find it hard to believe that nobody from the moco see's this problem...or do they and just look at as though it is up to us to make it run properly?
NOW you are starting to get the picture. That has been the MoCo's answer to all the various driveability issues they've created over the years when they were forced to meet emission regs. In the carb days, everyone just drilled out the idle mixture plug and adjusted the idle mixture, then bought a #45 pilot jet and installed that. Then EFI came along and folks had to buy Power Commanders and get the bikes tuned. Harley quickly jumped on that additional profit opportunity by introducing the "Race Use Only" SERT that they sold to anyone and everyone, no actual racing required. Now they've created a monster by increasing engine displacement (more heat), adding a catalytic converter (much more heat), and doing absolutely nothing to provide additional cooling. The rear cylinders run hot, which lead to the infamous gasket failures and leaks, and that also creates the detonation (pinging) and poor performance issues. The hotter it gets, the hotter it gets, if you know what I mean.
H-D doesn't seem to know how to produce an engine that meets current emission regulations without creating these issues. Worse, they don't seem to give a chit either. They have gotten away with making the customers pay extra (the "Harley Tax") to make the bikes run properly and with halfway decent performance for more than a decade. Air cleaner, mufflers, and a tune has become almost standard equipment, although at the customers expense.
It's all well and good for us to bitch about it, but the facts are the MoCo doesn't seem to care, and they don't seem to know how to fix it (legally) anyway. So after being thoroughly pizzed and after venting, you need to do like all the rest of us have done, fix it yourself. I would suggest, however, that you may want to take my approach and refuse to pay H-D for the fix. Buy your parts from the aftermarket. I personally would never consider owning a SERT, for instance. Fortunately, there are better alternatives available from the aftermarket like the TTS MasterTune.
Jerry
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Topic: 09 ultra running hot...exhaust question (Read 4977 times)