It should be noted for anyone considering this kit that it is a “process” purchase. What you get out of the box at first delivery is not immediately ready for the bike. In fact the “good stuff” happens at Revolution Performance’s shop.
You’ll get a package like this. Two boxes inside another. One has the harness, o2 sensors and a module they call an “interpreter box.” The other box is empty. You’ll send your ECM to them in this package. It comes with a FedEx label already on the box. One day shipping to Revolution Performance and one day back to you.
The “good stuff” that gets done away from your bike is the work they do to your ECM. Revolution Performance loads a map specific to your engine build according to the specifications you provide. They’ve cracked the code necessary to write to the ECMs. In a Steve Austin moment they make your stock ECM “bigger, better, stronger.”
More accurately it seems what they actually do is make it “smarter” and far more adaptive. Functionalities and adaptability are added to the system it never had before. This is the gain that most intrigued me. Getting a good base map in the process is, while absolutely important, an icing on the proverbial cake.
HD’s first attempt at on board engine management starting in 2006 used o2 sensors the auto industry had used and abandoned by the end of the 1980s. Same sensor suite has been in place by HD until the recent changes with the 2011 bikes. So we were gifted an antiquated system to begin with. Just as a good radio can’t ever be “good” with cheap speakers no engine management system can do more than its sensor suite will allow. Especially when only limited capability is written in to the ECM’s base code and that overall suite’s effect on the bike is further limited by EPA compliant base maps.
The sensors included here are a modern Bosch sensor. Revolution Performance makes changes to the ECM that, working in concert with the new module, make for an actually modern engine management system on a Harley. Not close. Not some potential gain that only begins to bear fruit with hours and hours of effort after the install or requires expensive dyno time. Just a product that is modern, capable, actually adaptive and easy.