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[SmokeyJoe]

I recently had some issues with my bike that i thought might get me in trouble with the warrenty.  The bike went back and forth to the dealer a few times and they said they were stumped and would have to call the MoCo.  So the last time before i took it in i retuned to stock cal changed the headers and slipons to oem.  So now everything seems to be running fine.  I did notice that the exhasut head bolts seemed a bit loose, when i removed the header.

So my question, could loose exhaust bolts cause idle fluctuation, off idle hesitAtion and generally bad performance?

[2k]

I don't see how, unless they were so loose you could shake them with your hand.

[cahdbiker]

SmokeyJoe, if you had popping on deceleration then yes your header pipes were loose and leaking air. This would also cause your idle to be unsteady. CAHDBIKER

[FLTRI]

I recently had some issues with my bike that i thought might get me in trouble with the warrenty.  The bike went back and forth to the dealer a few times and they said they were stumped and would have to call the MoCo.  So the last time before i took it in i retuned to stock cal changed the headers and slipons to oem.  So now everything seems to be running fine.  I did notice that the exhasut head bolts seemed a bit loose, when i removed the header.

So my question, could loose exhaust bolts cause idle fluctuation, off idle hesitAtion and generally bad performance?

Since idle fuel mixture is in closed loop (unless disabled) it reads the oxygen content of the exhaust from the engine and is constantly readjusting mixture to correct for anomalies.

IF there is air getting introduced by an exhaust leak the system will react by changing fueling to compensate for the misinformation being fed to the ECM from the O2 sensors.

So yes, an exhaust leak can cause irregular idling...especially in closed loop.

Chances are the tuneup is not close enough to adjust for the exhaust flow and that's why the engine runs better with the stock stuff.

Get it tuned by an experienced Harley tuner and you will never look at that stock exhaust again.
Bob