Backfire through air filter

Hi Bros,
I put SE slip ons, a SE air cleaner and a download at my HD dealer service department on my 06 Ultra. Sure does run and sound good. Im having a small problem, it backfires through the air filter "sometimes" when taking off or starting to put a load on the motor when getting on it. Any ideas or suggestions before I call my friendly HD dealer and get the run around? It dont seem to effect engine performance it just dont seem right to be doing that.
Ride safe and live long,
Chuck

Click on this thread. The lean condition is most likely the problem.
http://biketalk.directparts.com/showthread.php?t=1492

Its runnin to lean, check about the download, might be the wrong one oor some of the perameters might be off, good luck Bro

Intake Cough

You aren't the first one I've have heard this from where the HD dealer did the remap. I agree, sounds lean. Since the upgrades are Sreamin' Eagle they should have an exact match for your setup. If they have any savvy mechanics, they can tweak the parameters in the program to make it right.

How do you "tweak the parameters" in the Stage I / II / III downloads? I have never heard of that one actually being possible. The Stage uploads are fixed maps that replace the stock map. The only way to manipulate the ECM map is via the Race Tuner as far as I know....

Tweaking

That's why I said savvy mechanic. The maps are simply a set of instructions that can be "tweaked" if you understand the program and have the software to edit it. The average and most above average mechanics won't know how to do it unless they have a little computer geek in them.

I have mentioned in other posts that in another life I worked for an oil/natural gas company... I'm an electrical engineer. I used to "tweak" air/fuel ratio control programs for natural gas compressor units. I have never looked at the code in the maps but I'm sure it can be changed... somebody had to write it to start with.

Tweaked?

So the rest of us non-engineering mechanics don't get too confused, THERE IS NO PROGRAM TO SUPPORT TWEAKING THE STAGE DOWNLOADS FOR THE MOTOR COMPANY!!!! You can purchase a race tuner and do all of the adjustment you want but without a dyno to know what the results of changing either the fuel delivery map or the timing map you are really just tweaking your own ego. Harley-Davidson developed the Stage maps to match their own accessories and still meet the EPA requirements that they must follow as an OEM manufacturer. With the new EPA rules that go into effect in 2006 it will be unlawful to modify any of your engine components, intakes and exhaust systems with anything other than the approved Stage packages that have passed the EPA testing. I know that very few of us will adhere to these rules but the day is coming when BIG BROTHER will be stuffing a sniffer up the tail pipes of our bikes and also checking to see if the exhaust system has the EPA APPROVED sticker of compliance. For this you can thank all of our brothers who dearly beleave that loud pipes save lives and having the loudest bike in town is something to use to terrorize all of the non-motorcyclists as he guns the motor at every light. On a lighter side, the DFO (by whatever name someone has badged it), Power Commander and Race Tuner all do a very good job of setting up the perameters to get a better fuel delivery curve when other than the stage kits are utilized.

Ok

Thanks, that was my understanding as well as far as the reflash went. I had the shop put on the 95 inch kit. SE air cleaner no cams and stock pipes and had the download. The bike ain't gonna break any speed records but it pulls a trailer two up not bad, doesn't fart pop or stutter so I'm gonna leave well enough alone.

Map tweaking

This post seems to have gotten a little out of hand but I'll try to clarify what I meant by the mechanic tweaking. I'm assuming since the world is made up of so many hackers, reverse engineers and so forth, someone out there has cracked the software that drives HD EFI. Somebody had to write the code to begin with and someone can also unwrite it so to speak. It would make sense for the MoCo to train their mechanics on the software but I have my doubts about that. I don't know how much schooling Harley gives their mechanics about EFI, but if all they do is flash a eprom with a new map, you're just as well off at doing it yourself if you have the computer to do it with and the interconnects... no real rocket science but if you are more comfortable with the dealer doing it and can afford it, by all means go that route. The maps are essentially the same program with a few parameters varied. While there may not be a commercially available software package (now anyway) to reprogram the map, that does not mean it can't be done. The "tuners" that are out there now basically do the same thing but at a price. Almost every Joe has a computer now so it would be great to hook up a laptop, dial in a few changes and be done. I'll download a map and see if I can find any software that can read it but no guarantees on my end.

There have been several questions about what/how I did the air/fuel programming... so here goes: First of all, I'm not talking about V-Twins or V-Eights... I'm talking about 1000 - 5500 HP industrial engines. We did not use any commercially available EFI system. We had microprocessors on each engine that monitored temperature, pressures, rpm, etc, and sent that information via fiber optic link to a control room. The microprocessors were initially designed in our own lab, then built by contractor to our specs. The program that provided this information and controlled air/fuel ratio was written by our guys after quite a bit of field testing. The program resided on an chip in each microprocessor. Each microprocessor had a display and by placing the microprocessor in "program" mode we could scroll through the program and change values in the program. In order to do this, you had to know what line a particular parameter was on and know the hexadecimal value that you wanted to enter. You could make the change, save it, and go on. The actual program was based on a curve (or map) that for the most part used calculated HP and air temp as driving factors. While this may not be the same as HD EFI, the basics are there.

On these big industrial engines, air is provided to the engine by scavenging air pistons (basically large air compressing pistons driven by the engine to provide additional air) This air was driven into a manifold of sorts and then to individual cylinders. To control air/fuel ratio, we added a vent pipe with a butterfly valve to the manifold. The microprocessor controlled the position of the butterfly valve to either open or close and vary the amount of actual air to the cylinders. On units that were turbocharged, the microprocessor controlled the wastegate to vary the turbo output.

Breeze,

You are absolutely correct in that there are all sorts of possibilities. In fact, there is one company www.technoresearch.com that has a product much like the SERT and will also work on the older Magneti Marelli.

Price is actually higher than the SERT and is geared toward shops.