Carbuerated or Fuel Injected?

Welcome Shag !


In my personal opinion it looks to me like the area that restricts performance the most is the head. I have the same bike myself and have been checking out the design of the motor it looks like the heads is the the area I would start with. I do not have much experence with HD motors but have been wrenching on race engines for many years.
I would go with some one who knows a proven combination of performance parts, you can often improve performance and sacrafice reliabilty and rideabilty high performance engines are very high strung and not very sutable for a touring bike. But opening up them heads a litte or replacing could only help.

cox9000 said:

Roadhwg,
Thanks for posting this question, like you I learned something -- plus I have to do some more reading on my own to get the full concept. These kind of threads are what make this forum second to none.

Click to expand...

Got ya! We finally disagree Mr. Cox9k! Well Sir, let you know I went with FI on my Fat Boy (LOL....)

Hippo, I have "interacted" with you on the TC forum about my pinging Road King. I have a feeling that I am going to need to change the heads on my bike to get rid of this problem. Is there a way to find out about a competent shop in my area to do the correct sorting for my motor? I really am willing to listen and let them do their job, but am at a loss on how to screen the shop for their ability. I think my dealer is quite limited judging by my experience with them forgetting to include the cams on my 95" upgrade(!) Any suggestions? Thanks!!

Why do you need different cams in your 95" upgrade ? I just got back from Sturgis. Pulled a popup camper behing a 2000 Ultra with a 95" kit and it went right up every hill 70mph with more power to spare.
My 97 was hoped up cams, heads, etc and it ran the balls of it to pull some at 60 after droping to 4th gear.

FLHT, I was looking for a pretty sizable boost in the power of my RK. I had a 97 Evo, pretty anemic. My 02 FLHRCI was also pretty weak, so I was looking to kick it up substantially. I talked to a number of my friends who have the Stage 1 (no cams) and rode a Heritage without the cam. There wasn't enough difference for the $, so I elected to upgrade and include the new cams. In my personal opinion, on my own bike, this made a HUGE difference. The result was all I tried to achieve, powerwise, but unfortunately, I might have shot myself in the foot as the engine seems to have some breathing/cooling difficulties which might necessitate changing the heads. I'm still in the investigation stage, but I think I'm getting backed into a corner with only one way out, new heads. Live and learn....

By what I've read I think my next upgrade would be the heads, but I'm happy with the way mine runs now, or should I say for now.

Don't recall much about your bike, and don't know of any good wrench in Nebraska.

There are several kits on the market, put together by guys that do heads. On a carb bike you can pretty much build it over the internet, with EFI we can give you all the information but you still need to be able to or know someone that can dial it in.

Thanks Hippo, I'm crossing my fingers that the shop can help me (the dealer) this next week. If not, I might try to e-mail you (if that's OK) and get some info on the heads and EFI dial in. Black Classic

JFScheck,
OH Darn -- you got me
How do you like the FI? Is everything going pretty smooth so far? From the way I hear (read) from other people in here (like logical for example), they like their FI bikes.

One reason that you see a Carb bet a EFI may be that the EFI's all run 45amp charging systems. I'm sure that big old rotor (heavery magnets) take a little more power to spin.

Sorry to disapoint you, the EFI Road Kings run the same 38A system as the carbureted baggers. Unless they are police bikes.

7A difference is less then .1KW, it really isn't very significant considering EFI bikes have better cams and gear ratios.

Ask around, there still are some good guys that haven't left the dealers yet and most every dealer has one guy that knows what he is doing, they just hardly ever work on bikes from regular walk in customers. They more often then not have to fix the fu(kups from the rest of the crew when the $hit hits the fan.

If you need some info and I have it, no problem if I'm in town.

My bike has never been back to the dealer since it rolled out the door new.
I intend on doing most maitnance myself,as far as performance upgrades I have a little shop in my neighborhood that I take my bike to and was wondering if Hippo might be familiar with Bill'The Hammer"Bishop they seem to do pretty good with EFI and do there own heads If any one in lower east MI. is looking a good performance shop you can look in to there website WWW.Hawgquarters.com Hmm.now I have to wonder why they spell it that way? Ohh that's another thread. I'll check in to that. By the way I'm am in no way trying to plug an ad for them I just thought someone in my area might want to check them out.

No, I don't know anything about them, but that's not surprising as they are on the other end of the country.