There is a whole dyno section on the softail forum with lots of numbers and results. Being that you tune vettes you know a free flow air cleaner does liberate additional power even without other mods. This is the same on your 88 with one difference. Our bikes are tuned to be EPA compliant and run lean to begin with. Being you have an 06 softail you also have open loop injection (assuming an EFI bike per your throttle body comment) which has a very narrow parameter using multiple sensors. Having said that even changing to a more open element will create a leaner condition and additional heat from the engine.

You can do one of many things to address this. One is a dealer download to add more fuel and bring the AF ratio back to EPA compliant 14.7ish or get an aftermarket tuner and program it slightly richer (typically 14.2 or fatter). When you do the latter you may get deccel popping. Again as a vette tuner you know more fuel brings out more power at the cost of fuel economy. If memory served correct the biggest power comes at about 10-1 AF ratio during acceleration. All of this can be customized with a tuner and dyno session but typically a stage 1 just NEEDS the factory download to be able to utilize the free flowing AC and not blue your pipes.

Can you get about 15% more power from a dyno vs just the factory download... Most likely but 200 for a tuner and 350 for a dyno tune to pick up 8 ft/lbs extra torque was not worth it to me and I do not plan on going further than th AC and slip on mufflers.

If you are going to add cams and headers or more radical then a tuner and dyno time is the best way to go

 

Rbeamj, thanks for the post.

I have an 03 with no o2 sensors and EFI, and I've purchased a PC III from Fuel Moto - they put a map in it for me based on my mods to date and it seems spot on. Given the bike has no 02's and is speed density only, I probably won't fool much with it, its a simple system. But I do have the capability.

On a C5 and 05 Vette a new air cleaner helps a lot. On 06+ the air cleaner itself is very good, all you need to do is give it some cooler air and you can do that with popping the shroud. I don't want to get too far off track but the example is important - 05 air cleaners are restrictive, 06+ are not.

Obviously our bikes have cold air intakes...lol but my question is are there any real gains for the "stage 1" air cleaner.

I didn't know there is a dyno section, I'll take a look there. Thanks again for posting up, I'm pretty new around here.

 

Simple answer is yea there are gains with an AC swap BUT to take advantage of those gains without potential engine damage you need to have it tuned. Without retuning you run the risk of being too lean causing other inherant issues

 

I paid for the dyno. Now I don't have to wonder.

 

Lots of thanx for the tremendous info, er, article.

 

Amazing article FCS...thanks. Nice splash lesson in overall concepts.