Hey All, little back story. I have an 04 Ultra Classic. It has the 95" Upgrade with Gear Drive 510G cams, D&D Fat Cat 2 into 1 exhaust with K&N Air Filter. I had the TTS Master Tune installed by a very well know tuner in Florida. He performed many Dyno runs to tune the bike. The bike runs great "except", I'm getting a spark knock when I accelerate hard in 5th gear. I have taken the bike back for a retune 2 times now but, still have the issue. I can't keep running to the tuner due to it being almost 200 miles from my place. I have ordered the cables for the tuner and installed the TTS program on my laptop. I have NO idea what I'm doing but, will be reading the manual that is provided by TTS on the CD while waiting on the cables. I should have them by the weekend.

WHERE DO I START? LOL I've read in the manual a bit but, I see things that make my head spin. I was thinking maybe a timing adjustment might work but, there are MANY adjustments that relate to timing. Can anyone tell me where to start? I plan on saving the current tune (as soon as I figure out how) before making any adjustments JUST IN CASE but, would like to try this myself. I am very mechanically inclined just no experience with the electronic aspect of it. Thanks very much for any suggestions.

 

Reducing the timing a few degress at a time at the rpm range and throttle position where the ping occurs should do it. I had to drop about 8 degrees from the custom map I used in my TMax from 75% throttle at about 2200 to 3200 rpms iirc.

 

Before doing anything else. Suspect carbon build up in the combustion chamber. If you have access to scope/camera to look inside through spark plug holes, do this. If not: on a cold engine, start it and lightly spray WD-40 around carb/throttle body and note any RPM change. Install about 8 oz of Chevron Techron concentrate in the fuel, top off tank and ride the h-ll out of it and shut it off hot, leave set through a cool down cycle and ride it hard again. Likely ping will be lowered or gone. Retard timing as a last resort.

 

I actually did that exact thing this past weekend. I changed the breather from dumping into the a/c to venting outside. Seen the throttle body was pretty wet with oil so, I cleaned it up and did the Techron thing. Idle smoothed out very nice. No more up and down idle. But, after about 100 miles, I was running down the interstate about 75 mph and came up on a semi, started to pass him, twisted on the throttle hard and it rattled like a bitch. Had to let off the throttle a bit to stop the rattle.

Edit to add: Temp was about 75 and humidity was around 40%.

 

Retarding the timing is not a big deal and you could always put it back where it was. You could also be running very lean at wide open throttle but I doubt it if the tuner knew what he was doing that would be the case

 

Would recording a run tell you this? Would it show what needs to be adjusted?

 

If you can get just a reading on a dyno you can see the areas where it's running rich or lean and the line on the bottom is supposed to be smooth. If it's jagged the timing is off. There's a local guy near me that doesn't work with the T-max but for $65 he did a few runs for me, we studied the results & I made the adjustments he suggested. It worked out really well.

 

If you dont have access to a picture scope
you could compare the CCP from when the build was done.
Thats if you have those numbers
That could tell you if you have some carbon built up

 

First, ignition timing is tuned based on MAP not TP as applied to Delphi EFI.
This means it's tuned based on load@rpm.
This also means if the bike pings/detonates it will normally from 80kpa and up on the timing tables.
Since ignition timing is based on load NOT throttle position 20%TP can easily be @80-100kpa which is why if you were to make changes to the 20 column in the tables it would not affect detonation but it would make changes where they were not needed or desired.
So, look at what rpm the pinging occurs and reduce timing by 3-4 degs (just a starting point) from 80kpa thru 100kpa and at the rpms (500 below thru 500 above) you noticed it.
Test ride the bike to see how the 4 degs helped the pinging. If it still pings take 2 more degs out and test ride.
Rinse and repeat as necessary.
Bob

 

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the info. I don't think the problem would be carbon. I would think that would be a "new" issue. The bike didn't knock until the TTS was installed and tuned. I'm going to check again but, if I remember correctly, it only happens when I'm running in 5th gear around 3,000 RPM and hammer down on the throttle. I initially thought is was due to the heat. When I had it tuned it was HOT here in Florida, 95 plus degrees but, it still does it even at 60 degrees. As soon as I get the cables, I'll be able to follow up on your suggestions and see what happens.

Thanks again for all of your suggestions, if you think of anything else, I'm all ears.