My bone stock 08 ultra classic has always pinged under load. I put new plugs in and it seems to have gotten a lot better and dosent ping hardly at all.

Can new plugs help this much with the pinging????????

 

you run high octane gas in it ?

 

yes, but 91 is the best we have in Utah.

I took the bike for a ride up a hill that has always made it ping. I couldn't here anything that sounded like pinging.

Not that im complaining but I wouldn't think a plug change would make that big of a diffrance

 

Plugs can make all the difference. A cooler heat range plug can definitely help with preignition. Ping, or preignition, or sometimes called self ignition is caused by either carbon in the cylinder, excessive cylinder temperature, high compression, or a combination of these. (also consider lean fuel mixture and excessive timing) either way, a cooler plug can easily aid in reducing cylinder temperature. If you want to go further, get a can of seafoam and a pump spray nozzle. With the engine running, and the air cleaner removed, spray the seafoam into the throttle body while keeping the engine rpms up. This will remove any carbon deposits from the cylinder. Between a cooler plug and a good decarbon, many have all but eliminated their pinging problems.

 

Thanks for the reply. I didnt use cooler plugs.

 

Lot's of things can change when an engine pings, such as weather. You can help your bike by using a tuner of some sort. You may find that VIEDS will do the trick, by enrichening the mixture a little, or one of the other more tunable devices.

 

That you know of. Did you compare them side by side? Harley may have changed the heat range without telling anyone. Either way, a plug loses its metal during use, electrical erosion happens as minute amounts of the metal surface are eliminated under normal use increasing the gap of the plug. A wider gap can cause higher cylinder temps as well.

 

The resistance value of the spark plugs changes when pre-ignition (ping) occurs. This data is measured and used by the ECM to retard the timing until the ping ceases. There is no knock sensor like automobiles use to determine pinging, it is strictly the spark plugs. I always use the exact plug model that came in the bike to allow the ECM to do the best job it can. Any pinging my 2008 Ultra ever did was shorted lived ( a second or two) and fixed by the ECM.

 

All I know is the ping seems to be gone and I was trying to make it ping. It will be interesting to see if it comes back.