Not to beat a dead horse, but I wanted to get some confirmation from those of you who are more experienced with these motors than I am. I've been reading the threads I can find that sound applicable so I think this is normal but I just wanted to make sure.

I've got a 2012 Fat Bob with a 103 engine and just installed (on Friday night) a new Arlen Ness Big Sucker Stage I, Vance and Hines Big Radius 2 into 2 pipes, and a Power Commander V. I got all of it from Fuel Moto and they said they programmed it for my bike.

My questions are, Since installing these parts I now hear a constant ticking noise while the engine is running and I just wanted to confirm this is normal valve train noise (or whatever?) becuase I never noticed it before. It seemed strange to me that anything I did would make this worse since the stock air cleaner didn't seem like it would do anything to muffle noise and I can't see how the pipes would be affecting it? It does seem to speed up with the engine I think, but I haven't even had it over about ~3,500 RPM's yet so it's tough to tell.
From what I've read though I guess this is normal and I just never noticed it with the stock parts?

It also has been make some noises when I let off the throttle, decelerate, etc. I think it was back firing as well but these noises seem to have decreased significantly since I've been driving it, and gotten the 91 octane out of the tank. It's got about a one tank of 93 through it now and it seems better but there are still some noises. Is there a normal and/ or acceptable amount of exhaust popping if you will? Again I've been taking it slow and keeping the RPM's down and it seems ok I think but I am a little concerned with what it will do when I rev it up?

Finally I realize the programmer is the most likely culprit for all of this? I haven't spoken to Fuel Moto about it yet since their closed for the holiday but I'll call them tomorrow but it would be very helpful if I have all my facts in a row before I do so I know if there is anything specific I should be asking about or having them change in the tune?

Thanks a lot for the help everybody, if all of this is in fact normal and I don't need to do anything then I will happily go back out on the road and enjoy the **** out of my new hog I really only notice the ticking when on the slow ride home by myself, on a good ride when I have other things to pay attention to I don't seem to notice it and as long as the noises coming out of the pipes aren't hurting anything they don't bother me any.

 

Ok. As far as noises are concerned,you now have a freeflowing air cleaner so you will be hearing ticking and tapping that used to be muffled by the stock air cleaner. All of this is normal.
The popping and backfiring is a tuning issue. Any generic tune from a remote tuner will need some fine tuning because no motor is exactly the same.
Contact fuel MOTO. I think you will have to datalog a few runs so they can see where the tune could use the adjusting,they will then email you a new tune that you will download on to your tuner.
The backfiring and decel popping could be an exhaust gasket leak. Check that first.
Everything you mentioned isn't a big deal. The sounds are normal and fuel moto will take care of the fine tuning you require.
Now get out and ride

 

That's what I figured, but since there didn't appear to be any sort of beffeling or anything to muffle the noise in the stock air cleaner I wasn't sure air flow alone could cause such a drastic difference.

As for the exhaust as soon as I started it the first time I thought it may be leaking but it was so hard to tell since it was so loud. It seemed to have quieted down a bit though so I thought it was probably ok. They didn't send me any new gaskets (well actually they sent one, but I wasn't just going to use one) so the guy told me to just use the stock ones since they're better anyway. Although to be honest I couldn't tell there are any gaskets at all, I've probably put about 200 miles on it since the install though so I'll go over everything and make sure it's all tight. That should be all I need to do right, or is there anything specific I should do to check for exhaust leaks?

They supposedly make all these tunes for the specific parts and motor you have, but like you said no two motors are identical so I figured it may need a little fine tuning.

Thanks a lot for your help

 

Alright so apparently the popping when I slow down is fuel burning in the exhaust, and somehow the solution is adding more fuel? Maybe I'm misunderstanding that but I guess it won't pop if it's burning all the time
Anyway though at 0% throttle, from 1500 RPM's up there there was no fuel being injected I guess. So we added a little but I haven't gotten to go ride it yet to see if it worked since the sky seemed to have slammed shut the second I put the key in. I guess the test ride will have to wait until it stops pouring.

If I gave it just the least bit of throttle the popping would stop so I think this should take care of it, we'll see.

 

I'd try some new gaskets to address the ticking noise. I spent weeks a while ago trying to find what I thought was rocker/pushrod/valve noise only for it to turn out to be a bit of exhaust popping around the gaskets that I had reused once too often.

As for the popping on over-run...you might have to live with a bit of that with those pipes, they aren't designed with performance as the main design choice. However, you should be able to reduce it with a bit more fuel at idle and low revs. If you do have an exhaust leak that fixing it might help with this too.

 

Thanks.
The popping isn't really bothering me, I just wanted to make sure I knew what it was and that it wasn't hurting anything. If it's still there after this adjustment I'll probably just live with it. I certainly expected a bit more noise from pipes this short.
As for the ticking I don't think it sounds like an exhaust leak but I tightened down exhaust a little more as well so we'll see. Hopefully I can sneak in a quick between the rain storms when I get home. The bike only had ~200 miles on it when I changed the pipes so I think the gaskets are probably fine

 

I've found it tends to be OK to reuse the same gaskets for the same exhaust but if you fit another it can lead to leaks. I suppose different exhausts can be slightly different shapes.

 

Good point. But they didn't send me new gaskets or I would have used them. I'll check it out but at this point I don't really want to pull it all apart again if I don't have to.

Are there any specific ways to check for leaks on these, just spray some water on it or what?

 

There don't appear to be any leaks and the bike runs perfectly. There may be a little popping from time to time if the throttle is just cracked, you can barely even tell (basically where there are still 0's in the fuel map) but it's not loud and dangerous sounding like it was when I'm off the throttle and it runs great.

 

with more open pipes and air cleaner the bike will run louder. When I went from stock muffled pipes to Bubs muffled but "barely" pipes the noise difference in the engine is normal and way louder then before. My valve noise in my top end really went up a lot . You are only hearing what was there before but had been muffled by stock pipes and air cleaner.

The same thing happens to an 883 sportster when you do a 1200 conversion for a different reason .. the engine gets louder because the walls of the cylinders are more bored out. The louder motor noise will not in any way hurt your bike. Glad it is running great and you seem to have ironed out your tune with fuel moto.