Ok..i have a 13 Wide Glide, stage 1...has 7000 miles on it. I noticed today when running around 70 in 6th that if I twist the throttle hard I hear a noise that almost sounds like a very small rock getting bounced off a piece of tin two or three times. At first I thought it was actually some gravel maybe from the road but it wasn't. Its not very loud and didn't do it every single time I got on the gas hard..maybe 90% of the time. Couldn't hear it if I rolled on the throttle slower. Thanks

 

Sounds like detonation....spark knock..what octane gas are you running ..?

 

put 93 in it...explain detonation..if you don't mind as it pertains to the sound im hearing

 

Here's an explanation that I "borrowed' from some old post:
Knocking (also called pinking or pinging) in internal combustion engines occurs when air/fuel mixture in the cylinder has been ignited by the spark plug and the smooth burning is interrupted by the unburned mixture in the combustion chamber exploding before the flame front can reach it. The engineered combusting process ceases, because of the explosion, before the optimum moment for the four-stroke cycle. The resulting shockwave reverberates in the combustion chamber, creating a characteristic metallic "pinging" sound, and pressures increase catastrophically.
Pinging sounds like rocks being thrown around inside your engine. It will never happen at idle, may happen at part throttle, but is most likely to happen at full throttle.
Pinging is like... taking a cutting torch to your combustion chamber. Your engine can stand anywhere from less than one second to perhaps minute of pinging before it suffers permanent and serious damage, depending on conditions.
The hotter your engine is, the more likely your engine is to ping. The farther your timing is advanced, the more likely your engine is to ping. The higher your compression ratio is, the more likely your engine is to ping. The lower the octane of gas you use, the more likely your engine is to ping.

Since you're using 93 octane the next thing you should do is to back off the timing. You said you had a stage 1. If it has the dealer download canned map there's not much you can do (except use a lower gear and don't put a load on it from from low revs), but if it has a real tuner you can adjust the timing.

 

Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I have the Power Vision and I am running the map from Fuel Moto.

 

I've become Leary of some places when getting 93 gas. I think these hole in the wall places are selling you 87 when you turn on the premium pump. There's one small station here that advertises their premium as real premium non ethanol gasoline. I notice when I fill up with their so called premium my bike runs like crap and the fuel mileage sucks. I go fill up with 93 at the nice shell station things are much better. Call me crazy but I wouldn't doubt a lot of places are ripping us off at the 93 pump selling 87.

Moral of the story....maybe try some different gasoline before doing anything major. May have just got a tank of crappy fuel. Avoid fueling in the morning after the tankers refill to that's when all the stuff is stirred up in the tank.

 

I found that FM's spark table is WAY too advanced in the high throttle areas. I had tons of knocking with it. If you are comfortable with the PV, you should load up the stock tune, copy the whole spark table for both cylinders, and paste them into your current tune and then flash it to the bike. There is no need to advance your timing beyond stock.

Also, light knocking is not as "catastrophic" as nevil makes it sound. As long as it's not continuous and hard it's not going to destroy your engine. Your ECM temporarily retards the timing in the areas where it detects knocks anyway.

 

I dont have the stock map, only the stage 1 that was on it from the dealership and the map from Fuel Moto. Hopefully it will not rain all weekend as the weather calls for and I can work with it Saturday or Sunday.

 

Widejd, My advice to you is to downshift to 5th if not 4th if you want to twist hard at 70 mph. Cruising is fine in 6th @ 70mph but expect pinging in that range if you want to twist without down shifting. You will not hurt your motor by down-shifting even to 4th at that speed. if you only want to down shift to 5th then don't twist it full open in 5th until you have reached at least 90 mph. My bike will go to 100mph in 4th without hitting the rev limiter.

The dealer download is the stock map with a miniscule amt of extra fuel.