I've got a 2008 fat boy, I seethere is a lot of enginepower gains to be made on a carbed model.
What can be done that is cost effective to a 2008 fat boy that will be worthwhile

 

Congrats on the new Fatty. I picked up mine at the end of August. Got rid of the stock exhaust and AC by doing the Stage one with V&H BSS. I think it gives some extra ponies, but I'm not totaly sure. Don't know if there was a big difference or not cause I had it done before I picked up the bike.

 

Hey congrats! Welcome aboard with the new FB. Get some pics posted when you can.

As gunner mentioned, get yourself on a path and budget for Stage 1 modifications. The changes are easy, and will cost you about $1000 to $1100 to get there.

Replace your stock exhaust pipes and change your air cleaner to a high-flow set up. Then you need a fuel manager (FuelPak, PCIII, SERT, or ThunderMax). A fuel manager will add fuel to your easier breathing motor to give you increased horsepower and increased torque. Your bike will run MUCH better and cooler than stock once the air/fuel ratio is set to run a little richer.

After break-in, switch to synthetic oils in your tranny, engine, and primary. Again, your bike will run cooler still.

Don't even think about carburetion. Those days are gone.

 

Cost effective isa somewhat relative term. You can spend about $700 for a new Thundermax w/Autotune ECM for your fuel injection system and it can keep your bike in tune with almost any aftermarket upgrades. If that's a little too pricey for you then a SERT will allow you to remap your installed ECM to reflect any upgrades you do to the engine for about half the cost. The drawback is that it will need to be dyno tuned at least once to get it set right. There are other options avalabe to you that are even less expencive like the PCIII, but again it will require the use of a dyno to get things setup properly.

Or you can spend nearly as much or more as the cost of a Tmax system just collecting all the parts needed to convert over to a carb, and you'll still need to have it dynoed on top of that. And if your like most guys you'll find yourselfconstantly fiddeling with it to get it to run even better.

Personally I would stick with the EFI system, its already installed, it works, and best of all is that unlike a carb. With the right software you only need afew keystrokes to smooth out any dead spots in the power curve.

 

A correctly set up EFI will run circles around a carb. Carbs can't adjust for air pressure differences and density. This can change by the day and even by the hour. The intake and exhaust will need attention which ever is run.
Ron

 

sorry,but i love my carb set-up. less **** to go wrong with it. they are harder to tune compared to FI.
for ur ??, what they said.

good luck and congrats on the new ride.