Some guys have had the pipes, air cleaner and tuner put on with a stock map and been very happy with the setup. The dyno will get you the extra 10% or so closer to optimum air/fuel mix. Will it hurt not to? No. Will you notice a difference? Maybe, maybe not. If you have the extra bucks do it. If money is tight hold off and ride till you have the money. If you're going to do any more mods like cams and head work you will need to dyno it after you're done so in that case I'd wait. Your choice.

 

This is one subject that will never be settled. The EPA has mandated to the point that everything comes out of Harley on the lean side. How lean is the major discussion.

If you add the SE and the V&H pipes you have opened up the airflow probably to the max. The ECM monitoring the system with the O2 sensors can compensate a little but no more than a few percent.

What type of problems can occur?

High heat:

Normal combustion is never complete; by the phenomenon of thermal equilibrium, there remains an unburned boundary layer of air-fuel mixture insulating the metal components of the combustion chamber from the propagating flame front, that fractal beast of burning air/fuel mixture originating at the spark plug.

A dangerously lean air/fuel mixture burns with the most efficiency, so much that the insulating boundary layer also gets consumed and the flame front touches the metal walls. At those locations, there is a dramatic rise in temperature, high enough to cause subsequent charges of air and fuel to spontaneously ignite resulting in multiple flame fronts.

This is pre-ignition. Preceding each flame front is its sonic pressure wave whose collisions we hear as knocking and pinging. Allowed to persist, colliding sonic pressure waves will concentrate on the irregular shapes present (edges of pistons, valves, even the spark plug) to cause severe damage, just as you could with a hammer in your hand; this is detonation. How log does the dame take. That's another discussion that will never be settled.

What can you do? You can install the pipes and not put the SE air filter on yet. This will limit the airflow enough to minimize the possibility of high heat and resulting damage.

You can adjust the air fuel mixture by one of several methods:

SERT (Screaming Eagle Race Tuner)
Harley-Davidson's SE Pro EFI Race Tuner is a map-based software program designed to modify the fuel map in the stock ECM. As such, it does not require an add-on device. The Race Tuner software program comes on a CD-ROM along with a hardware adapter that allows connecting a PC to the stock ECM. The ECM is re-mapped from the PC. The hardware adapter marries itself to the ECM when it is connected and cannot be used on any other motorcycle unless the ECM is moved to the second motorcycle.


Add-On Module:
An add-on module connects in series between the stock ECM and fuel injectors and modifies the ECM's output signals before the signals reach the injectors. These units are adjusted by using a screwdriver to adjust the potentiometers, or "pots," which adjust rpm transition points (not the ability to increase the rev limit) and air/fuel mixture. Some are just pots to adjust and some are actually computers that will accept maps.

Potentiometer-Type devices are generally load-based devices in that they add more fuel at wide-open throttle than at low-throttle settings. Some add-on modules can only instruct the injectors to add fuel or richen the air/fuel mixture, while others can direct the injectors to both add (richen) and remove (lean) fuel. The ability to lean the air/fuel mixture within certain rpm ranges can be important for successful tuning. Pot-based devices are relatively low-cost but have certain limitations as to the range of performance engine modifications they can tune.

Some of the Potentiometer-based devices include:

Harley-Davidson SE Pro EFI Race Fueler
Cobra FI2000
Dynatek F.I. Controller
Kryakyn Wild Things FI Controller
Rev Tech Digital Fuel Optimizer (DFO)
Total Fuel Systems EFI Control Module
Vance & Hines Fuelpak

Map-Based Controllers that piggyback to the ECM
A map-based reprogrammer is a complete ECM. It accepts maps just like the Harley ECM for controlling fuel, ignition timing, rpm, start-up, and warm-up functions. While working as the ECM does it still connects in series between the stock ECM and fuel injectors and modifies the ECM's output signals before the signals reach the injectors.
Power Commander PCIII
Power Commander PCIII EX

Replacement ECM
Thunder Max is a replacement ECM. This unit actually automatically tunes as you drive. It includes wide band O2 sensors. This allows compensation continuously. You bolt it on, install the sensors, load a base starter map and ride.
Some think it is priced high but when you consider it eliminates the need to purchase a SERT ($360), and dyno your motorcycle ($300 to $500) it isn’t really that expensive.

If it was me I would not drive my ride for 800 miles with it in a lean burning condition that will result with a stage 1 intake filter and free flow exhaust such as the V&H.

Lee

 

I did the same thing to my 06 FXST, V&H, SE AC and SERT. Never did a dyno and it runs perfect. 15000 miles, no problems. Congrats on the train, sweet bike.

 

Thanks everybody for the input. I decided that I'm going to just wait until I get a few more miles on it and have everything done when I get the 1000 mile service.