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The engine in my '99 Road King has always had a tendency to ping a bit since I had an independent shop install a bigbore kit, SE HTCC heads, SE HTCC pistons (10.25-1 compression IIRC), and SE 203 cams. That was 40k miles ago. I wanted it to have a bunch of bottom end torque and folks who have ridden her are always impressed. I'm usually able to overcome the pinging by adding a bit of octane booster liquid. It all depends on rider/passenger weights, air temps, elevation and the quality of fuel I use, but it mostly only
pings on long hills. Out west here, because of the elevation, gas refineries are allowed to sell fuels a few points less octane than the rest of the country, so I'm already starting with an octane handicap.
Yesterday I hooked up to my newly purchased used Time Out camper for its first time run and it pinged almost the whole ride. The camper weighs about 200 pounds more than my usual passenger (she was not with me yesterday). Sounds like a bunch of ball bearings in the heads. I had a full tank of Chevron Premium (I try to always use good premium gas) and once I had the chance, I added some octane booster to the tank. Didn't help. Once I dropped the camper off, the bike ran great again so I'm sure it was the extra weight, along with the 90 degree temps, and 7000' elevation.
Would you think it might need to retard the timing a bit? Can I even do that? Is there anything in the bike's "brain" that senses the pinging and adjusts itself?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
Yooper-Al
Dont know if yours is injected or carberated. I cant help much if its injected, though there are plenty of others here who can.
If it's carberated, you can do two things:
First, rejet so you're running a little richer, which I'm sure has already been done when the big bore was installed.
Second adjust the timing, though there's no way to adjust the timing with the factory ignition. The timing does adjust on its own to a certain extent based on readings from manifold pressure sensor, but to really dial it in a different ignition is needed. I installed a Daytona Twin Tech (DTT) ignition on my 99 FLHT after a full rebuild and installatiom of a 95 big bore with S&S 570 cams. Even after rejetting the carb, it would ping a little under load. Installing and tuning the DTT, which is very easy, solved the pinging issue completely.
Thanks MTBIG G, I figured that the timing was a function of the factory setup and ignition module. BTW, I am carbureted and am running the recommended SE ignition module for my setup. Even tried a different plug as recommend by others on this site running my same setup, but did not notice any difference. I'll look into the DTT. Thanks again.
The engine in my '99 Road King has always had a tendency to ping a bit since I had an independent shop install a bigbore kit, SE HTCC heads, SE HTCC pistons (10.25-1 compression IIRC), and SE 203 cams. That was 40k miles ago. I wanted it to have a bunch of bottom end torque and folks who have ridden her are always impressed. I'm usually able to overcome the pinging by adding a bit of octane booster liquid. It all depends on rider/passenger weights, air temps, elevation and the quality of fuel I use, but it mostly only
pings on long hills. Out west here, because of the elevation, gas refineries are allowed to sell fuels a few points less octane than the rest of the country, so I'm already starting with an octane handicap.
Yesterday I hooked up to my newly purchased used Time Out camper for its first time run and it pinged almost the whole ride. The camper weighs about 200 pounds more than my usual passenger (she was not with me yesterday). Sounds like a bunch of ball bearings in the heads. I had a full tank of Chevron Premium (I try to always use good premium gas) and once I had the chance, I added some octane booster to the tank. Didn't help. Once I dropped the camper off, the bike ran great again so I'm sure it was the extra weight, along with the 90 degree temps, and 7000' elevation.
Would you think it might need to retard the timing a bit? Can I even do that? Is there anything in the bike's "brain" that senses the pinging and adjusts itself?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.
Yooper-Al
Hi ,
as stated above ...look at an adjustable ignition module ...we use this one on hi compression builds and with the low grade fuels today ...it comes in handy ...
you may just find a little more power .(adding a little more fuel ,and retarding the ignition some) ....once you get rid of the pinging and vibration...
read instructions closely ...if hard starting retard to next setting ...you'll find that sweet spot !!!
good luck ..!! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dynatek-TC8...pe!70737!US!-1
Have you tried running the stock plug, the "ion sensing" feature I thought was supposed to retard the timing once the pinging is sensed through the plugs. Don't know how this works exactly, I believe it's FM.
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Early Twin Cam Engine Pinging
pinging ....
