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A friend just bought a stone stock 2011 Ultra with 7500 miles. He has no money now, but would like to make the bike better. I have a used stage 1 air cleaner kit just laying around that he can have. I believe you are supposed to recalibrate something if you do this, but I'm not a tech and have no real knowledge about this. Can I just slap it on and let him be on his way, or to prevent any damage, does he need to connect the bike to a computer and have whatever needs done, done?
Many thoughts on this. And more will follow. But if you do just slip ons or just an air cleaner you should be ok. The computer will adjust. If you do both exhaust and air cleaner you need a tuner or to have it dyno'd. I don't think you can ruin the bike. But it will run like ****. until it's tuned. fuel and air mixtures are the reason. Ride safe!
The engine is an air pump... as air is pumped through the engine, the tune decides how much fuel is added for proper combustion.
The airflow is controlled (restricted) by the air cleaner, intake manifold, heads, pistons, and exhaust.... In OEM builds, the main restrictions to airflow (usually due to EPA noise standards) are the air cleaner and the exhaust.
If you change just the exhaust, OR the air cleaner, the engine will pump about the same amount of air, due to one of the two biggest air restrictions still being on the engine.
If you change BOTH the air cleaner AND exhaust, most OEM engines will then pump more air... Obviously, heads, pistons, intake manifold changes would be next, and increase the engine's air pumping volume even more...
More air through the engine = engine can be fed more fuel, thus making more power.....
The debate over when a tune is needed, is often contested andis it's own thread..... I won't comment on that here...
But sufice to say that even an OEM engine, with OEM components couldbenefit from a new (non EPA) tune....
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Twin Cam Stage 1 Kit Install
