I'm new to the touring world. Just traded in my Fat Bob on an Ultra Classic. Great bike. My wife had a Sportster and she was commuting to work daily. The Atlanta heat really got to her in the stop and go traffic. She had a plan. Got her a Honda Silverwing and she said I could trade in her Sportster, full trade in value, and my Fat Bob and get a cruiser. Twist my arm. Anyway, the heat from the engine is pretty intense. Question to those that know. When adding a new air filter the EFI should adjust. If I were to put on a Screaming Eagle air filter would the EFI adjust the air fuel mix enough to make any difference, or am I completely off base? I don't particularly want to spend the $$$ for a full Stage 1 at this point, but may have to. Thanks guys, the knowledge on this forum is awsome.

 

i just installed only the air cleaner and have had no problems ,i did not do the whole kit,

 

if you do pipes..no tune
if you do an air cleaner and pipes you need a tune..
If heat in stop and go traffic is a problem then you need a crotch cooler they work very well.. http://www.capt-itch.com/

 

Even if it does adjust, which I don't think it will, its still going to be running lean and HOT. The only way to cool it down is to get more fuel to it. There are lots of ways available to do that and you can do it without going full stage 1.

 

Yep, what he said. For less than $700.00 from Fuel Moto you can get Jackpot slip-ons, stage 1 air cleaner and Power Commander. You'll get more power and a cooler motor with little to no loss in fuel economy.

 

Simply changing out the air filter will not reduce the amount of heat. You need to get more fuel added to the mixture. That can be done by several different methods, from anything from Power Commander, SERT, and many, many, others. I think the best bet or most bang for the buck is the package from Fuel Moto

 

When you change your air filter and exhaust, the power commander will help to keep the engine(fuel/air mix) safe form overheating,...but if the problem is the heat that YOU feel and bothers,,try an oil cooler or the engine fancooler.Maybe that will help you,.

 

My question is why would you only upgrade your intake?

This is how it works, for simplicity sake, only how the exhaust, cylinder/piston, and intake work as a system.
The cylinder and piston act as a pump with finite pumping capabilities (volume), partially dependent on bore and stroke. When the factory tunes this pump, one of a miriad of parameters is the air quality out the exhaust, dictated by Government Standards. Today's motors are run extra lean from the factory to allow a cleaner exhaust quality, with less unburnt fuel being part of it. Another factor is noise restriction. These two factors (among others) determine the amount of air flow the exhaust will need to produce, and generally being rather restrictive to accomodate the noise limits. With only a certain amount of airflow allowed out the exhaust, the engine will only produce a maximimum equal to the amount of air the exhaust can accomodate out. This in turn, is true of the intake, notibly the amount of air required in.
Now this is not to say the engine can't produce more volume, just that it can only push out (exhaust) or pull in (intake) as much as the lesser of the two will allow, and is designed to all work together optimally as a system.
With that said, changing a part of that system may not make a difference. For instance, you could open up the intake side to allow enough air in to fill a stadium. Problem is if the exhaust is left alone it can still only push out what it was originally designed for. Likewise, opening only the exhaust will be limited by what the intake allows. Like I stated earlier, it is designed as a system and will more then likely be pretty close to optimum on both ends, so only one change will not (generally) impart much of a performance gain.
However, open both ends up and it will allow the engine to produce more volume. This in turn presents problems because now with more volume the Air/Fuel ratio is changed, creating an even leaner ratio then what was originally designed in. That's where the fuel metering upgrades come into play. Which can also be tailored to accomodate a richer Air/Fuel ratio allowing the fuel to partially cool the intake charge and thus reduce cylinder and head temeratures.
So, in my opinion, opening up your intake will probably be OK since the restricive exhaust will not allow the the engine to use it to it's potential. Not that the fuel system is adjusting to it.
But again why would you do it?

 

What's hot to you might not be hot for others. Some people are more sensitive to heat (and cold) than others.
I can tell you from experience that:
1) An different air filter alone will do absolutely nothing to reduce the heat.
2) In order to reduce the heat, you need to run richer, which means, add more fuel to the air/fuel mixture set-up in the stock ECM. The ECM doesn't adjust itself, adding more fuel in the mixture is done by either modifying the settings in the ECM itself (SERT) or by piggy-backing the ECM with a different device (PC-V).
3) Even with a richer mixture and with the addition of an oil cooler, my bike still runs very hot in stop and go traffic, to the point of shutting off the rear cylinder very frequently.

Again, some people withstand heat better than others. I might be oversensitive, I don't know, but I'm not a happy camper in summer and my passenger ain't happy either.

I love my Ultra, don't get me wrong but too hot ain't pleasant. Good luck.

 

Lose the cat. That means sending the header to fullsac (www.fullsac.com) to have them remove the catalytic converter. They also sell the TTS Mastertune which many use in lieu of a dyno tune with a SERT.

Losing the cat, adjusting the AFR (air:fuel ratio) will do wonders for the heat. I also strongly suggest the HD mid frame heat deflectors.

Not to pricey all things considered. Your bike will run better and cooler.