I have a 05 road king that is doing ALOT of pinging under load... had it to the dealer an they said there is nothing wrong with the bike that everything checks out fine.....when i am on the bike myself it is not to bad but when i ride 2 up it gets real bad under load....I have the stock HD plugs in it now gapped at 40 an run 91 octane fuel...I have tried octane boost an still the same...any suggestions

 

Do you have a tuner? also is yours injected or carbed?

 

also how many miles? does it burn oil? along with all the usual suspects, ( lean,ect), oil consumption can also cause a pinging, its basically an oil fire that starts combustion at the wrong time. if you have high miles or bad valve guides, or seals this can contribute to the problem, but most likely, it will be in the mixture/tune area, take your bike to an independent that knows what they're doing and let them help you. Ping is a very bad thing. its two flame fronts meeting in the middle somewher inside the cylinder and crashing, thus the noise. this explosion will find the weakest link in the equation, usually the top of the piston is the loser, deciding to open a hole in itself to let the noise out better!!! don't let this go on too long if its as bad as you say

 

common causes are timing,lean,or carbon buildup.

 

No it has a stage 1 down load an it is fuel injected it has a vance & hines pro pipe

 

It is just turning 12,000 miles....goes down about 1/2 quart every 3000 miles....had the plugs out they look lean to me but was told they were fine i was thinking about going to a colder plug an see what happens...it has a stage 1 down load an a V&H Pro pipe on it

 

Most common problem isn't any of the above. Most common problem is shifting too soon and lugging the motor. Try running a little higher RPMs before up-shifting to see if that solves your issue.

 

thats pretty good as far as oil consumption. have you tried some real high octane gas, racing gas 108 or 116 octane? see if it goes away with that in a 50/50 mix. if it does you are most likely just too lean and possibly some timing issues which are supposed to get handled with the download. I'll tell you a secret, sometimes the dealer doesn't always do it , or do it right. did you get it done or previous owner?. at some point you're going to have to have the air/fuel ratio checked, and almost for sure readjusted, in some way, screamin eagle race tuner, power commander, something take your pick, but it almost definitely will be in the tuning segment of your bikes running. the good news is, if you get a competent person the bike will run much better, and not ping on ya . think you're gonna spend a little coin here, not much other choice. get it dyno'ed!!

 

Same thing recently happened to me and my '05 EGC, injected TC88. Pinging so bad, couldn't do any more than 60mph...solo. Took it to the dealer and they dyno'ed it. Nothing severe, just really bad out of tune. Bike runs great now. Drop some coins with the dealer and get it taken care of. It'll be worth it.

 

I bet with a tuner and a dyno there would be no more ping and a lot more go