Have a 2012 FLHTK with 3000 miles. Engine sounds normal except in when riding with extra weight, such as a passenger. Under these conditions between 2500 and 3000 rpm when riding uphill and pulling some torgue the engine rattles and taps at various intervals, no regular pattern to the sound and stops when throttle is rolled back. Any ideas?

 

Detonation. What grade of fuel are you using? If 91 or above (HD spec), complain to your dealer and don't accept "you need a tuner" as a solution (unless they want to give it to you free). OTOH if you plan on buying a tuner the problem may be corrected by that move alone depending on what you bought and where. If you already have one you'll need to modify your tune or map.

 

Pinging!

Need to get a tuner and play with the AFRs (air/fuel ratio) and timing curves a bit.

EDIT: I see iclick was responding at the same time as I was. He gave you a better answer LOL.

 

Damn, why are so many of our bikes having pinging and detonation issues iclick? Ive almost got mines eliminated with my PCV, but can it be they are all running lean? The map Jamie sent me actually has -# in the higher RPM tables.....that means leaner than the OEM map? Without hijacking this thread what gives?

 

Yes. Very.

 

Lean alone is not the most probable cause of the pinging, although running lean will increase the combustion chamber temperature sufficiently to make pinging more likely to occur. Ignition timing is a bigger player than a lean AFR and that's usually where you need to make some adjustment.

As far as the minus numbers in Jamie's map at higher RPMs and TPs (throttle position), this is because even stock bikes are relatively rich in those "open loop" areas of the fuel map. Obviously rich enough that Jamie found them too rich when developing his map(s). When we're talking about factory bikes being "lean", we're only talking about the "closed loop" portion of the map. The open loop, high RPM, high TP portions of the map are just as rich as earlier non-emission controlled bikes.

Cars are the same.

 

always run 91 octane but the noise does sound a bit like engine pinging with a little metallic tone. BTW , excuse the previous typos.

 

Auto ignition retard should correct the pinging?

 

Ideally yes. Real world - maybe, maybe not.

The knock sensing system has limitations and it is not always enough.

 

I put in a colder plug (Screaming Eagle) and the ping is gone. This was the last step after a PowerVision and Jamie map.

Bike has a big sucker, FM x-pipe and RC 4" slip-ons.