Coming back from the keys yesterday, following a friend on his crotch rocket, in fifth gear, he gets on his gas a little and I follow. Speed goes from 55 to 65, during the excelleration I hear a pinging coming from the engine (Not the normal tranny rattle). What is this, preignition, valves, piston slap? Does not happen in 6th gear.

 

try using 92 or higher octane gasoline.

 

Owner's manuals for our two '07's says use premium fuel only- are you running premium?

 

Yes 93 only, happens in 5th gear only. Wondering if there is a tuning problem and if there is damage being caused?

 

if you were in 5th gear at 55 and got on it. you were lugging your engine. you should have dropped to fourth and stood on it.

 

masbas.....it is spark knock,,,
I take it your bike is still stock?
mine pinged like that. I had the torq smooth 903 reflash done and it took care of it
basicly the sound is your to lean

 

My guess is you were lugging the engine.

 

As RICK said..try the download (903) if yours is stock. Also...I'd highly encourage you to use a fuel management system like Power commander or SERT if you haven't already. Mine had some pinging...unlike any of my previous 5 HDs and I WASN"T LUGGING. Good luck.

 

presuming three things.
the engine was thoroughly warmed up, you were in too high a gear for the speed and rpms and the bike is still stock.
Most will recommend the 0903 service bulletin tune up (check and see if you qualify),
if so it's free.
It will cool down the engine and readjust the fuel and timing which will help eliminate the ping.
and yes ping is causing engine damage.

 

Excellent post! This topic sits close to my heart, as I had a recent experience with engine detonation. First, forget about asking the dealership to troubleshoot. They are morons, and wouldn't be able to find their way out of a paper bag if they try.

I have been experiencing small detonations in my front cylinder during accelleration for about six months now. I've taken my RG to several places, including the dealership. Some independent shops had theories, but no solution. The dealer was pretty much clueless. After three dyno runs, the detonations were still there.

I finally found a good dyno guru who basically said: "you probably have a good amount of carbon build up on your valves and pistons," and suggested that I have it inspected. Since I was planning to upgrade to the Big Bore kit anyway, I told him to go ahead. The findings, after the teardown, revealed the answer. Carbon build up!

Both my pistons, and all the valves were crusted with carbon! The carbon, when super hot, created its own detonations, that basically rendered my sparkplugs timing useless. And, the damages from the detonation were quite visible: worn out rings, pistons' edges were damaged, valve (and valve seals) were worn. The engine had around 36,000 miles.

He said, there were several reasons the carbon build up can happen. One key reason, in my case, was due to the piston rings not set correctly, and the premature use of Synthetic oil in the engine when new. My thoughts, then, flashed back to my first 1,000 mile service. When, I was offered by the dealer to have the HD Syn3 oils in all my cases for free. I remember asking the service advisor about the break-in period of the engine, and if it was premature for me to use Synthetic oil too early. He assured me that I was fine to use it.

Well, long story short, putting Syn3 in my engine was the wrong move. The piston rings did not have enough time to seat during the break-in. Thus, created a blow-by condition when Syn3 was used. Which led to the carbon build up. I should have waited for the bike to be past 3000 miles, before I used the Sythetic oil. It was an expensive lesson to learn.

So, the point of this story is: do not use Synthetic oil of any kind in the engine until at least 3000 miles after the break-in period. Of course, the advisor at the dealership who gave me the wrong advice no longer worked there.

Kahuna!