ECM range of knowledge

[hdcw3r]

I was told by a fairly trustworthy source, he was sure that I could slap some free flow exhaust and easy breathing intake onto my 2009 FXDC and the 09 ECM would learn and adjust the AFR to acceptable limits.

Any one ever hear this before? It came up in conversation when I mentioned that the Power Commander website didn't show a device for the 09 model.

 

[TripleJ]

hdcw3r,

Not sure why you did not find any listings on the PC website but a came up with these listings.

PC-V 15-005
Auto Tune Module AT-100
LCD Unit - LCD-200

You could probably get by with either the pipes or exhaust but would run a risk of running to lean doing both without some type of fuel management system to richen things up a bit.

 

[Hoople]

I was told by a fairly trustworthy source, he was sure that I could slap some free flow exhaust and easy breathing intake onto my 2009 FXDC and the 09 ECM would learn and adjust the AFR to acceptable limits.

It all depends on what YOU call acceptable limits. If the way the bike was delivered from the factory is within YOUR acceptable limits, then maybe yes it can, (that was a maybe). But speaking as a owner of a 2009, the way the bike came from the factory was not in acceptable limits for ME. There is not a way the ECM can ever adjust the bike to a limit that was more rich than stock so my answer to your question would have to be "no".

 

[dbmg]

I was told by a fairly trustworthy source, he was sure that I could slap some free flow exhaust and easy breathing intake onto my 2009 FXDC and the 09 ECM would learn and adjust the AFR to acceptable limits.


There are many opinions. The thought process of adding more air in and allowing more air out with out changing the fueling process will not give you optimum performance. The ECM can only adjust for small changes. The question to ask source is if these upgrades were made to a carb bike would not the carb be rejetted?? So why are there so many electronic upgrades for ECM to maximize performance with upgraded exhaust and air filter??

 

[david26]

American iron did articals on this for about three month in a row. They say the ecm will bring your fuel to air ratio back within factory specs threw the O2 sensors but factory specs are still to lean but shouldnt hurt the engine any. The harley tech that does my work on the side also told me the bike would run fine without a tuner. I went this way when i did my pipes and air cleaner and the bike ran great but spark plugs didnt look great they had a lot of white on them makin me think the bike was runnin to lean and I would also have issues on start up when the bike was warm. I ended up goin with the pcIII and every thing looks a lot better and runs a lot cooler.


Dave

 

[nvsteve]

American iron did articals on this for about three month in a row. They say the ecm will bring your fuel to air ratio back within factory specs threw the O2 sensors but factory specs are still to lean but shouldnt hurt the engine any. The harley tech that does my work on the side also told me the bike would run fine without a tuner. I went this way when i did my pipes and air cleaner and the bike ran great but spark plugs didnt look great they had a lot of white on them makin me think the bike was runnin to lean and I would also have issues on start up when the bike was warm. I ended up goin with the pcIII and every thing looks a lot better and runs a lot cooler.


Dave

I read those articles by Dr. Dyno who is widely respected. I agree with you and Hoople. The bike is too lean in total stock condition. How would it be better by adding free flow parts without tuning it.

 

[Hoople]

but spark plugs didnt look great they had a lot of white on them makin me think the bike was runnin to lean and I would also have issues on start up when the bike was warm.

Trust me. Don't base your A/F ratio on the color of your plugs. Glider filled me in on that piece of information a couple of months back. He was 100% correct. I turned up the mixture to an Extreme just to see if there would be a color shift and for all practical purposes, there was no color change. The tail pipe numbers were crossed checked with both a wide band A/F meter and a non-dispersive infra-red exhaust analyzer.

Unless you are using non-alky fuel, (LL100, Nascar, etc) the days of spark plug reading for mixture are over.

 

[Jack Klarich]

It all depends on what YOU call acceptable limits. If the way the bike was delivered from the factory is within YOUR acceptable limits, then maybe yes it can, (that was a maybe). But speaking as a owner of a 2009, the way the bike came from the factory was not in acceptable limits for ME. There is not a way the ECM can ever adjust the bike to a limit that was more rich than stock so my answer to your question would have to be "no".

Hoople right on the money here again