Ping Ping Ping

By Dennis Santopietro

I have a 2008 Road Glide with a little over 50,000 miles on it. It pings also. I run the best gas I can find and octane booster. As the temperature of the engine increases it pings. It is in the 50’s and 60’s right now and it pings. When it is over 100 it really acts up. My dealer said I’m not running it hard enough, gets worse. Summer is coming and I want to ride on road trips. The plugs look like it is lean. Please help! FMH Feedback: Lean conditions will cause pinging. Have you made any modifications to your bike? If you have increased air flow with a high flow air cleaner, an after market exhaust, or even with only slip on mufflers, you will need to introduce more fuel. I would recommend installing a Power Commander. This will enable you to address the pinging issue and optimize your m/c’s performance. Hogger David asked us to expand on the answer: I think we all know if we put an air intake, pipes etc we need a PC to tune it! I have a 2007RG with true duals, reworked heads, hi flow Ram intake, PC and had it dyno tuned, got great torque and HP values, runs strong, pings like hell between 2700-3200RPM Feedback from the guys: If you have a high lift cam or high performance valve springs (or both); your lifters may have trouble recovering at high RPM. This may cause your pinging. Check out S&S Hydraulic Lifters with HL2T Limiters. The limiters enable hydraulic lifters to act like solid lifters @ high RPM, making lifters impossible to collapse.

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2 Responses to “Ping Ping Ping”

  1. Russell Louthan

    Should not have to put any additive in a factory engine is there a fix for the pinging valves

  2. James

    I've got an 09 FXDC, though I'm not having any knocking/pinging problems, there will be times when I have no choice but to put regular gas in the tank. What is your recommendation on the brand of octane booster to buy? I know there are several to choose from, but I don't know which ones really boost the octane rating.