Bad gas vs. fuel injector cleaner

Hey guys! So, I bought my Uly three weeks ago from an elderly gentleman. He said he rode it twice last year and the gas was 87 octane from last year. There seems to be a tiny amount of hesitation, almost not noticeable and maybe in my imagination.

Oh, I should mention that I am not a mechanic. Also, I’ve only been riding for three years after taking a sixteen year break from motorcycles. My sons were little and my ex wife would let me take them every single day after work, so I didn’t have time for riding. I sold my Fat Boy to eliminate a monthly bill, and I forgot about riding. Not intentionally but that’s what happened.

So, in the first couple of days of Uly ownership I stopped by my friend’s house. He put two ounces of fuel injector cleaner into the gas tank. I’ve ridden around 400 miles since then and I have been putting 93 octane gas in it.

I’m not sure if there is a slight hesitation, or if I am just used to how my Harley feels to drive. It’s a police Electra Glide, a 110 engine that has been upgraded to stage 3. That’s air intake, headers, a more aggressive cam for low end power (not the cam that gives your more top end highway speed power), an exhaust, and dyno tuned. So, it is fast as hell.

My question is, should I put more fuel injector cleaner into the Uly?

Thank you in advance for your guidance. The people here are so helpful. I am grateful that I found all of you on this forum.

- Bryan

It’s a 2009 with a 1203 engine. It was well cared for by a former professional motorcycle racer whose brother owned a Harley Dealership. It has 40,000 miles on it.

2B4162F0-EF9E-49D9-BA74-75B0FCDD10AD by Tollywood, on Flickr

7FC34F31-B3F0-45EF-9E28-D56A61031368 by Tollywood, on Flickr

Great pics! Both the owners manual and the service manual recommend 91 octane for these, but in my personal experience, they will eat anything you put in them. YMMV. Don't confuse higher octane with being 'better', though. Quality gas is quality gas, no matter the octane rating so stick with brand stations.

I'm not much for the magic-in-a-bottle Seafoamy things, but opinions vary. As a life long professional mechanic, I know there is NO replacement for cleaning 40K old fuel injectors besides taking them out and cleaning them. But if it makes you feel better, go for it.

A barely discernible hesitation could be a bunch of things, including 40k old dirty injectors but I would start with the easy stuff. Is the throttle adjusted correctly?

Tollywood said:

Oh, I should mention that I am not a mechanic.

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This will limit your options greatly:upset:
You can still read through the service manual. Visual checks easily done for the IEV function, checking throttle body seals is simple, and other such tool-less things to do. If you are even slightly computer savvy, I would recommend ECMDroid (free from GooglePlay). It communicates to the bike with a wireless bluetooth dongle, I like the one I got from Rev-Mo.com. It's easy to check codes, and what the ECM is doing without being invasive. Don't get convinced you need a fuel map please.

If you do... the ECM can be addressed with one sourced from IDSpd.com. Sometimes $300 is a small price to pay for confidence It's a very simple plug-n-play. FYI, the 'Race program for a stock muffler' is a nice upgrade for ride ability.
Don't expect a new ECM to fix any problems you may be having. Heck, you don't even know if you have any problems, besides being a Bueller now:angel:

Thank you so much. I will watch those videos now.

The ECM that I have is the Erik Buell Racing one.

Well, that fuel stabilizer video was frightening. What is the best way to store a bike for the winter, please?

Just over winter? Unheated garage? Get a tankful of non-ethanol gas in it and run it through the system. Take the battery inside and put it in a GOOD brand battery tender. That will help it survive freezing temps and hopefully dissuade you from the terrible and too common practice of starting it cold and revving it up every month 'to keep the fluids moving'. Anything else is overkill IMO.

Cooter said:

Just over winter? Unheated garage? Get a tankful of non-ethanol gas in it and run it through the system. Take the battery inside and put it in a GOOD brand battery tender. That will help it survive freezing temps and hopefully dissuade you from the terrible and too common practice of starting it cold and revving it up every month 'to keep the fluids moving'. Anything else is overkill IMO.

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Oh, how you read my mind. I was planning to warm it up every month. I’m so glad that you said that. Thank you.

For the last two years, I have paid Harley to store my Electra Glide but it’s $500 for the winter storage. Now two bikes will cost double so I am going to get a metal shed for the bikes.

I wonder where I could buy gas with no ethanol? There is a station nearby that sells race fuel. I think it’s 110 octane, or maybe more, I can’t recall since I’ve only glanced at the pump.

I just did a search and the station I mentioned comes up as a station that has ethanol free gas. I called them and only the 110 is ethanol free.

Tollywood said:

I just did a search and the station I mentioned comes up as a station that has ethanol free gas. I called them and only the 110 is ethanol free.

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Here

https://www.pure-gas.org/

Hey, that's a cool web address, thanks !

NO ONE can out lazy ME!!

https://petroleumservicecompany.com...an be ordered online and shipped to your door.


:applause:

I think you can mail order VP as well, which I need to check on seeing as I'll need to tune for T4 for... reasons.

That said, I've not had any issues with just a full tank of pump 91/93 E10 in my fuel injected machines over the course of a winter in my attached garage. Now, longer term storage, ok let's talk a different strategy, if your garage is seeing some WILD temp swings, again maybe more care is needed?