[Nevadasun]

I took the bike over to a really good "Indy shop" to have a new clutch cable installed. He had to remove the exhaust for the install and both exhaust studs broke off inside the front head.

In knew the bike was running way to hot after the "Dyno" at Red Rock Harley in Las Vegas, never the less just thought I would live with it. My "tech" thought thats why the studs broke off.....the bike was running way to hot. Again, I was NEVER happy with that tune. Next week the tune comes out and a PC-V will be installed. My QUESTION FOR THE EXPERTS IS, would you Dyno a bike with almost 57,500mi.?? It would be tuned at a shop that specalizes in Power Commanders. They did another bike of mine about six
years ago and it was perfect......just not as many miles.









Nevadasun

 

[tdkkart]

Would you ride a bike with 57,000mi further than around the block?? If you would, there's no reason not to dyno it. In capable hands, a dyno run is no harder on the bike than a full power run through the gears on the street.

 

[Hillglide]

+ tdkkart.

 

[Rumblingthe262]

No expert by any means, but I found out the hard way (1 snapped stud and 2 backed all the way out) that you do not try to remove the exhaust when it's hot. My Indy told me that's reason I ran into trouble. The aluminum heads should be cold before working on.

 

[Desertwndrr]

Stay away from the Power Commander. No harness box can do near what a Programmer can do. Not even close. If the tune is bad, get a better tune by a better dyno operator.

 

[Hillsidecycle.com]

No issues tuning that bike/mileage and the dyno tune did not cause those studs to break.
Scott

 

[Nevadasun]

Ok, so what would cause that stud to turn blue if not heat? The other seems to have been cracked and had already started rusting through. When minimal pressure was applied it snapped off. What do you think caused this to happen, Scott.

 

[Hillsidecycle.com]

Those steel studs become "corrosion welded" into that aluminum head.
Never-Seez at the point of assembly would cure that ill.
We are constantly seeing those come in the mail to us for repair, along with the in-house builds.
Common scenario.
Scott

 

[willbo22]

i always shoot some PB Blaster on any fastener in question of being rusted in place or goes through heat cycles, like those exhaust studs, but sometimes shit still breaks. just something else to keep life interesting

 

[rageglide]

Based on how the exhaust gaskets look I'm going to say the studs have seen a lot of stress. I can also guess what head pipe you have on there based on my personal experience. I think it's entirely too easy to WAY over torque the nuts when dealing with a pipe that you can't get to fit in the port properly. Do yourself a favor in the future and use 2 SE flat gaskets and be gentle.

I'm sure the cheap steel stud discoloration is common. But I've seen evo's like that too. Center punch it and drill it within the core of the stud, try not to touch the threads and you can spin the threads out. Use a reverse twist drill and it may come out on it's own.

FWIW, your front carbon build up looks way better than mine did... I would not call that running hot. My rear O2 wideband bung was blue when I removed it.

 

[Hillsidecycle.com]

The only way we can insure the removal of those commonly broken fasteners is to mount that in a mill and machine it.
The use of left handed drills and E-Z-Out's results in many cases, of those being snapped off inside the broken stud...........then you have a REAL nice mess, along with broken tools and waisted time/frustration.
Then, gentle machining with a carbide end mill, on location in a milling machine, or an EDM is the only answer, shy of replacing the cylinder head casting.
Seen this all too many times.
Scott

 

[Nevadasun]

Once the head was removed it was taken to a local machine shop. Then setup on some type of jig or mill machine and the broken studs were safety removed.
I had the Indy Shop install a Power Commander V, (had Harleys tune removed) then found a "map" that matched my components. The bike now runs like it should have been running for the last 28k miles.
We just got back Sunday from a two night on the road 765mi. ride. The bike ran perfectly and much, much cooler. Really pissed off at Harley's dyno job. .....