Vance & Hines Fuelpak – Revitalize Your Ride
1. We started with the air-filter swap and pulled off the stock cover.
2. Although the cover is reused, almost everything behind it was pulled off and tossed, including the big plastic backing plate.
3. The free-breathing Screamin’ Eagle Stage 1 kit includes everything necessary, including a cast backing plate and head breathers.
4. Air-filter standoffs capture the backing plate against the throttle body and were installed with the appropriate flavor of threadlocker.
5. The high-flow air filter bolts to the standoffs with supplied hardware. Note the plastic head-breather guides that redirect air into the filter body.
6. The stock cover goes right back on, and no one is the wiser that you have just added several horsepower. However, the ECU knows, so we’ll have to address that later.
7. Both saddlebags had to come off to get to the exhaust. We also removed the right-side floorboard as well as the passenger board in order to remove the OEM exhaust. Again, access is easy, and the parts came right off.’
8. All of the stock heat shielding had to be removed in order to access the header mounting bolts.
9. Mufflers mount via pinch clamps to the header, and the two bolt to a floating bracket under the saddlebags. The pinch clamps can sometimes require a bit of finesse and penetrating lubricant before they’ll let go.
10. The not-so-pretty stock header is all that’s left. Two bolts at each cylinder came off next, as well as a pinch clamp to the frame on the right and the trans on the left.
11. The left-side pipe required that a new bracket be mounted to the primary in place of the stock unit. Threadlocker was applied first.
12. The V&H; folks recommend a fresh exhaust gasket and a bit of anti-seize on the cylinder studs before torquing them down.
13. The right-side pipe mounts much the same and utilizes a pinch clamp just below the trans for stability.
14. The heat shields mount up much like the stock units, and the mufflers slip right in on both sides and bolt up to the stock floating brackets. There is a right and left side, as the wider swingarms debuting on the ’02-and-newer models required a bit of inboard clearancing.
15. The finished exhaust install looks and fits very nicely. Now it’s time to explain to the electronics how to handle their new friend.
16. The Fuelpak was ready to plug right into the stock electronics and did not require any cutting, soldering, or splicing.
17. The stock ECU is located under the right-side cover and is responsible for all engine management. Once the bolts holding the ECU were removed, the Fuelpak was plugged in between the harness and the ECU. It mounts using the same hardware as the ECU. Installation is unbelievably simple.
18. Once the device was installed, the cover of the Fuelpak was removed to allow for setup specific to your bike. There are 18 unique values that can be adjusted to suit the engine/exhaust combination of each bike. The Fuelpak includes a list of the common settings. Also, the V&H; website has a clever tool that allows you to key in your bike, along with relevant mods to generate your own unique settings. This can also be revisited each time a new engine mod is done.
19. The final step of the install requires that the throttle be opened up (with the engine off) to calibrate the Fuelpak to the bike.
20. Sidecovers and bags as well as floorboards were then re-installed, and the bike was ready to rock. The end result is a bike that produces more power, looks nicer, and sounds much better! In fact, this combination results in a nice, throaty rumble without setting off car alarms or attracting the attention of the local PD.
A brand-new bike is truly a thing of beauty: perfect gleaming paint, flawless chrome, and the taut feel only a zero-mile machine can impart. The euphoric sensation of moto-newness is heady stuff that, deplorably enough, tends to not last anywhere near as long as the payments do. After a sadly short time, the luster starts to fade, and the inherent flaws of the bike likely begin to surface. The classic, flowing lines soon begin to look just like hundreds of other classic, flowing lines; or perhaps the seemingly endless acceleration finally faded out; or, very possibly, the throaty burble only a V-Twin can produce begins to sound a bit like a lawnm ower.
Such is the plight of the humble stock motorcycle and the call to action of the aftermarket. Luckily for us, this call went out to the folks at Vance & Hines (V&H;), and they offered to help unleash the power and beauty of our ’06 Street Glide. Twenty-five years of manufacturing high-performance exhaust systems has brought the company to the very top of the market, and it continues to back up that success with a host of horsepower-boosting innovations. However, our fuel-injected bike also required a bit of electronic fine-tuning in addition to an exhaust system to produce the results we desired. Well aware of the effect their handywork has on the simplistic brain of your basic EFI system, the engineers at V&H; developed a tuning tool they call the Fuelpak to help realign fuel delivery with increased intake and exhaust flow. As an added bonus, the install is user-friendly and can be done with basic tools and a dash of mechanical aptitude. We selected the V&H; Dresser Duals head pipes, along with the company’s oval slip-on mufflers. The team at V&H; also recommended installing an H-D Screamin’ Eagle high-flow air-filter kit along with the Fuelpak for optimum results.
