If you are the owner of a late model Harley Davidson then you know doubt understand that they tend to run hot, really hot as of late. In order to get the emissions down to acceptable levels, the Motor Company has set the tune to run right on the ragged edge of too lean, in order to get them to pass emissions. The side effect of running too lean is that they will produce a lot of heat and run very hot. This is not good for the performance of your Harley Davidson and is made worse when you install free flowing exhaust pipes and an air cleaner.

Cobra Fi2000R Fuel Pack

This lean mixture is a recent phenomenon and mainly affects the EFI model Harley Davidson's more than any other. One of the best performance gains you can get on a late model EFI Harley Davidson is to add fuel and cool off the combustion chamber for a better running machine. This is not as easy as it was with a carburetor as HD's closed-loop EFI system is moderately sophisticated but is deliberately difficult to make adjustments to it. Harley isn't going to make it easy lest the Federal Government poke it's nose into the mix. That's where the aftermarket comes into play and a number of companies, including Daytona TwinTec, Dynojet, Terry Components and Vance & Hines, make add-on boxes that allow adjustments to the fuel mix that will get your Harley Davidson running cool and clean. In this article we are going to be discussing the Cobra Fi2000R EFI Tuner.

Cobra’s Fi2000R EFI tuner (and most of the others) basically is installed between the stock ECM and the fuel injectors. The Cobra tuner takes the signals from the O2 sensors and makes adjustments to the fuel output based on what it is reading. It's pretty simple, even though it seems quite complicated but really all it does it keep the injectors open for a longer period of time than normal based on the readings from the O2 sensors. This will richen the mixture and bring the cylinder temperature down to much more reasonable levels.

The base map can be manually adjusted slightly using the three dials located on the Cobra control module. These three dials determine the how long the injectors stay open and through what rpm range. The instructions that come with the Cobra Fi2000R will tell you where to set the dials initially to get the motorcycle running, then you can refine those settings after riding the bike for a while or you could even take it to a dyno and tune it there using a wide band O2 sensor.

Installation

This might sound compicated, but when you lay out the pieces and read the directions, it's really pretty simple. You will be happy to know that the Cobra Fi2000R is completely reversible and leaves no permanent alterations to your motorcycle. The installation and tuning instructions that come with your Cobra Fi2000R are short, simple and complete. It would take more time for me to write about it than it would to read and understand the instructions. If you want to see a sample, here are the Cobra Fi2000R softail instructions.

Cobra claims about a 30 minute install time which I would say is probably quite accurate. If you are reasonably handy with the wrench then 30 minutes will be no problem, if you are a bumbling fool then I'd say no more than an hour to 90 minutes and you can have this module installed quite easily. Once installed, I would strongly recommend that you check out Cobra's website. It is chock full of interesting and useful information regarding the Cobra Fi2000R and how to adjust and get it set up.

Testing and Tuning

Once installed, we set the Cobra Fi2000R dials to the recommended settings in the instructions. The motorcycle started right up easily and idled well...so far so good. After a bit of riding and tweaking we decided to see what we could eek out of the Cobra Fi2000R in regards to power. The bike still felt too lean under full throttle and we didn't notice any power gain at all versus pre-Cobra 2000 installation.

A little bit of dyno time at a buddy's shop and some adjustment to the dial postions on the Cobra Fi2000R and we were in business. Our motorcycle already had an exhaust set up and was equipped with an Arlen Ness Big Sucker kit so it was no surprise we needed more fuel. Our initial run with the Cobra Fi2000R only exasperated the issue of running too lean because we had modified the motorcycle. We were able to record a gain of approximately 10hp and 8 ft/lbs of torque which is comparable to the results Cobra lists on their web page. Dyno runs don't mean much though.

Off the dyno and onto the road, we could feel an entirely different motorcycle between our legs. No, our bike wasn't pulling wheelies at will but 10hp and 8 ft/lbs of torque is definitely noticeable and combined with the exhaust and air cleaner, we had a significantly better running motorcycle. Throttle response is crisp and clean and the acceleration was noticeably better at all rpm ranges but it really shined in the 3k-4k range which is right where you ride most of the time.

Conclusion

Overall, we were very happy with the Cobra’s Fi2000R and it really works well for such a simple little system. If you are going to modify your Harley Davidson heavily, then you may want to go with a different setup but for a simple Stage 1 upgrade, (pipes and air cleaner) it works wonders and really gets your motorcycle into the proper state of tune that it should have come with from the factory.

Best of all it does it quite economically and is stupid simple to install and as easy to adjust. What more could you ask for? Best of all, we measured the cylinder head temperatures and we went from low 400 degrees Fahrenheit to just over 300 degrees. Our Harley Davidson is much happier now and so are we.

If you are considering purchasing one of these for your Harley...understand that you there are two different models...the Fi2000R and the Fi2000R Closed Loop. The regular model eliminates your O2 sensors while the Closed Loop model retains them. If your bike has O2 sensors, then I would recommend you get the Closed Loop version even though either one will work on your Harley. You can tell the difference below as the Closed Loop have an O2 after the number or name.