I talked to the opperations manager at SLP for over an hour today. Hes a very nice guy and knows his stuff. First and foremost prob the most important thing he told me MAKE SURE THAT WHEN YOU BRING YOUR 800 IN FOR THE UPDATE THAT YOU REQUEST THAT THE TECH DO A VERY CAREFUL INSPECTION OF THE THERMOSTAT TO ENSURE THAT THE BYPASS HOLE IS NOT PLUGGED WITH A PIECE OF ALUMINUM CASTING FLASH FROM SOMEWHERE IN THE COOLING SYSTEM HE SAID 4 OF 5 SLEDS THEY HAD IN THEIR SHOP HAD THIS HAPPEN TO THEM POSSIBLY CAUSING A MAG SIDE FAILURE THE REASON FOR THE MAG SIDE ONLY FAILURES IS BEACAUSE THE PTO GETS FED COOLANT FROM THE THROTTLE BODY WARMER LINES FAILURES WOULD OCCUR AT LOW LOAD IDLING OR LOW RPM RIDING WHERE THE ENGINE WAS BELOW 120
Anyhow other than that, they are testing the **** out of this latest update and he is certain that any reliability issues related to programming, compression and piston design have been taken care of in a big way. They lowered compression to 11.6:1, this will most likely allow lower elevations to run twin pipes, will allow higher boost for the turbo guys. Obviuosly the 2 ring piston transfers heat to the cylinder wall better and the re-flash is super super protective. Of course this is all good for those of us who ride at lower elevations, but the loss in compression will of course effect the high elevation guys running over say 5000. Low end power will suffer a bit but the new reflash/lower compression/piston combination has led to really good high end power. Basically it has smoothed out the power delivery, taken away alot of the engine braking effect and allowed alot more room for modificatons to have a bigger effect. They have heads to bump the compression for guys at high elevation.