Lower compression helps with nox emissions primarily. Theres alot of questions surrounding this engine as GM has been VERY tight lipped(rumored to have been alot of problems, hence the late release of numbers). The hood scoop is functional, and from the pics I seen is just for the airbox intake. Haven't found much info on internal changes, but we do know it will no longer have a bosch fuel system, but instead will be running a denso injection system. Also the long lived garret turbo chargers are now gone. Don't know the exact details on the new one, but we do know it is definately a different supplier now(also rumored the change was a cost cutting meadure more than anything else). The bosch ecm's have been around for 10 years, but with the fuel system change they are also switching I believe to a hitachi ecm(they changed from an allison a50 tcm back midway through 15 to a hitachi t87), so it looks like GM will be doing all programming in house now(probably to make it easier for them to control security and implement there firewall's. Yes modern cars now have forewall's to try and block hackers from taking over cars). GM brought back the variable assist power steering in 16 for most hd's, so I'm guessing it will also be on the 17's as well. No word on chassis changes, but as stout as the 11+ is, I doubt they will change much on it if any.
Me personnally, even if I had the money, I would wait a year or two before I would consider one. Theres been quite a gap since they did there test run builds and now, and between that and so many changes, I would let others be the guinnea pigs.
