air-cooled engine (mods) for newbies!

 

hello! yes, i have lots of questions!

i'm getting ever-nearer to owning what i now believe is a proper bike
- the 2010 roadking

(yay)

my question for this week is about engine modifications and related
reliability/performance/warranty issues

first up: stock is a 96ci (1584cc) big twin ... sounds great,
especially having never ridden anything larger than 1200cc ... but for
a dry weight around 800lbs, understandably there might be some room
for improvement in the ponies department

i've been browsing some forums and trying to get some straight answers
from the $tealer$hips (it's sad when 'real-life' people are so, so
much worse than the worst of the web...), but i'm here because
whatever abuse comes my way (which can't be that much, considering all
the other threads going on lately...), it'll be worth it ...



so!


upon purchase, i understand i could get a screamin' eagle kit to up
the displacement to 103ci for about $700 + labor and the parts not
included ... some say it's nice, others say the HD shop doesn't have
fine enough tolerance measurements for the parts, and yet some say
there's no point spending any money on HD's kits because for the same,
an indy shop can do it better

...but the work would be guaranteed if done @ purchase time

the majority of those who say not to bother point to the fact that the
gains will be relatively small ... and to do it "right" one would have
to replace the cams (which, incidentally, would help the sound of the
bike sound a bit nicer - the slow, choppy churn?)

having anyone tinker (or, god forbid, doing it myself... how hard is
this, anyway, assuming the parts are machined by a pro?) would void
the warranty, right?

would it be most prudent to wait until the warranty ends, and then
feel free to upgrade the engine?

the other option would be going for the larger HD kit, the 110, but
that's somewhere around $3k when you factor in labor ... and i heard
some mention of a catalytic converter being required as well?
sounds ... messy...


now ... i've heard (on the web, naturally...*sigh*) both stories many
times -- the screamin eagle kit from HD is great, just what the stock
bike needs, and that it's awful, and any self-respecting rider ought
to have indy_shop_01 do the same work for less (though this would be
taking a risk in that it would void the warranty)

whether or not it's even necessary to do this upgrade work is beyond
my experience ... hearing people say that riding 2up on the highway,
they're short on passing power, is enough to make me consider it, and
now i'm turning to you all for a bit of guidance


so thanks, as always, and i'll be sure to post pics when i'm putting
around on a new scoot =)


-c


p.s. i have recently become the owner of an honest-to-god GARAGE, and
it will soon be infested with all the wrenches and screwdrivers and
tools i've been keeping on the floor of a closet in my apartment, so
i'm really hoping to start doing work myself ... this weekend: oil
change on the VL800 !!

 


I'm not allowed to talk to people who think "$" is a letter. Honest
mechanics like to send people like that to the wrong shop.

BTW, Henry, you are too wrapped up in your paranoid shit to realise that the
rest of the country is using a Zero to spell 0bama.

 


pretty sure you have me mixed up with someone else

i'm chris, i've never changed my handle, and if you search your/my
posts, you'll see you've never had anything but advice for me before

 

pretty sure you have me mixed up with someone else

i'm chris, i've never changed my handle, and if you search your/my
posts, you'll see you've never had anything but advice for me before

No, Chris, i know you are not Henry. Just realating your post to his with
all the $s
After spending most of my career as a professional mechanic and being
trained by honest men, I take offense at those who think all techs are
stealing from them (although a minority are), and don't offer useful,
experienced advice to those who think it's cute to call them "stealerships".
--
Stupendous Man,
Defender of Freedom, Advocate of Liberty

 



Don't get the bore job from Harley, it uses the stock heads, and is a
poor value.

DO get the stroker kit from Harley, it uses the Screamin' Eagle heads
and is a great value.

Don't put loud-ass mother pipes on it, they don't help power and just
piss everyone off.  Get the oem EPA-legal CVO 110ci pipes, they flow
the right amount of air, and have a nice rumble.

Do have the job done at a Harley shop; it will be warranted and will
be mild enough not to EFF up the rest of your package, but will make
the bike what it SHOULD have been from the factory.

I have six years and 70,000 miles of experience with both the former
(the bore kit with the stock heads) and the latter (the stroker kit
with the SE heads) and I can tell you there is no comparison.

+12 hp and +13 ft-lbs of torque for the former and +35hp and +39ft-lbs
of torque with the latter.

No one told me about how much better the stroker kit was than the bore
kit until AFTER I had wasted my money on the former.

You, otoh, HAVE been warned.

You could introduce yourself on RMH, buy a virtual round of drinks,
ask the same question, and get LOTS of answers.   You won't get a
better answer than mine, though!  (SFSF)

Tim