I'm seeing a lot of high milage EVO's here. Has everyone replaced them at 30K like they're suppose to? I have 46K on my Heritage with the original tappets and people say I'm on borrowed time. The job looks to be too big for me. What's an average cost to pay a dealer to get this done?

 

There is no need to replace them...you are not on borrowed time. The tappets on the EVO last along time. One of my Electra Glides has around 130,000 miles on it with everything original, except being the cam bearing...I replaced that around 50,000 miles.

If your bike is a 1992 or newer...I would change the INA cam bearing to the Torrington cam bearing. The cheap crappy INA used much less rollers and have been know to fail...you don't want to be fishing out bearing needles throughout the engine.

IMO...the INA cam bearing is the only weak link here. Certainly not the tappets

 

I'm just about to do the cam upgrade, and was wondering the same thing.. My bike has 20k on it, and I was only going to replace the tappets IF they looked worn... Where can I get the Torrenting bearing??

 

HD has the Torrington bearing and the aftermarket as them as well. Do not let anyone convince you to put the INA bearing in there. Cost is under $10 for the bearing. At 20,000 miles...tappets are fine.

 

100,000 on my EVO, Never been apart for anything cept rocker box gaskets

 

Yea well, you got the good bearing!

 

Indy want $300 labor only to replace tappets and cam bearing. He wasn't sure of the price of the parts. He also doesn't want to use adjustable push rods, just something tocome loose and cause problems later. He said use the 1-piece stockers and take the rocker boxes off. Think this is a fair price to pay? What would the dealer charge?

 

I personally think $300 is a little high. I agree with using the stock pushrods as long as you keep everything pretty much stock.

Replacing the tappets....waste of money...I would pass on it.
Hotter cam...this is the time to do it if you choose to do so.
Cam bearing...Definately replace this item with the Torrington though.

 

Tappets are a known weakness of the Evolution engine, unlike the Twin Cam which comes with Chevy small block tappets. I've had two fail in 100,000 miles. The first time I was on the road far from home and was lucky enough to have it fail just outside of a town with an indy Harley shop. I'm not saying they will fail, but there's certainly a better potential than there should be. The Ina cam bearing is another known weak link, but not all of them fail, either.
If you can afford it, change the tappets, the cam bearing, the pushrods(with the easy install type, so you don't have to tear off everything above the heads to do this job) and get a nice new cam, too. Frankly, I've never heard of anyone having a problem with adjustable pushrods once they're installed correctly.
I ended up with Crane tappets, an Andrews EV13 cam and Screamin' Eagle pushrods. The EV13 is an excellent cam for street bikes that don't get raced all the time. It gets rid of the oddball EPA timing of the stock cam, improves power everywhere, but without affecting fuel mileage. Unless you can't keep yourself from twisting the throttle a lot more to feel the extra power.
Unfortunately, the tappets are about $50 each, the cam can be gotten for about $110, the pushrods for $90, and the Torrington bearing is about $6. Twin Cam owners can get tappets labeled as Chevy replacements for about $12 each. But I've never been able to find cheap Evo replacements.
Of course, if you buy the parts from the shop there will probably be significant markups beyond these prices. I order my parts from jirehcycles.com. It's the cheapest place on the internet I know of.

 

I just purchased the HD tappets/lifters from Zanotti's a little while ago, I think they were around $25 each...