I have a 97 fat boy. Will replacing stock carb with an s&s super e give significantly better performance?

 

No....You might notice a slight difference, but not much.
The S&S is a great carb, but if you're making no other changes, it won't make much difference.

 

What exactly is the purpose of the v o e s ?

 

The CV carb is a good carb for up to say about 100 hp. You can tune it to fit just about any needs up to that and it is easy to tune with tons of information (here) and parts available.

Your money for a new carb would be better spent on other improvements for now. YD

 

That was supposed to say,v o e s , vaccum operated electric switch! What do it do? Lol

 

Advances the timing.

 

Very versatile carb, that can be bored, Thunderjetted, and plenum spacers can be added, and port matching of the 1.780" manifold ID, as the dedicated build would dictate, can/will show BIG increases, but to arbitrarily swap the CV to an E, save your dough, and your fuel economy as well.
Don't get me wrong, that E,(and we carry them on the shelf) used and utilized correctly is a killer, and the dollar spent, vs the gain, if any, would be better spent on a cam change, for starters.
Scott

 

As GR says, it is an advance/retard device that improves getaway when accelerating. If you disconnect it you may find your bike is almost unrideable!

 

The bike will be very rideable without the VOES, I used to take them off of my bikes and toss them.
It might make it kick back when you're starting it though, other than that I never had any issues without a VOES.

 

Interesting - mine was almost unrideable!