I have a few posts on here about cam swaps. I finally went with SE quick install pushrods, the ev27 cam and ultima lifters since the originals have about 27000 miles on them. I was looking at the gasket sets. James has a cam change gasket set but they have one with fiber gaskets and one with metal gasket. I am thinking I want to go with the one with the metal gasket right? Just want to know which is better.the price difference is nothing.

 

I would go with metal gaskets - they are far stronger. This winter I'm going to take Bertha's engine top end, cam chest, and primary apart and replace all of the seals, and all of the gaskets with Cometic MLS gaskets. I'm tired of all these leaks...

 

If the metal gaskets are a MLS type, you will need to do some extra shimming on the cam endplay. I just came across the MLS being thicker than the James paper type, went back with a James paper/fiber because the cam endplay was already dialed in and no extra shims laying around and nobody had them local.

 

With all the latitude in the cam end play clearance (between .001" and .016"), I wouldn't have thought about this being much of an issue - but I can see that if the MLS gaskets are something like .020" thicker than the fiber ones, it certainly could be. Still, it's better for the cam to be a little loose in the endplay than too tight!

BTW - when I was in the market for Evo cam shims last December, I found that my H-D dealer actually did have a variety of them in different thicknesses, but it took the parts guy a LONG time to find them. Turned out they were in a wooden box with different compartments for each thickness, and he had never seen it before. The H-D part numbers didn't even come up on his computer at the counter when he did a search, and we ended up cross-referencing the H-D part numbers listed in a Drag Specialities catalog they had there! Kind of funny. He said he had been working there for seven years, and this was the first time anyone had ever come in looking for Evo cam shims.

I love being on the trailing edge of technology - even if it's a bit time-consuming at times!

 

Just bought a Cometic Cam change kit for my 93. Very complete with everything you need including new O-rings or the pushrod tubes. Used the same kit on the initial build and am changing from one VT cam to another VT cam, so hoping that the endplay won't be too far off.

 

What VT cam are you going to? Looked at your bike config in your sig... that's one serious motor! Lots of nice goodies there, and very impressive HP/TQ numbers.

 

Sorted out a carb problem yesterday that's been going on for awhile. Now Susan Rose runs the way she should have in the first place and has some street manners. The Dyno numbers were after nine pulls on a Dyno Jet by my best friend. The dyno can fool you and wanted a 32 intermedate and 68 main. The engine was loading up in traffic and seemed way too fat. After getting some advice, we drilled out the Super E airbleed to .062 and went with a 29.5 int/68 main. No hesitation in any gear even a quick roll over, smooth with no backfiring and pulls like a freight train. Snapped her open in fifth yesterday 55 to 100 like nothing. Just closed the throttle down back to 55 to let my Bro's 98" Softy catch up.

May drop down to a VT5010 with the same lift with less duration that should come in about 500 rpm quicker. Should give us a bit more low end and I can also install my ceramic coated exhausts. Probably do that in a couple of weeks as I'd like to get some fuel milege numbers first now that the carb is right. Carb jetting should still be good and then will do a couple more quick pulls to see what the dyno jet says.