I'm starting the assembly of this 01 Dyna engine and have a couple questions before I get to much further. I have the OEM Harley service manual at hand and looking around the forums for ideas on how to approach this build. The engine cases are NEW from Harley as of this year, the old ones were damaged beyond repair. I am quite pleased with the new cases which came with new bearings for cams and flywheels, plugs and bolts also installed. I did need to remove the piston oil nozzles and check to see if the o rings were installed, which they were but the screws were loose and no loctite. I'm doing this build as cost effective as possible using E-bay and the forums classifieds as much as possible. I am installing fresh 95 barrels and a nice set of gently used OEM flat top pistons. Right now the heads are at the machine shop ready for a cleaning and touch up of the valves. My question is, would it be a good idea while the heads are off to have them machined to increase the compression some? I understand that .015 t0 .020 is acceptable. I have the std thickness head gaskets from James {I couldn't locate the thinner ones} If I do have the heads machined will I need to install adjustable push rods? or will the OEM lifters have enough travel to be ok? Thanks for any advice. anyone have a mild cam {for sale} for the chain drive? I am replacing the chain tension shoes and all else looks good. I will be running SE slip-ons and the SE air cleaner.

 

I would look around and the the .030 head gaskets, quench is so important when lookin for a ping free engine!

I would have the machine shop CC and deck the heads to match the compression you need to support the cams that you want to use.

 

Thank for the reply it looks like I may be going with the SE 203's

 

I think the 203 cam will work well at 9.8:1 compression. Simple terms, .030 gasket and .020 off the head or complicated terms .030 head gasket and around 81 cc chamber with the flat tops. You can contact Cometic directly gasket # C9721 http://www.cometic.com/ or order them from a aftermarket supplier. You could probably run -.030 perfect rods # 18402-03 or tapered quick install # 18404-08 or a set of S&S adjustable.

 

I was leaning toward having the heads trued up anyway so .020 off will work.
I would like to understand if I don't go with the thinner head gasket why would it not be the same end results to take and extra .010 {or so} off the heads?

the -030 perfect rods are an undersized {shorter} push rods?
so your saying the push rod length will need to be addressed if I take .020 off the heads? stands to reason.
if going with adjustable push rods do the covers need to be replaced too.
if so I guess this for clearance of the larger push rods?

Thanks

 

yes you would be best servred getting adjustable push rods, and the tubes are alittle shorter in one section to clear the adjuster nuts.

 

Hope this helps.

 

fx is correct about the push rods i got suckered a few yrs back and had to but new se adjustables any way. i also beleive that if you purchased evo pushrod tubes they are shorter .

 

ok great info thanks again guys

another question on the cams?
the 01 cams have splines on the rear cam for the outer chain gear, I see cams that have a keyed gear for the chain gear on the rear cam {Andrews is the cam I am looking at}
my question is can a person use a "keyed" cam and gear set of cams when the engine was originally set up with the splined configuration?

 

yes, U just need to match all the components.