In the midst of a 1200 conversion on a 09 iron.Needs some expert input on cam choice.Heres the build specs.883 07 jugs bored to 3.498 (bore has been variffied to high quality specs)wiseco 10:1 reverse dome pistons.Stock 883 cilinder heads.Vance and Hines stagered short shots.SE heavy breather.SE pro race tuner.Bike will be dyno'd with custom EFI map.Would like to stick with SE brand cams but I am open to other ideas.Most of the riding will be done around town.Looking for some good all around streetable performance.Was thinking of using the SCREAMIN’ EAGLE PRO XL PERFORMANCE CAMS with 551 lift duration.Before someone chimes in on headwork lets leave that alone rite now.I will be using the bike as a test bed for some laminar air flow,injector tweeking and custom EFI mapping.Would like the heads to stay stock 883 at this time.Going to squeeze as much horse power out of this combo without the headwork.Will share dyno results and any reliability concerns with all that ask.Thanks to all that reply........Len

 

well staying stock is alright cuz you'll keep that smaller exhaust valve which'll only be to your benefit. 10:1 compression gives you something else to work with. theres .497 cams by andrews that are a decent street cam and the SE .536 cams are super versatile that work great in lightly modded bikes to heavily modded bikes. you should really look at your riding style and get cam to suit. if your a gearjammin speed demon high torques wont do. an if your a driving miss daisy type really high lift cams wont do cuz they'll wipe out your bottom end pretty good. not doing headwork might be better than getting your heads destroyed by some supposed pro who hacks em up going for 'high flow' forgetting about flow velocity. theres a shiitload of hack shops out there and if U go to the buell website or xlforum you'll find out shiitload more on this subject thanx 2 others mistakes in persuit of performance

 

I'd recommend you contact Andrews, tell them exactly what you've got and what you're trying to do, and then follow their recommendations, including for exhaust pipe I.D. and length because that's critical. To get an idea of what size pipes work on high-revving, high performance Harley engines, take a look at a flat track Harley. Those pipes look downright skinny, but guess what. Those skinny plain steel pipes work if they're sized correctly.

Word of advice. Don't ask them how much backpressure you should have because they'll stop taking you seriously.

If you want cam specs, go to nightrider.com. They have a spec chart of about 30 Evo Sportster cams, including SE and Sifton and stock Harley.

Good luck.

 

Personally I would look at getting your heads done before a cam swap.

 

...+1

 

+3 Not much to be gained without headwork.

 

good sober advice

 

check out www.nrhsperformance.com Dan has cnc headwork available and can work with you on what stage of headwork to do and what cams to compliment not only the headwork but your driving style. give him a call and ask some ?'s.

also if you do nat have the parts yet he has a 1250 kit for $700 as well as lots of other products and services.

 

with 883 heads, get headwork with the cams. For me, I had a damaged front motor mount on my old 883 heads, so on a budget I opted for a cheap set of stock 1200 heads and got andrews n4 cams, which I think is may be the same as the n3 cams for the new model sporty's, basically it's a longer duration cam with about stock lift. Just keep in mind that some of the higher lift cams require replacing the valve springs along with some minor head modification for clearance. I originally planned up upgrading to buell heads, but after getting everything together, I was more than happy with the power/performance increase I ended up with. Also think about upgrading your ignition to either a SE one or an aftermarket programmable one, to adjust to your new setup.

For my conversion I went from a 883 bike that already had a harley 1200 kit with stock 883 heads, then I got a nhrs 1250 kit with stock 1200 heads, n4 cams, and a dyna ignition module, and I had a very noticable power improvement over the old setup.