Is it possible to stroke an Ironhead? If so how far?

 

A friend told me he had his Ironhead bored to 1200 but he's one of those BSers so I wouldn't take that granted.

 

He'd have to have big bore cylinders. I don't remember there being enough meat on the stock cylinders to bore it to 1200.

I had my '72 CH stroked to 77 inches. It was bored .010 over to clean it up. I've seen 89 inch stroker Ironheads, but they were maintenance monsters on the street. Also remember one Ironhead that was over 100 inches, both stroked and with big bore cylinders. It had the tranny section milled off and was coupled to a Norton tranny, IIRC.

Check with S&S, and also with Sputhe, and maybe Atlas. They might be able to clue you in on something. Remember that the stroker engine usually won't "live" as long as one that has big bore cylinders to achieve the same displacement. The longer stroke means higher piston speeds and that means more wear. But boy are they fun when that baby's torque hammers you!

 

Why? You can buy a new S&S that's dependable, bored and stroked for less money than a rework.

 

I was just curious as to what could be done to these engines and how far. The power to weight ratio of a sporty with a 100 CI motor must be awesome.

 

A rip down of an engine is easy, and a simple bore, high compression pistons, polished heads, cams, breather and exhaust can be done with the engine still in the bike. A stroker requires removal, bottom end rip apart, stacks, short pistons, and the list goes on. I would never do a stroker unless the bike was a complete rebuild. The engine life is less, the work is way more and the cost is crazy. My opinion only.

 

So, the biggest bore kit I have seen so far will bring displacement up to 1200. Are there any bigger?

 

That's the biggest I saw, too. Combined with stroker flywheels, a much bigger engine would be possible.

 

Sputhe used have a 1400cc kit, not sure if they still do.

 

The 1400cc is just the bore kit right? Not Stroked?