Anyone have any high mileage Ultima engines out there ? Seems the people that claim they have had no problems with Ultima engines also don't have many miles on them . I would like to hear your stories pro's and con's .

 

Bought a used 127 roughly 1 season old, took the heads off to send them out for some port work, it had a scored cylinder, nothing to due with reliability just not tuned right and ran the chit out of it. New pistons/bore job along with stock ported heads and compression bump.

End of it's first season started to hear a wrapping noise with no load going down the road and have heard that sound before with a stock Evo, lower end rod bearings failing. Pulled the top end confirming what I knew plus metal took out piston walls again, going to go with the previous owner ran the chit out of it. Put a brand new crank in it, S&S oil pump with S&S lifters, pistons/bore job.

Motor is basically brand new so previous owner is eliminated. Mid summer the next season engine drops a valve seat idling in the driveway, Contacted Ultima guru John Sachs who also did the port work gave me a phone number to the General Manager over Ultima engines for contact saying he will be interested in hearing this. Called the guy up (Mike Anderson) and sent me 2 new heads along with a gasket kit, installed new heads with a slight port cleanup copying Sachs work plus pulled some compression out of it.

Engine has been very dependable going on 4th season riding 150 miles is common, for a big cube it has good street manors, has matched new bike dependability with complete confidence. Paid $2500 a used motor but $800 crank, $450 (4) pistons, $360 (2) bore jobs, $240 oil pump, $220 lifters, $180 different cam, gasket kits $200 so I'm not going to say the $2500 engine was bargain.

Ultima's strength: blocks are good -strong castings with machining not bad, cylinders and forged pistons are good, roller rockers have been updated, lifters are Johnson Hylifts for Ultima, massive connecting rods.

Ultima's weakness: head casting and machining is horrible, combustion chambers have pourous imperfections in them from cnc machining didn't cut out, flywheels are large pressed pin but throw away's because no one will touch them. Customer service is not existent from hearing people trying to contact Ultima, I'm lucky to know Sachs.

Chinaized: oil pump is a copied S&S to the tee, carb is a copied identical Super G with provisions for a Tjet and external air bleed, haven't had one problem out of it, has been bored with a Tjet installed

I know you get a warranty with a new one, I would feel better with a disassembly, go thru every inch of it checking clearances, clean rough casting and proper torques. You don't know the experience of assemblers at Midwest, plus manufacturing machining is hit and miss.

I'm a fan of a S&S 111 if having to do it again but the current engine seems to be durable plus reliable, miles - I don't know because speedo is 15 mph slow.

 

New to the Forums and realise this is an old thread, and maybe a little off topic, but trying my luck for some advice!

Have just put an Ultima 107 in my dyna. Bought off a local dealer that was going bust. Said he's had it in the box for a few years collecting dust. Very keen to speak to someone at Ultima but having no luck with getting a response on email. Are you still in contact with John Sachs? Hoping to find someone that can help me on the phone for a few minutes. these motors are almost non-existant here in the UK.

The serial numbers don't match the format Ultima has in the manual & online so that is my first question which will help me figure out at least when this was made and any other issues i should watch out for.
I'm about 200 miles into my break in and am suddenly getting quite loud tapping, hey you might even call it knocking. Have heard some horror stories of the older motors having crap lifters, so I assume it is that. Trying to find some guidance on which exact lifters i should be looking to buy if that is the case. Fueling seem to be the pick.

 

I asked a similar question recently and one person claimed 40k trouble free miles on a newer Ultima motor. Others say that Ultimas quality has gotten better in the last several years.

 

I just assembled and blue printed one. The parts were great. I have 2700 miles on it now. So far, zero issues.

 

Did it come straight from Ultima? Did you replace any parts from the factory? I've been looking at the "unassembled" 107, I like the idea of checking clearances of all the parts as I assemble it myself.

 

I built it exactly as the parts came.. I was super tempted to replace the lifters, rockers and cam and go ahead and port the heads.. I got so much conflicting advice. I decided to blueprint and assemble all the parts they sent unless I found something.. And I didn’t. My plan was to ride it as is for the 6000 mile warranty.. dyno tune it for a good baseline, take it yo the strip.. and then after 6000 miles pull it back apart and replace the lifters, pushrods and rocker arms.. change cam and port heads.

That’s where I am at the moment. A good 8-9 years ago I blueprinted one and from the get go, ported the heads and replaced the lifters and pushrods. That motor made the advertised power. So I’m confident this one with 8-9 years newer parts, is making the advertised power. I’ll find out. Mine is a 127. I’m running a bored out G carb with a thinned throttle shaft, 1” spacer and Bassani 2 into 2 step tuned pipes. When I dyno I’m gonna compare three sets of pipes and two carbs. Then when I’m convinced that’s all it has, I’ll likely port heads and change cam, lifter and rockers.

I’m sorta kinda looking for an FXR, possibly a Road King, gonna build a 131. If FXR the 131 goes there, if Road King the 127 goes in it and the 131 will go in the softail where the 127 is now.

I’ll share there was some flashing and small ridges in the ports and intake. I didn’t port them, but I couldn’t help myself from not cleaning that up just a touch with a cartridge roll. And I did do a nice 3 angle valve job. Cam was dead on when I degrees too.. That’s rare with crate motors lol.

What I’d really like to build… but the work and the money.. no pistons.. I’d love to build a 4 3/4 stroke 4.1/4 bore motor right around 11.5:1. Maybe only good for 30,000-40000 miles… but man just think of those miles

 

We found the mistake on the scuffing was the piston to ring up and down gap was way to tight

not a novis thing to machine bigger in spec

 

[QUOTE=johnjzjz;21623378]We found the mistake on the scuffing was the piston to ring up and down gap was way to tight

not a novis thing to machine bigger in spec[/Q

Whats meant by blueprinting the engine ??

 

The smallest mistake in any engine ends all the fun

Midwest has some really good stuff and some that is not - when it’s blended this is the thing that happens

blueprint is a piece of paper with specs by the talent of who did the print - chasing the finite issues is a hands on thing