Money wise and dependability being most people's concerns, I'd stay with the stock stroke and bore and go higher compression pistons with better flowing heads and a higher lift/ milder duration cam with a 2 into one exhaust to help it all flow better. Just my opinion on spending your money, but you can make a nice cruiser on this platform.

Griz

 

Today I took my parts to a shop for them to do the heads, cylinder boring and bottom end work.

I'm reading up on cams now, currently I'm leaning towards the previously mentioned Wood W6.

Tonight's brain activity is taken up with carburetors. I'd planned on modding the stock CV carb. I like to use factory parts when I can, it's probably a sickness. Or I'm cheap.
Actually I think I like the challenge of seeing how much more power I can get out of what the factory installed on the bike.

In any case, I've read about drilling out the vacuum port in the slide, shimming the needle and jetting as necessary.
I've also heard about a Thunderslide kit.

Is one method better than the other? If I'm running mildly worked heads, 10:1 compression and a W6 cam, will a reworked CV carb feed it?

 

Yes it should work well.. I've haven't messed with CV's too much but I hear when modded they will perform well...

 

Don't drill out the slide...if you want, get a lighter spring, but drilling the slide is a one way street. My bike runs better and gets better mileage with the stock hole size. Stick with stock components. Yes to changing jets, needles, and shimming the needle to what the bike wants/needs. YD

 

 

Good point, thanks. If I need to try something different I'll buy a Thunder slid kit, that I can reverse if I decide it isn't working for me.

 

I have had 2 Thunderslide kits, '97 FLHR & '96 FXD. I spent a lot of time tweaking them with minimal return. My last 5 bikes I have put in a sportster needle, cleaned up the slide, and jetted. In my opinion it's just as good as the Thunderslide.

 

Good info, thanks.

I stopped by the shop today to take the rest of the engine parts by (it's been decided that they will do the assembly for me) and to check out the crankshaft after they split the case.

Once they had the oil pump gears in their hands they found the problem.
The oil pump drive gear on the pump shaft was the wrong one. It had an incident with the drive gear on the pinion shaft, bending the pinion shaft. The shock also damaged the crank pin and one rod bearing.
The bent shaft caused the inner bearing race on the pinion shaft to walk on the shaft, eventually it got far enough out that the retaining ring was caught in the gears.

So, the bad news is I need another crank.

The good news is I get to buy a stroker crank.

Since I am stressing durability in this build the shop recommended a 4 1/2" Ultima.
They are giving me a warranty on the build, I'm comfortable with that choice.

 

Not that it matters, but just so you know - the oil pump shaft drive gear is the same from '73 thru '99. The oil pump pinion (on the pinion shaft) changed in '90 and again in '93. So it either had an incorrect oil pinion drive or someone put a Baisley gear set in it, who knows.

Running with the bent pinion shaft and out of true.... now we know why the race walked. Good luck with your engine job.

 

I wish I'd remembered the tooth count of the gears. I was told the oil pump pinion gear was correct by tooth count, the oil pump drive shaft gear was incorrect.

I know someone was in the cam chest since it left the factory, there was a Screaming Eagle 406 cam installed.
The prior owner thought the bike was stock and he'd owned it since '98 or '99. I can't believe that oil pump drive shaft gear was in there for that long, so he had some work done and probably recently prior to the sale.

Of course, given what I've recently learned from the bike itself, maybe the prior owner wasn't telling me everything.
I had planned on freshening up the bottom end before bumping the compression, I'm not really disappointed that it needs work.