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This was NOT a good thread to start reading! There are plenty of cams out there that will work fine with a stock engine, they will just work a bit better with further work. If you use Search for 'EV27' you will find plenty of more useful threads that cover cams in general, as well as the EV27 many of us like.
WRONG! He might be very lucky. As I stated the early evos had flat top pistons. Completely flat, with no notches cut out for valves. If you have those pistons (my 85 FXWG did), you risk having valve-piston interference with a "bolt in" cam. Sometime in the 85-86 time frame they switched to pistons with valve notches in them.
I have an Andrews EV1 in my bike. It has higher lift than the stock cam. 0.5", I think, but that's off the top of my head. Look it up if you want. I had to grind away a little bit of the case inside to handle the increased lift, as the included instructions said might be needed. I'll bet your '85 is the same way. No change in pistons, valves, or anything else on my bike.
Oh, your lifters are probably shot. And you already have the "good" cam bearing.
did you verify that your stock pistons were the newer design, with valve notches? I have never been able to determine when the change happened.
I could find no warnings or other notes of caution regarding the cams discussed. The bottom of the page pertains only to pricing. I also checked Andrews spec sheets and there is no mention of caution pertaining to 85-86 bikes. Thanks for the effort.
pjb, I don't remember off hand if they are notched or not. I've had the heads off a couple times in the past 26 years, but it's one of those things... If I had to just flat out guess, I'd say no.
Been running this cam for >10K miles, so I'd guess it was going to be OK.
I could find no warnings or other notes of caution regarding the cams discussed. The bottom of the page pertains only to pricing. I also checked Andrews spec sheets and there is no mention of caution pertaining to 85-86 bikes. Thanks for the effort.
The warning pjb is talking about is in the third colum just over the picture of the tdc tool. It says that 84-E86 have to have the notched pistons for clearance. I don't know if they are correct or not but this is what he is talking about.
pjb, if you look through previous cam threads on here, you will find very little talk of problems using the middle-of-the-road after-market cams! Fitting an EV27 in my 1990 FLHS was a no-brainer and they have probably been installed by the truck-load without problems.
It is obviously very wise to ensure a cam is suitable for use in each application, but I was right in my previous thread. There is not an issue for the majority of Evo owners.
I could find no warnings or other notes of caution regarding the cams discussed. The bottom of the page pertains only to pricing. I also checked Andrews spec sheets and there is no mention of caution pertaining to 85-86 bikes. Thanks for the effort.
I said to look at the warning below Andrews spec chart, not the bottom of the page.
the warning says this:
Note: Late 1984-early 1986 Evolution engines require their pistons to be notched to obtain the neccesary valve-to-piston clearance.
pjb, if you look through previous cam threads on here, you will find very little talk of problems using the middle-of-the-road after-market cams! Fitting an EV27 in my 1990 FLHS was a no-brainer and they have probably been installed by the truck-load without problems.
It is obviously very wise to ensure a cam is suitable for use in each application, but I was right in my previous thread. There is not an issue for the majority of Evo owners.
You are entirely missing the point.
THE VERY EARLY EVOS USED DIFFERENT PISTONS.
Anyone with a 1984, 1985, or 1986 Evo needs to be aware of this. Just because the "majority" have nothing to worry about, it is bad advice to tell someone with an early evo they have nothing to be concerned about.
Yes, the majority of evos (all after 86) will be fine.
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