To those who may have been following my slow progress on my top end rebuild and new cam, here are the end results. The bike is a 98 Superglide with stage one installed prior to the top end.

I had the heads shaved .050, bowls blended, D-cut in combustion chamber. I should be at 9:1

Tops and bottoms of cylinders went to shop to be shaved and squared thanks to my dumb idea of using a scotch brite wheel on a dremel to help remove the baked on gasket material. The wheel did work great. So great that it removed just enough metal to leave low spots.

I honed the cylinders myself with a flex-hone. I did a good job because that was one thing I did that the machine shop didn't have to fix. lol

"Competition valve job" with new valves and Twin Cam springs

Cometic gaskets and Hayden oil fix-(I only used the brass inserts)

I reused stock pistons (28K miles) and new Hastings rings

EVL-3010 cam (.065 shim w/.016 clearance), bearing, Ultima lifters, Rivera Primo Taperlite adjustable pushrods and new OEM breather gear

Ultima ignition module in single fire and all switches in down position

CV carb done up by Dale @ Killer Motorcycle Products (45/200)

New Avon Cobras compliments of a warranty claim regarding the rotting Venoms I had.

I painted the heads, cylinders and tappet blocks VHT gloss black

New head bolts. I had some loose case studs but I was able to clean them, red loctite them and put them back in.

I did 4 heat cycles before I rode. I put 100 miles on her yesterday on back roads. I'm not quite babying her but I'm not riding hard yet either. Just taking it a little easy till I have more miles on. So far so good. NO leaks, no issues. The bike runs really smooth and it wants to go. I can't wait to open her up and see if this cam does what I hoped it would.

This was my first top end rebuild and first cam swap. I'm mechanically inclined but not having done this before I was a little nervous. Thanks big to all you guys that answered questions for me and helped me along. It was a lot easier than I thought and seeing it all put back together and running is sweet. I may need to do a little tuning but so far I'm pretty psyched

My exhaust sound has changed. It's louder and a little more obnoxious. I don't mind it but It'll be tough sneaking home at 1am if I care about my neighbors' sleep. I am going to get the TTI inserts from RK products and see if it lowers the snappy sound the V&H straight shots give me now.

I wanted to say something about the machine shop I used. Advanced Engine Rebuilding in Wareham, MA. http://enginesbyadvanced.com/
I asked around and 2 indys as well as another machine shop all recommended Advanced. They all said he wasn't cheap, but his work was always flawless.

My bill was only $484.95, but the owner, Hans, who did my work, spent about an hour with me each of the 3 times I stopped by to drop off something or ask another question. He went over every aspect of what he was going to do and showed me the machines he'd use and how they worked. He treated me like he was doing a $5K engine job for me. He is a great guy who has been doing this for near 30 years and next time I need a machine shop I'll go back to him.

On a side not, I have V&H straight shots that have to be 14 years old. The chrome was getting ratty and I'm more of a rider than a cleaner so that didn't help them. I used this polish called Flitz and 0000 steel wool and from 2 feet away they look new again. The little rust spots and melted flip flop smears (uhg women) are all gone. It's about 8 bucks a tube but damn it works great.
I got a quick vid of the first start if anyone wants to eyeball it.

 

Sounds Great! job well done.

 

Excellent, and congrats!

 

Awesome. You do rock. My first starts are usually accompanied by lots of blue smoke.

Nice exhaust note.

 

Sounds great! I installed the EVL 5005, big brother to your cam, & really like it. Think you will like the way it pulls. Good job.
Ride Safe,
Harold

 

That was a cold start??????????????????

Excellent job man!!!!!!!!!!

 

How many beers job was that?


p.s. I <3 head too

 

Hey Schex3x, I get a lot of smiles from women who read that sticker. Go figure? lol

Thanks for the pat on the back guys-

I'm more of a liquor guy but if I drank the amount of beers it took I'd either be passed or still pissing. Not including the time at the machine shop, I could have had this done in a weekend, but I milked it. I worked on it for a few hours here and there when I had time.

Biggest pita I think aside from getting the cement like baked on gaskets off was getting the rear wheel back on with the spacers properly aligned.

The cam swap was easy as pie. I wouldn't think twice about swapping out other cams to try. If anyone is considering it, go for it.

I did get a little stumped when adjusting the pushrods. I put in new lifters and though I tried to manually get them to suck up some oil, I didn't do very well. I kept adjusting the rods lower and lower till they wouldn't move, and come back in 20 mins thinking the lifters had bled down. I still couldn't spin the rods with my fingers. I took them out and put them back 3 times with the same problem. It wasn't till I walked over and picked up one of the old lifters still pull of oil and tried to depress it with a rod that I realized my new ones must be bone dry and I was actually adjusting the depressing the new lifters all the way down. Glad I thought about that before I tried starting it. Duh dumb ***.

I can't think of anything now that was a big deal or hard to deal with. I will say if you have your heads off and are looking to pull the springs and valves, don't bother with Autozone or Advanced Auto's spring depressor tool. Junk. I bent them. I went to my indy and he lent me a real tool and I had them off in minutes.

Same deal with the rental piston ring compressor tools. All they had were the big adjustable spring types and they sucked. I took the pistons off and put the cylinders upside down on my bench and slid the piston down into them one ring at a time. I used a couple of FMJ 30.06 cartridges to gently push the rings in the grooves as I worked them into the cylinders. I tried .308 cartridges first but they were too short.

 

Sounds nice! Doing your own work goes far beyond just saving money for labor.

 

No doubt. I've never once had that bike at a shop or the dealers. I've done lots of other things to this bike from starters to dismounting and mounting my own tires with tire spoons(Never again what a PITA) before the top end and cam. I can just add those to my list of motorcycle can do's. I'm no mechanic but I have tools and can read a manual. If I get stuck or confused I have sites like this and the almighty google. I do all the maintenance and repairs and I enjoy doing it too. Makes me feel good to know I can handle most anything that happens. I like I know the bike better too. We are more intimate