Tore down the Ratail today to find a HQ-24 cam and 2 bad lifters (rollers are shot) I alresdy have a S&S super E , Thunderheader , S/E non adj. ignition , stock pistons and heads .
The main reason for this rebuild is front cyl had 122 psi and rear had 139 psi and was burning a qt. of oil every 250 - 300 miles .
Here,s the plan cylinders and heads going to machine shop on sun. (found out the guy i'm using is one of the top h/p makers in the country ) good for me . gonna bump comp. up to 9.5 or 10 :1 looking for external adj. ignition system and keeping the HQ-24. also gonna get a set of Johnson high lift lifters, a S&S steel breather and smooth out the head ports and intake.
Hopeing all this will bump me up well over 80 h/p wich would be great for the 6 spd o/d trans i,m also adding this year.

 

Sounds like a nice build. I thought some in here said to stay away from the steel breather gear. If there's a problem in there better to have the plastic breather take the abuse then have a metal gear start shredding stuff.

 

Welcome to the Best Harley Site out there son.

Sounds like you know your stuff.
Can you give us any tips on motor refurbishing and parts locating etc.?
Any help is good help .

 

That subject has as many opinions as oil choice does. I don't think there is anything wrong with either one, so that makes it a financial decision for me. With the steel breather being almost 10x the price, I'm team nylon. They both work though. JMO

Good luck with the build, op. Should be a solid motor when done.

 

Can already see scoring in the case from the breather my thoughts were metal embeds itself into the rotating plastic gear and chews up the aluminum case . I would rather the metal embed into the case and chew into the breather . $100 breather is better than removing eng. and splitting cases to have it machined out .

 

contray to what has been said /// The plastic breather gear is an issue with wrecking the breather hole - the 1935 VLV 74 inch Police bikethat is attached to my shop and it still has its original breather gear and the bike was in police service 5 years when new, today its driven every chance we get -- they also make a reed breather you might want to look at as high comoression will have lots of blow by and will need it

I own a shop and have been doing this 2 weeks now and in my opinion on lifter rollers going bad is the valve springs, the harmonics created by flat double springs causes a bounce at high engine speed and that in turn causes lifter rollers to fail - LOOK at the cam for damage ( dents - pits - or discoloration on the nose ) i would use a conical ( bee hive ) valve spring we have hunderds of flat springs in a milk crate box in the shop take outs --

i would re think the 10 to 1 i would look at 9 to 1 your cam has a short 236 intake duration and its LSA is 107 you wont be able to stop it from pinging if you have quiet mufflers < drag pipes Well you wont hear a 747 landing on top of you -- johnjzjz

 

man that thing must have been tapping and smoking

 

Funny it would only smoke when first started and boy would it smoke but after a few miles it would stop and other than valve train noise could only hear the sweet sound of the thunderheader

 

Do'nt know how i read jasons post before yours but Vic my machinist will be making my mind up on C/R and spring set up but thanks for the info I seem to be learning new things every post I read .

 

ask him about the bee hive spring verses the flat springs as a performance adder