Stage 1 complete on my 2011 Heritage Softail, runs great. Stage 2 is cams!! What exactly does that mean without getting real technical and what is the main reason for doing it. Significant torque increase or the same with hp..

 

A Stage II upgrade means different things to different people. If you go by the Stage II upgrade kits in the SE Performance catalog, you have two options:

29893-07a, cams, more TQ/HP
92500003, big bore to 103" and cams, more TQ than with just cams and more HP.

Choose your poison.

 

As stated, stages can mean different things. To get to your question, the bikes are sent from the factory set pretty lean for emission reasons. The first things most folks do is replace the factory A/C, exhaust, and re-jet carbs or get the EFI re-maped (the stage 1 you mention). This all to get the engine breathing better and start to unlock the potential of the this beast. The idea behind putting new cams in is to take this breathing a step further. The new cams will allow in more fuel and air through the valves and do a better job of getting rid of the exhaust. Different cam lifts and grinds will alter when all this happens and will produce further HP and torque gains that the stage 1 improvements started. You don't get something for nothing. As you change the cams you'll get some low end, mid range, or high end gains...but you'll lose a bit some where else. Most folks are more than happy to make the trade off. You need to decide where you'd like to get the gains and that will dictate what type of cam to get. Of course the next step is getting more cubic inches and having the heads ported and....as much as your pocket book will allow.
Hope this gives you a little insight, folks much brighter than me can chime in to correct or expand on what I've started.

Welcome to the madness!
Dave

 

"As you change the cams you'll get some low end, mid range, or high end gains...but you'll lose a bit some where else."

Dave, I'm not disagreeing with anything you say but I think that if the stock, EPA compliant cams are replaced with a mild non-EPA cam you won't get any losses but only gains. Purely because the stock cams don't optimize anything but emissions.

 

What Dave was saying is that there are a lot of different cams out there, and they arenmadenwith specific purposes like gaining more torque at the low rpm range, or gaining more power at the higher rpms for more top end. There are cams for each of those purposes.

You need to think about what riding style you have, where you normally ride, etc and get a cam that will enhance that riding.

There are a lot of cams out there, so visit some of there websites and keep checking out this forum to get more info to help you decide. I know I did and still do!

And like Dave very appropriately said, "welcome to the madness", it never ends!

 

Thanks Dave, welcome to the madness, huh! That was the kind of common sense explanation I was looking for. Looking at my dyno chart, I have an increase in torque and hp of approx 7 except some rpm ranges the torque goes up but the hp might be a little lower which makes looking at various cams and what they do more easily understood. We are having a very mild winter here in SE Iowa so far so I still can ride to my local dealer and get his input plus ideas from this forum.

 

Cams will make a more noticable change than an air filter / exhaust change. Stock 96"/ stock tune arround here is good for arround 60hp/78tq. With air filter / exhaust change W/tune some may see 70hp/85tq. " Most will see a bit less" My Dyna with SE air filter, Cycle Shack slip ons and 48H cams 87.5hp/96tq. uncorrected. It makes almost 85lbs tq @ 2K rpm, over 90 before 2.5K and holds it above 90 to 5K rpms. Some make more than this in other parts of the country with a full dyno tune. I took the advice from the top builders on this site and got it right the first time. Cams are the best bang for the buck.

Billy

 

Agreed. OEM cams have no overlap to optimize emissions. Lift in bolt in performance cams is not much more than OEM cams but duration and overlap are different which is the primary reason why performance cams will produce gains across the power band. You won't see any power losses with a cam only upgrade. The right exhaust and tune are essential element of the package and become more important as you develop the performance capabilites of the engine. If you are planning on upgrading performance in phases, a cam upgrade is a good starting place. However, you will get used to the power increase pretty quick knowing that there is more on tap; that's the madness part.

 

....... thread drift - I'm thinking your insurance will be a lot cheaper on a Harley.