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Engine Mechanical TopicsDiscussion for motor builds, cams, head work, stripped bolts and other engine related issues. The good and the bad. If it goes round and around or up and down, post it here.
I've been looking for a decent budget Lazrus project and decided on a clean and complete '03 Anniversary Ultra basket with 58.7K miles on a busted case with the rest of the engine in boxes. It is an 88 with what appears to be a fresh top-end job and the only mod I see is a SE-203 cam and a TTS tune
I inventoried and inspected all the parts paying attention to anything that looked like overheating or low oil pressure related because of where and how the case was broken and the only thing that I ran across that even looks heat related is the piston rod ends at the crankshaft connecting rod.
This is the first twin cam crankshaft I have personally put my hands on so I am a real newbie here. To me, this looks all discolored like it has been overheated. I was surfing around and I also see this same thing is common on other used crankshafts for sale. Now I am wondering...is this normal or not?
Can I still use this crank or rods or is it all toast? I was planning on taking it to a custom shop this week to get it trued but if is NFG then I need to be looking for another one...
Last edited by skinman13; Apr 8, 2018 at 11:41 AM.
The rods are heat treated for temper. No need for concern due to color. The actual condition of the the bottom end will have to be determined by the shop.
Thanks! That explains why I kept seeing the discoloration.
I was planning on getting it to an area machine shop for them to check it out and true it up before I go back together with it.
What I was hoping would be just changing out the cam bearings and installing a big bore kit now looks like it will be my very first complete bottom up rebuild of a Harley twin. I am actually looking forward to the experience.
Wish me luck.
Last edited by skinman13; Apr 9, 2018 at 08:58 PM.
I have to ask: If the bike is clean, how did the case break?
can't say how this happened, hitting something on the road, running over the curb, someone took the plug out and buggered it up and tried to insert a helicoil and made it worse (that's what I think)...IDK, I got the bike cheap because of this:
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Is this caused by overheating?
