I'll be swapping out cams on a 4K motor and want to take care of business while its apart. Anybody with info on whether it's worth upgrading is welcome to bring me up to snuff on it. Cost isn't so much an issue as much as practicality.

Thanks

 

I did it when I upgraded cams, 95 big bore kit. I don't know if it would have made much difference by itself but I gained a lot of HP and some TQ doing the whole deal. Mostly did it to replace cam tensioner issue down road and for bigger oil pump

One thing that I don't get a bout the HD kit is why only upgrade chain and tensioner on front side but not the back one??

 

Is this a TC88? Not necessary for 96/103 motors.

 

The Hydraulic Cam Tensioner upgrade kit is a good investment if; (1) you plan to keep the bike for many years, (2) you put many miles on the bike each season, and (3) if your bike has low oil pressure at idle. I performed this upgrade on my Night Train. The high flow oil pump increased my oil pressure from 4 to 8 psi at idle on very hot days. The hydro tensioners have a much longer life span and because of their design are easier to replace when necessary. If your budget allows, go for it but you need to make the decision prior to purchasing cams.

Are you performing the maintenance yourself?

 

Ya, I'll be doing it myself. Did the same thing to my '10 RKC, but cams and bearings only as I bought it new. This FLSTN is used w/4K on it, and the oil pump numbers intrigued me. What I'll probably do at this point is save my $, swap cams/bearings and do the pump down the road.

 

Went with gear drive cams at 81,000 miles on my '00 RG (You could do that easily and safely with the excellent forged cranks and Timken Lefty bearing '99' to '02,) but I still run the original cam plate and oil pump to this day. The bike now has just over 147,000 miles on it.

Unless you've got a heat issue (higher oil pressure circulates oil more freely pulling heat off the motor somewhat,) I can't see a reason to do so on a basically stock motor.

 

Just Fyi

You don't need to buy an expensive billet plate and pump.

You can get a stock 96" cam plate and Screamin Eagle pump #62400004. This upgrade uses all Harley parts. You will be limited to conversion cams like Andrews N cams. But, you get both inner & outer roller chain with hydraulic tensioners.

You can get all your parts from an online discounter, like I did. Save 20%.

I researched this and did it on my 02 Heritage. Good upgrade!

http://www.bikernet.com/pages/Andrew...Cam_Plate.aspx

All that being said, your bike has 4k on it. It could go another 25k without problem, as is. Then just replace the shoes when necessary. Nothing wrong with running it the way it was built. Save the $$ for another upgrade!
I did the cam swap/upgrade at 26k and the tensioners could have gone another 10k, easily. Just check them every 10k.

 

I replaced the cam plate and oil pump with the SE upgrade from Harley when my 04 trashed the cheap inner cam bearing. If you are in that deep, you might as well change to the Timken style bearing. The SE kit has the upgraded cam tensioners.

 

Good article with nice pictures.

I did the same upgrade on my 2005 Deluxe. Started looking at the S/E plate and rejected it when I found it only replaced one of the chains.

I'm very happy with the late model cam plate and Andrews 48N cams.

I followed the same path with discount on-line suppliers. I used HD tapered adjustable push rods and replaced the inner bearings and lifters even though the bike only had 8K miles on it (it's my back-up bike). While I was in there, I replaced everything.

It should be good to go for many more miles.

 

GET HEAD WORK then cams to match your heads, a tuner.