Twin-Cam Oiling Question

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

Mar 14, 2015 | 02:02 PM

Bohemian

Thread Starter

Cruiser

Joined: Aug 2008

Posts: 161

Likes: 7

From: Las Vegas

Twin-Cam Oiling Question

I have a 2002 FLSTSI with the Twin-Cam 88B engine...
Heritage Springer Softail...

My questions are is it normal to see visibly darker oil when you pull cam cover off, then what you see in the oil tank?

Bike is meticulously maintained, I change the oil & filter every 1500 miles and I only have a little over 17,000 miles on it, I have never had a lick of trouble with it...

What prompted me to pull the cam cover off was I ran across the following...
http://www.jamesrussellpublishing.bi...buyharley.html

Which gave me a significant amount of concern...

When I pulled off my cam cover to take a gander at the timing chain & followers the 15 thousand mile scare stories the internet warns us about; I found everything looking perfect at this point...

The only thing anomalous I noticed was that the oil was visibly darker than I thought it should be given I changed it about 500 miles ago...

I compared it to what is in the oil tank and the oil in tank is definitely not as dark...

Looking in bright sunlight I see nothing shinny, so I don't think there is any metal going through the system...

So I'm wondering IF this is NOT NORMAL, than do I have some kind of oil pump spring, pressure valve or related problem?
Or?

Lastly, anybody have a recommendation based on personal experience on a twin-cam gear drive & camshaft kit upgrade to get you away from the chain & follower issues?

Applicable usage... I have no intention of making a hot-rod out of this one, I want to keep it reliable & long living and good for going to Sturgis or the grocery store for a cold 40...

Thanks in advance.

Mar 14, 2015 | 08:58 PM

thelawnmowerman

Road Warrior

Joined: Feb 2011

Posts: 1,269

Likes: 7

From: Liverpool UK

Cant help you with whether its rite or not ... but the oil scavenge etc on std Harley motors is crap ... i've had one eat its oil pump ..wont be happenig again ... i'm in the process of fitiing an S&S 124

Mar 14, 2015 | 10:22 PM

hattitude

Seasoned HDF Member

Joined: Sep 2008

Posts: 14,146

Likes: 11,219

From: San Diego, CA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bohemian

I compared it to what is in the oil tank and the oil in tank is definitely not as dark...

So I'm wondering IF this is NOT NORMAL, than do I have some kind of oil pump spring, pressure valve or related problem?
Or?

Lastly, anybody have a recommendation based on personal experience on a twin-cam gear drive & camshaft kit upgrade to get you away from the chain & follower issues?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure why the oil left in the cam chest would be darker....

How much oil was left in the cam chest? A small amount is normal, too much oil left in the cam chest suggests wet sumping. Some causes of wet sumping are; rocker box umbrella valves stuck/worn out, seal on oil pump and scavenge hole misaligned, pinched o-ring on cam plate, oil pump damaged/worn out. At your mileage & without ever having removed your cam plate, most of these should not be an issue.

Andrews makes some great gear driven cams that would get rid of the chain/tensioners all together... but you need to check your crank runout first to make sure your engine is a good candidate for gear driven cams. I think anything over .004 crank runout and the gear drives of the cams will self-destruct over time...

You could always do the SE cam plate upgrade, switching to hydraulic tensioners v spring loaded tensioners. The SE upgrade only has a roller chain on the front of the cam plate... many have done this SE plate upgrade and say the switch to hydraulic tensioners was more important than two roller chains.....

I have an '03 and will be digging into the cam chest in the near future. I will either do the SE cam plate upgrade or do a conversion cam changeover to the newer style cam plate (with dual roller chains).....

Good luck...

Mar 14, 2015 | 10:28 PM

Seasoned HDF Member

Joined: Mar 2012

Posts: 100,455

Likes: 19,811

From: Centennial, CO

An '02 is perfect candidate for gear drives. Can't explain the darker oil. The article you referenced is full of half truths and false premises. Many, many bikes are ridden to 100,000 miles with no trouble in the cam chest. I f all else looks good in there, put it back together for another 15,000 and recheck.