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Fat Boy Engine Problems

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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 11:51 AM
  #1  
kuahiwi's Avatar
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Default Fat Boy Engine Problems

As my '03 Fat Boy has a trike conversion kit, I've went and looked at the Tri-Glide threads and the first thing I saw was major complaints about horsepower, over heating, etc..for a Tri-Glide owner, obviously, this is good reading..

I've gone to the Soft Tail threads and I can't find a lot of people complaining about those issues..maybe I haven't looked deep enough into the pages, but I've been 5 or 6 pages deep and don't really see a lot of discussions on problems with the Fat Boy, in general..

If anybody knows of documented or personal problems with the 1450cc engine that came factory in 2003, I'd appreciate a heads up..

On a related matter, I read today that there's an upgrade kit available that will increase the 1450cc/88ci to a 1550cc/95ci..if anyone has any info and/or personal experience with that upgrade kit, I'd like to hear from you...
 

Last edited by kuahiwi; Oct 4, 2012 at 10:27 PM.
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 12:15 PM
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Not quite 03s, but I had '01 and '04 88s, both carbed, no issues nor did I have the oft mentioned tensioner issue on either bike. Must have been lucky with those.
 
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 12:39 PM
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Only issue that comes to mind is the cam tensioners. Depending on how many miles the engine has you should look at the tensioners to check for wear and possibly replacement. My '03 has been pretty solid. I have had basically a stage 1 upgrade. HD has a hydraulic tensioner upgrade with an upgraded oil pump as well.

In my opinion, I would go with the Screaming Eagle big bore kit to get you to 95 inches. Personally I like to stay with the HD parts. I'm sure others will have different opinions about HD parts.
 
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 06:01 PM
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I would just do cam upgrade..Andrews 21 cams will wake that baby up nice
 
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 06:44 PM
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After being in here for 5yrs and over 28k post, I have learned that some people still don't know that U can do a Google search and find out more info than U can read in a Yr....

There are thousands of other members in here that have done the 95in BB kit for their 88's,, the same as those who have done the 103 for their 96 in'ers..

Let just tell U if U don't know,, most Harley searches on/in Google will bring U right back to HDF and to the link U need to be to find Ur answer.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Harley+88+to+95+inch+kit


Just to Help U more... just look at the Dyno threads in the Softail and Touring sections..

Probably 40% of those thousands of post tells, shows and talk about BB kits that was done to 88's and 96'ers motors...

Heres the Softails dyno thread.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...-softails.html



Heres the Touring bikes Dyno thread.
https://www.hdforums.com/forum/touri...r-baggers.html
 
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Old Oct 4, 2012 | 06:50 PM
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also,, if U don't know by now that the 88 in'er has a tennsioner issue U really need to read a lot more.


https://www.google.com/search?source...w=1716&bih=890.



Read through some of these above and U'll learn alot..





..
 
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