Why do so many people use the term shovelhead when describing Ironheads. From what I understand Ironheads where in the Sportsters and Shovelheads were in the bigger frames, and Ironheads are unit assys while the motor and trans are seperate om shovelheads. Do they share some of the same parts? Thanks in advance. Fred

 

I am gonna go out on a limb and say it is just misidentification. The Shovel and the Iron both look very similar. Now if somebody confused an Ironhead with a Knucklehead, then I would be concerned. lol

 

I am thinking the same thing, maybe because they were around during the same years more or less?

 

That and the fact that the heads look identical, matter fact so does most of the entire engine (top end), probably adds to the confusion.

 

They're both Shovelheads...the Ironhead is a spawn off. That's why some ppl call them all Shovelheads.

 

This is what my reference indicates,
The Shovelhead was an air-cooled, 45 degree, V-twin motorcycle engine manufactured from 1966 to 1984 by the Harley Davidson Motor Company. It had 1,200 cc (73 cu in) of displacement and, after 1978, was increased to 1,340 cc (82 cu in) for Harley's Big Twin bikes.
The Ironhead was a Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine, so named because of the composition of the cylinder heads. The engine is a two cylinder, two valves per cylinder, pushrod V-twin. It was produced from 1957 until 1985 and was replaced by the Evolution engine 1986.This name may also be applied to the Harley-Davidson Sportster motorcycles that used this engine.H.

 

Hummm, interesting. Are a lot of the parts interchangable? Heads look identical.

 

I don't know about swapping parts between the two...and I think I have the titles swapped. Either way, it's the square is a rectangle but a rectangle is not a square scenerio.

 

spawn of? not. ironhead started 57 ..shovelhead that most think of started 66...

rocker boxes of both are identical from 57 to 70 for ironhead (no notch cut out of rocker box on ironheads until after 70). they looked similar from 71 to 85 except ironheads had a notch in the rocker boxes... ironheads actually looked like shovels before they were around...

 

Not? Lol...do you speak that way?

Read on. I posted that I may have had them mixed as to which was first. But I appreciate your sense of urgency to prove someone wrong.