The time has come to swap out the stock cam chain tensioner on my 04 RK. I have been reading and reading and researching as much as I can. I was going to use the Screamin Eagle cam plate and oil pump upgrade kit until I came across the new S&S TC3 cam plate and oil pump. While I am in there I plan to do the cams as well and want to use the S&S 509 cam. I am sending it to my local indy to check the crank and if possible I want to go to gear driven cams.

Now I have a friend who works at the local dealer and he claims S&S is junk and to go with the SE instead. I know my local indy also leans towards SE but he also deals with the dealer as well.

Has there been any comparison between the 2 setups? Is there a clear winner?

 

I always laugh when people at dealerships claim something is junk. They almost always have zero experience with things that dont have "HD" on them.

Did you ask why its junk? If you did, and they couldn't give you specific reasons then I'd say you should take what they say with a grain of salt.

I dont know if there are significant quality differences between the two offerings. I do know that S&S is a very solid company with great products.

I've not heard complaints about either of their tensioner upgrade kits, I'm sure either is fine.

 

I did the Screamin' Eagle cam plate and the S&S cams a few years ago and have had zero issues with it. I've since put 40K miles on it and I can say it is a proven piece. I debated about using the gear drive setup but I had a good deal on the SE kit and that was the reason I chose it.

As for the S&S being junk...and implying the SE stuff is better? That's about as ridiculous a statement as I have ever heard. S&S is far superior to anything SE has or ever will produce. You can generally tell that by just a visual inspection between the two. Given the choice, I will always choose S&S over SE. I would have used the S&S cam plate had there been one available. I did use their cams. If your friend is big on SE stuff...then why use S&S cams?

Its all good stuff...but there is usually better things along the line. You probably wont go wrong using either setup. If I did mine again and my crank was in tolerance, I'd do the gear drive setup and be done with it all!

 

Agree with above in regards to your buddies statements. Those are the kind of people that think they know enough about everything and open an indy shop, and now theres another inferior business to screw people over. Another story there.
But I will say from my experience of having my stage 4 103 (2007) redone twice because of 3 oil pump failures and 2 SE ones before the stage 4 was done, I would go with the S&S one ( I assume thats that new blue one) if so they claim it will work with higher crank run out tolorences. I wish that was available when I built it the last time.

 

My buddy has worked at the dealer for around 10 years so of course I expect him to suggest the SE stuff as would anyone that works at a dealer.

My indy once worked as a mechanic for the same dealer and still orders parts supplies through them so I figure that is why he also suggested the SE stuff. He is a good wrench and I trust him but I also believe that S&S is on top of it with the TC3 (the blue parts) set up and that the 509 cams will be just what I need for this bike. Looks like I will be sticking with my decision and just need to figure out if I will go with gear drive or stick with the chain driven setup.

 

Id skip the gear drive and go with the hydraulic chain drive as in 07+ generation. They are a proven design.

 

you really think that's a better option over gears? This is my only bike at the moment so I'm just going for a little upgrade and hopefully some longevity. Not looking to build a big numbers machine.....on this one anyways haha

 

I had areal good indy build my 07 96 into a 103, I asked about gear drives and he told me the 07 hyd system took care of the issues associated with previous design plastic tensioners plus they went to a high volume oil pump in 07 too.
Keep in mind gear drive is intolerable of excess crank run out, the 96s had issues but yours is an 04 with unknown miles, even though it was a better design that the 96", you dont have the Timkin bearing because 03 was the last year of that. I believe the max runout for gears is .003. FWIW Feuling runout is .002 Ask any good builder like Hillside or Dragos, even better call Darkhorse they are the premier crank builder in the US. They may even have that answer in their FAQ page.

 

whatever you choose....just get rid of those crappy stock spring loaded tensioners. Its like a gun cocked and the safety is off...and you're looking down the barrel. They will cause a catastrophic failure if neglect checking them.

 

I know the tensioner upgrade solved the problem, I just figured while I was in there I could update a few more things. I am at 28k miles and I know I am pushing my luck. I did have it open and checked it out last winter and it looked pretty damn good. However I refuse to ride another year worrying about it.