I'm taking my 06 Street Glide in Monday for the last performance upgrade for a while. In fact, I'm not sure there is much more I'll do to this motor except ride the **** out of it. The bike currently has:

-SE 95" Big Bore @ 10-1 CR
-Flat Top Pistons
-SE 203 Cams
-SE Performance Heads
-V&H True Duals w/ Ovals
-SERT

The bike runs very strong and pulls very hard right now. I wish I had, but I never had it tuned since putting the Heads on knowing that I was going to be swapping out the cams, I suspect the numbers are something like 90-93HP and 96-100 ft/lb torque, given the last dyno with the just the 95"., 203's, SERTand a Fatcat was 83 HP and 86 ft/lb TQ. I just couldn't part with the cash to tune the bike knowing it wasn't going to stay there long.

After Monday the bike will be:

-SE 95" Big Bore & 10-1 CR
-SE Flat Top Pistons
-Wood TW-6 Cams
-SE Performance Heads
-D&D Fatcat 2-1 Standard Baffle
-SERT

This is my second run at this configuration, except the last bike was carb'd, had TW-5G cams and a Thunderheader. I was more than pleased with that one, and have found this to be a very satisfying build (modification) without busting the bank.
Prior to adding the SE Heads, I had run a Fatcat for a period of time on my SG. I loved the look, the fit and finish, the smoothing factor of the motors overall personality, and the sound for the most part. I ran a Ghost pipe as well. I took it off after about a month, however, and reinstalled the duals. I couldn't seem to dial them in just right and felt, (and the dyno backed it up), that the only area I gained was with HP at the very top end. I posted openly about my take on the Fatcat, and mentioned that I wanted it to work but it just wasn't, and felt the pipe ideally needed bumped compression to perform. I went back to FTw Automotive Machine and bought another Fatcat, this time sans the Ghost pipe. Thats about 30 lb's I don't need. This go around it was$599 for the pipe. I think I got the 2-1 and the Ghost for that earlier in the year Anyway, it sat in my garage waiting to make the Cams decision. Last week I took a ride on a 08 103" SG with a Fatcat on it. I didn't want to get off the bike. I know there was a lot going on there with IDS, drive by wire, the 103" motor etc., but the Fatcat was like a different pipe than I had. That was the best running pipe I've ever heard felt on on a bike. I can already feel the the substantial difference in the manners of my bike now with the Heads, (smoother running, cooler, much stronger),so I'm looking forward to doing the Fatcat thing again and hoping that all the prior issues of lack of low end and sluggish mid range were just due to a bad fit with the old setup, pre Heads.

I have been surprised by how well the SE 203's performed under this current build. They get no respect for the most part, but I would not hesitate to reccomend them to anyone looking for low to mid range power for a heavy bike. They produce very respectable smooth power. Their specs aren't far from most of the bolt in cams on the market, so we'll see how much the TW-6 improves my numbers and fun factor

 

Interesting notes about the performance build and the cams. Question: I am setting up an '08 FLHX with a Rinehart 2-1, a SERT and a SE Heavy Breather (backordered). I would like to add cams for a little lope to the engine at idle and some performance improvement. Good idea or bad? If it is a good idea, what cams should I get?

Thanks!

 

That's a lot of work and a lot of scratch for a touring bike. Ya know, a decent sport tourer will still tear your 'Glide up in every category and can be had for <$12k - $14k. I just don't see the point of modding the performance on a touring cruiser.

 

The point is clear: Gliderloves his Harley SGand wants to make it faster.Why should he care that a bike he has no interest in owning or riding is faster/cheaper? It's absolutely irrelevant to what he's trying to accomplish.

 

I'm gonna leave this to someone with a 96" motor. There are many choices I just haven't done enough research on what is working for the 96" motors. If you're asking though...good idea for "some performance improvement." Bad idea just to get some "lope at idle." I've never been a fan of just adding cams without bumping displacment, i.e., I wouldn't have ever added cams to a stock 88", but that's just me.

 

Pretty much nailed it Plow

I do thank you for your insightful input however Chorn

 

Get rid of the SE Heads and have some stock heads ported if you want a real power gain, the SE heads have TO BIG of ports and hinder flow.

 

So, do you think just adding the 203 cam to my stock 88" with a carb is not going to do anything for me? Also, do you do any of the work yourself? I ask because I was thinking of adding cams, for now, and going to the 95" or 98" later on. And was wondering if this was something I could do myself.All I really want is a gain in torq, when riding two up. Also, is the 203 you have gear driven? Do they come gear drive, or is this something that has to be added?Does that make a difference, really? Also, what you planning on doing with the old 203's ?

I hope you get the desired affect from the money you are spending. I know I don't have the money to keep switching parts out, to find the desired effect. Maybe I need to work more hours, LOL.

 

Papa....honestly I just wouldn't want to tell you what to expect with 203's and a 8:9-1 CR which is what you have with a stock 88". I can tell you that IF you go to 95" and add the 203's, they will work and work quite well to get you more torque, alone and two up. That is what they are designed to do. The 203's numbers aren't far offfrom a lot of other lower duration .510 lift torque cams, and they workSo yes, they really do make a difference, in a 95" Big Bore motor, and quite possibly in an 88", I just have no experiencewith 203's and a stock motor.They do notcome in gear drive formats, chain only. Any cams you use, the gearsare a seperate component and are the most expensive part of the camshaft package however.
Nope...I don't do my own work. I wish I did, but I'm not overly mechanically inclined Sad but true. I'd love to be able to tear into these things, but I'm seriously scared of screwing something up big time. Whether you could do it yourself with a shop manual by your side or not is largely based on your mechanical abilities and tools I would assume. It's not a small job, I know that.
I'll sell the 203's. Send me a PM if you're interested.

 

Papa: My bone stock '04 EG 88 gets slightly more than 80/90 hp/tq with HQ-0034 cams and it's fast hp/tq, even with Rinehart TD's and SE a/c. Since a stock 88 is about 60/70 hp/tq, you will feel the difference. And that's with no pinging or decel popping all summer long in 95-100 degrees Atlanta weather.
Pirateye and I are going to tune it for Fall and Winter riding in the next couple of weeks and see what kind of peak numbers we can get in the 90-100% throttle areas.