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I am asking this for a good friend. He is building a 103 and is unsure on which cam to go with. The local stealer is trying to talk him into a SE211. He isn't doing any head work or anything just a big bore and cams. So my question is what would be the best cam for him to go with? If you could help me out so I could try to help him out a little bit I would appreciate it. Thanks a lot
if he's going big bore, then why not consider the pistons and cams from the 27544-10 screamin eagle kit. it's a great combination, forged 10.5 compression ratio, and the 259E cams. while the heads are off, i'd suggest also getting the heads drilled for the manual compression releases. in the summer when it's hot and the air is fat with humidity, you'll be glad you have compression releases. i prefer the manual ones over the automatic because they're user serviceable rather than being hidden under a bunch of crap like the automatic ones are.
Need to know riding style, solo, city vs hwy, etc to determine best cam
... se204, 211, 254, andrews 37, 48, 54, woods 555, 6-6, etc... tmans, cyclerama 575, on and on.... too many grinds, not enough details on needs to help decide.
If he want's to use HD I'd say the 253 or 254s otherwise Andrews 54s or Woods 555. Check out the FuelMoto thread on their 107 build, they use the 555s & have very nice #s & tq & hp curves. The 211s aren't bad, but they were meant more as longer duration high rev cam for the 88s. Most all of the good cams for the 96-103s take advantage of the ability to use bolt in cams with a higher lift, usually up to about .560. You can probably search "103 cams" & find enough posts to keep you reading for a couple of days.
Have you already chosen pistons? Any head work planned?
Build a motor at about 10.2:1 static compression and there's a whole bunch of cams that will work well. Andrews 54, Woods 555, or SE251/SE259E would work. The SE253 is a dog of a cam, and I can't think of an application that I'd ever use it in.
If you build to about 10:1 or less, then the Woods 5-6 or Cycle Rama 575 work well.
Set your corrected compression at 9.2:1 and get a good tune, and you'll be a happy biker.
He was going to do the compression releases. He usually rides solo and rides backroads and city that type far more than the highway and he is pretty aggressive for riding style. I'm having a 107 stage 4 built by R&R and he wants to be able to keep up lol. My builder had told me the 555's are good cams but are rough on the valve train the local stealer also told him that.
I've been all over the place on cams for my upcoming 103" project (as many here know ). I ended up selecting the Andrews 54H. Many good results as it's quiet, pretty flexible with Compression and a forgiving cam when it comes to tuning. Not saying it's the best (hell, it's not installed yet) but sounds like he could do worse...
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