First and foremost a HUGE THANK YOU to Atrain68 and iclick. The cam swap threads you both did are what gave me the confidence to try this. Both of them also helped throughout the process through PM.

I'm not a mechanic, this is the first time I've done anything to the inside of ANY engine. I have changed the occasional water pump or alternator over the years,but that's it.

A couple of note... and DUH moments..

I decided, for financial reasons, to re-use the stock push rods. I've got an '08 RKC. The fuel tank quick disconnect is already there. Taking the tank off was SIMPLE.
I got lucky I guess. My exhaust was NOT the PITA most people say it is. My bike only has 8500 miles on it. (I bought it 4 months ago with 5k on it).
The biggest PITA to me was the PR covers. WHAT A PAIN!
There are several special tools involved in the process. All the ones I bought made that particular job MUCH easier.
I finally broke down and bought the long swivel socket to re-install the exhaust. I had to buy it on the internet, nobody local had one.
If you're going to go through the rocker boxes you'll need a small wrench called a "1/2 inch flank drive "dog bone" torque adapter. It's made by SNAP-ON and they REALLY think a lot of these litte wrenches. They wanted $30 each for them and you need two different sizes. I made my own by welding a old 3/8" drive socket to the middle of an old box end wrench. You don't need them for removal but in order to torque the bolts back down, you will.
The lifter holding magnets were great, I spent 30 minutes trying to bend the clip like they show in the manual and finally gave up.
I went with the auto zone loan a tool program to remove the bearings then used the old cams to install the new bearings. I used the SE bearings. They are much better than the stock ones.
I was really confused about the entire TDC thing. Turns out I didn't need to be. I ended up just watching the lifters as I rotated the rear wheel. I noted what they looked like at their lowest, set them there and installed the pr's. It was really that easy. As someone told me, as long as you can put the rocker plate back on and tighten down, they are at their lowest. (I may be simplifying this, if you're a mechanic, don't flame me too much)
The DUH moment was forgetting that I had to wait for the lifters to bleed down before they would "spin freely" as the service manual said.
Two scary moments. I finally got up the nerve to push the start button and it fired right up, then I see oil on the front cylinder pr cover. I thought it was leaking. Turns out it wasn't, I just hadn't wiped everything down well before firing it up.
The second, i thought I had an major exhaust leak where the rear header pipe connects to the rear exhaust. Turns out I put too much anti sieze on the connection and it was burning off.
I have a SEPRT. I downloaded the basic stage 1, 103 map. It seems to be doing fine, I'm going to probably mess with the "smart tune" over the next few days. I'm not worried about the numbers. The only tuning oddity is at idle. It seems to go back and forth from a very slow, lope to a fast warm up idle. I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Anyway, it sounds GREAT and in the very short test ride I got in, it is performing how I thought it would. Hopefully these thunderstorms will stop soon and I'll be able to get some serious riding in to make a better judgement. So far, I'd say it definately has more torque. (seat of the pants dyno;-)

 

Wat cams did you install?

 

Se 255

 

Great job. Let's us know how you like it after some miles!!!

 

(The biggest PITA to me was the PR covers. WHAT A PAIN!)

What problems did you have doing this

 

Once ya take those covers off a couple of times, you'll be old hat

 

I love a good success story.

Lucky for you you have an '08. It isn't so simple for tanks with crossovers ('07 and earlier). I just raised mine, which provided enough clearance.

Do you mean the pushrod tubes? With a large flat-blade screwdriver and a bit of practice it is very simple to reinstall these.

They don't really need to be torqued, just snugged down carefully. I used a 7/16" box-end wrench and cursed my way through the job. The cursing made it go faster and made me feel better.

The clips work okay but only if you grind them down where you can grip the lifter clips. Otherwise they won't hold and will make your life miserable.

No flame needed here. You are 100% correct, and that's the way I did it. Releasing the tension on the rocker plates is the only reason to deal with this at all, and I've even seen seasoned techs do it without the pushrods being off-lobe. They just tighten the bolts in sequence a quarter-turn at a time. To me that's more time-consuming and I wouldn't recommend it.

I don't think you can wipe them down enough to prevent smoking entirely. Just expect it and you won't be shocked. My "duh moment" was when I first cranked it and one cylinder wasn't firing, which shocked me for about 0.1 sec. until I realized the problem. You see it runs better when both spark-plug wires are connected. That first crank is really stressful, as you wonder what you forgot to do or did wrong, and it is a great feeling when it runs like it should.

 

Thank you for the write up. I learn so much reading them.

 

I think my problem was that EVERYTHING had a coat of oil on it. My hands, screwdriver, push rod covers. That and my screwdriver has rough sides which probably stopped the cover from sliding like it should.

 

I'm all for buying tools, especially snap on tools. (I have the phone number of my local snap on truck programmed in my cell phone, lol). Sometimes, though, I won't pay the outrageous markup on some of their tools. You can get a quality dogbone torque adaptor for half the snap on price.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#torque-wrench-adapters/=c28shm

You don't need to buy a torque adaptor if you have a set of box end wrenches and allen sockets in the size you need. Put the allen socket on your torque wrench, then your box end wrench goes on the allen socket. Keep it perpendicular and the torque values don't change. If you can't keep it at 90*, extend it in a straight line, and you'll have to use a formula to adjust the torque values.

http://www.trialsnuts.com/TORQUED.pdf