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After 82,000 miles I've decided to do major work on my 96 2007 Ultra Patriot Edition to keep it reliable on the road. I've asked the dealer to do both top and bottom end.
Top end: 103 flat tops and pistons with 204 cams, 1.725 rockers, new bearing and lifters and new hydraulic tensioners. Port existing heads, add larger valves. MCRs.
Bottom end: Weld/plug flywheels and rebuild crank assy (Darkhorse, new bearings, SE compensator, performance clutch plates, SE spring
Drive train: Belt was bad, so replacing along with new sprockets and primary chain.
Exhaust: Header was cracked, so replacing with a Chromewerks dual tune, keeping my Rhinehart slipons. The drive train and exhaust were not planned but a lot of times you find something bad when you break the bike/car down for other work.
Dyno tune (have SERT).
Cost is about $5,500 but I should be able to run over 100K reliably before doing anything other than routine maintenance and bottom will hopefully last 200K miles. Looking forward to the performance upgrade as well. I love riding (do about 16K/year) and will feel confident when I'm out west in the middle of nowhere.
The forums were very helpful in reseaching the 103, cams, header, SE compensator and head work. Thanks to all for the great discussions that make me feel confident I'm going down the right path. It allowed me to ask the right questions of the tech before proceeding. Hoping to get the bike back within the next two weeks and do a 300 mile test run if the temps stay above 25 degs.
Last edited by jarhead0101; Oct 27, 2012 at 09:59 PM.
I don't know that I would go through all that. I have over 125K on my bike and it still runs great! I did have a cam bearing fail at 95K, so I changed cams and updated to the late style cam plate and oil pump.
I changed the belt at 120K when I was changing the gear set after breaking the mainshaft. I still have the belt and wouldn't have any problem using it again.
Belt was pretty bad - all the teeth were cracked. Before I began the work, I felt I could get 100-120K miles before doing the top end. But, I wanted to do the 103 and enjoy it (I'm 66) while still young enough to appreciate it. While I've read about numerous problems with crank sizzoring, I would have left that part alone if I wasn't doing a port and increasing the torque like I"m expecting. I know some who didn't and had their cranks blow up. Since I want to keep the bike for the rest of my riding years, I figured I'd have to do some bottom end at sometime anyway and this should push it out to where I shouldn't have to touch it again. (lost a transmission bearing last year, so hopefully that will be good also.)
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