Yesterday I finished installing my chrome engine kit on my 09 Street bob. Obviously, part of the kit was rocker box covers and rocker plates. Basically I had the rocker cover off, the breather out, the rocker arm assemblies out, and the lower rocker plates off. Left the push rods in.

I reinstalled everything as per the manual (TDC, new o-rings, etc.) and it started right up. I also installed a SE heavy breather and V&H short shots at the same time. My rockers seem to be more audible to me now than they were before I did the engine kit. It seems that they're more pronounced. I don't know what might cause that or if it's just me being way to sensitive. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks for your help

 

A little concerned about that.

Might be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here, but...

You install the rocker plate with the cams so that the lifters are on the base circle i.e. the pushrods are at their lowest position. If there is any lift to the pushrods when you put the rocker plate back on you can bend a pushrod. You need to do one cylinder at a time as you need to rotate the cams to a different position for each rocker plate.

 

Thanks for your input, Foxster. I didn't do one cylinder at a time but I did do the disassembly and reassembly in reverse order. I disassembled the front cylinder while at TDC and then put the rear cylinder in TDC before disassembly. I started reassembling on the rear cylinder which was still in TDC from the disassembly. When it was done I put the front cylinder back in TDC and reassembled it.

Would the bike start and keep running smoothly with a bent push rod? I don't sense a change in the feel of the engine. There just seems to be more apparent rocker noise. Could it have something to do with the heavy breather? I installed a heavy breather on a Yamaha Warrior I used to have and I could really hear it "sucking" as opposed to the stock breather...possibly the same here?

 

If you followed the service manual and torqued everything to spec you should be good man. Rocker swap is a pretty simple operation, not much you can screw up. If both cylinders were at TDC when you did the swap I wouldn't be too worried. The combo of the new exhaust/intake is going to sound a lot different than your last set up which is probably what you're hearing. Ride that bastard!

 

TDC should be an OK point, it makes sense that both valves would be closed at that point. When putting these on myself I just watch the pushrods as I turn the engine and when both are at their lowest I know its OK to pop the rocker plate on.

A small bend in a pushrod can cause extra noise without really stopping the engine working OK, just that valve will open a fraction less than it should. You can check them easily by placing them on a sheet of glass and rolling them.

I don't think the big sucker would cause more rocker noise but **** happens.

Another thought is about gaskets. Did you fit new? They are crushable and you do need new ones. Dodgy gaskets or ill-fitting ones on there can make the surfaces rattle together but if you have that then you generally get an oil leak too.

I'm afraid that your only safe bet is going to be to whip them off again and make sure all is good. Check the pushrods, make sure the breathers are bolted down OK and that when reassembling you tighten the bolts in the correct order and to correct torque.

Bit of bad luck you are having, been there a couple of times with similar problems. For me just taking time with assemblly and getting the gaskets seated properly has done the trick.

 

Yep, I followed that manual. I read it and re-read it over and over again to make sure I did everything correctly. It's probably nothing but I'm a bit paranoid right now

This was the only other thing I'm a bit concerned about...the chrome kit came with new gaskets and o-rings. I fitted the new gaskets on the new rocker plates exactly like the old gaskets were placed on the old rocker plates. I used a thin film of high temp permatex gasket to adhere them to the plates so I could assemble the engine without the gaskets slipping and sliding around on me.

The new o-rings for the rocker plates were slightly smaller than the groove but it was very slight. I oiled them up and placed them in the groove so I'm guessing those are ok too...