Originally Posted by djl

Don't buy the "already bored" cylinders. Cylinders need to be bored/honed to fit the pistons. HD cast pistons set up very tight at piston to cylinder; forged pistons set up looser. Do this right and if you want to use pistons you have, pick up a set of cylinders that have not bee bored and bore them to fit your 1550 pistons.

Those pistons (PN 22868-00) have a 7cc dome, so you will should be looking at cams with a 36*-40* intake close. Headwork would be a good idea; the '05 heads are probably the most restrictive of the TC heads. Don't make the mistake many make and throw some parts together without knowing how things will turn out; do the homework and come up with a build plan that will produce the desired results.

Anyone that has told you boring to 95" or even 98" is giving bad advice or blowing smoke up you skirt. After all, HD has been selling 95" big bore kits forever and boring to 98" became the standard several years back.

Originally Posted by djl

Many ways to skin that cat; here is one.

Don't stop at 95", bore to 98" and fit a set of CP pistons with a 6cc dome, have heads worked (need springs for higher lift cams), keep compression about 10.2:1, install S&S 570 cams, install a programmable ignition, throw on a decent exhaust and, if you have access to a dyno, tune the carb on the dyno so you can "see" AFR across the rpm range and fine tune as needed to get the best compromise between partial and WOT. You will exceed your target 90/100 numbers.

I have run the 204 in a 95" motor with head work ("street" port) and a Python 3 2:1 pipe; it made 1043TQ/96HP and is a decent cam, one of the better SE cams. However, there are much better choices in the aftermarket. If you do stick with the SE204 cams, bump compression up close to 9.8; that's the max for the 204 IMHO. It will still be doggy riding two up.

Originally Posted by Adam76

Hi djl, just a couple of questing for you - regarding the old 95" / 98" build, when you say "a little headwork" what does that entail exactly?

I have a set of 96" take off heads that were taken off a brand new 2009 heritage softail, and were wrapped up and in storage ever since. Besides the obvious basic stuff like valve guides and seals --- how much gain is there to be had in doing a valve job on these virtually unused heads? (No porting, stupidly expensive where Ilive)....

I just want to make sure it's an important part of the build and worth the cost for my set up.

Build is 10.1 comp with cylinders bored for 4.6cc wiseco domed pistons
CR575 cams
​​CR575 DTT ignition

Thanks for any advice, and apologies to the OP for the semi hijack 😁

Originally Posted by djl

"A little head work" means a basic "street" port or what some porters refer to as Stage I or velocity port. OEM valves and springs are retained, some bowl blending and new guide seals. This usually runs around $450 from some porters. BigBoyz offers a "street" port for $299, or used to anyway. However, if porting is out of the question, run the heads as they are. Non knowing how long they have been in storage, the guide seals could have gone dry and might need replacing; not sure though.

Assuming a .030: head gasket and a 3.938" bore for 98", compression releases would be advised.

Apologies to the OP as well.