I remember reading an article years ago about the Twincam development.
It stated that the early Twincam development had a problem with high oil temperatures.
It also stated that Harley's solution was to limit oil flow to the top end.

I'm wondering, If they did do that, how did they do it?

When I did my 110 build, I installed new lifters doused with oil. I fully expected a bit of clatter for a few seconds just like any hydraulic lifter engine sometimes will do.
What I didn't expect was lots of clatter for almost 10 minutes before it finally settled down.
To my reckoning, if a lifter takes 10 minutes to sort of get quiet (its never really quiet) then there is something wrong with the oil supply quantity.
It should not matter how much preload the lifter has, or what kind or viscosity the oil is. (lets not turn this into an Oil or pushrod adjustment discussion 'cause its neither of those).
The new lifters are Hylifts, I reinstalled the OEM C lifters and they are slightly quieter than the Johnsons.

The oil pressure read at the pressure switch is usually 35 and was never less than 25 psi on the day I checked it with a mechanical gauge.
Is there a way of measuring the oil pressure fed to the lifters?

The bike is sewing machine noisy at 2000 rpm and 2400 rpm and acceptably quiet at 2200, as far as I know its noisy from 2400 on up.
I had a mechanic buddy of mine inspect the engine with a stethoscope while I held it steady at the noisy RPM's. he told me, it was all rocker and tappet block noise (yes, I have rockouts installed).
none of the noise was cylinder or bottom end.

 

What cams are you running? I have Wood TW-6HG cams in Reaper, and they're just noisier due to their design.

Cheers!

 

Originally, I had Andrews 54's and they were terribly noisy, later, I switched to Feuling 543's and they make about half as much noise.
When I had 54's in my 2005 RK, they were actually pretty quiet.

 

Are you using the stock pushrods, or do you have adjustables?.,,,

 

Mine was doing the same damn thing...fixed it for 19.95. Bought some reusable ear plugs and no more ticking. Lol...sorry but really that's what I did.
my bike has a 200 rpm range where its so quiet but its damn near impossible to keep it there. I've done the rock outs but no change, I've used different oils both dino and synthetic no change. Start of this season I put in the screaming eagle high volume pump and cam plate...you guessed it...no change. I will say that I put in lifters from wfo Larry and that helped a little and definitely helped with bleed down as those lifters just do dont bleed down...not much anyway. So that leaves a few possibilities...a pushrod hitting, something making contact in the rocker area or just all the tolerances ganging up and making for a "loose" top end. Im going to measure all of the parts in my rocker boxes and replace or modify to get them to the tighter side of the spec...maybe it'll help maybe it'll help lighten my wallet but its a long winter here and its coming apart anyway fir a big bore.

 

You are speaking about the first year or so of the TC. Harleys' engineers put the oil injectors in at the base of the cylinders for oil cooling of the high heat area at the top of the pistons.

Problem is, at a street light, with no air flow, it was found out the hard way a V-twin can on the short term can take more heat then engine oil.

So the redesigned the oil injectors with 15-18 psi release springs and engineered the oil pump thru design so flow pressure was about 12 psi with 50W oil and their 5 micron oil filter. Unlike big long engines, Harleys' don't need a lot of pressure to get oil all the way thru. Oil film lubricates. Not pressure.

Above idle, it can easily top 35, so there is a relief valve in the cam plate so the underside is not totally flooded.

Those injectors also add lubrication for the inner cam bearings along with the limited splash from the crank wheels.

Older Harleys' are not 100% dry sump. Especially the TCb models. In the bottom of the block where the oil pickup for the return side of the pump that is in the cam galley. There is about a 1 1/2" raised wall.

That keeps about 1/2 quart of oil in the sump. Best I can tell when I have drained the cam plate side there is another 1/2 quart there.

Later Harleys' designs does not use that. Probably to pick up a few horsepower.

Not sure what noise you are referring to. OEM cams have a few thousands of and inch rise on the base circle just before big lift starts to be quite and compensate for lifter bleed. Most high performance aftermarket does not.

Lifters must bleed some or they would make the valves leak.

 

Load the lifter to .140"-.150".
I have a .660" lift cam in one of my bikes....131".....very quiet and nothing was done different than what we do on our countless clients bikes.
Spectro 25W60 oil.
Matter of fact, OEM pump, and plate as well.
Pressure sits at 30 psi constantly.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
Scott

 

Being in NY state, how do you find starting with that oil on cold days?
Do you use the synthetic or dino version?

Thanks.

Cheers!

 

I had them loaded to .150 and run the 25-60 spectro and its noisy.
The stock lifters only have .157" travel, thats running them close to bottomed out!!

 

I've run both. The adjustables are in it right now set for .060"
The noise changed going from stock to adjustables but overall one is no better than the other.
Changing the preload has no effect.