If you are going to the trouble of tearing the heads off and adding a .03 gasket you may as well spend the extra $75 to get your heads decked and increase compression a bit. The gasket alone will not do anything for you. Decked heads and gasket you will notice.

 

I ran the 400-6 when my current engine was a 103 with the SE CNC ported heads and pistons 10.5:1, and a RB Racing Blackhole, 50 mm TB. Made good power down low but did not like hot weather with that combination, it was a ping monster and I have to pull way too much timing to get it to live at 95*. That and being a .650 lift, the ramps are very quick and it was absolutely the noisiest top end I have ever had. And beleive me, I tried everything to quiet it down. I think it would be a better cam with different pistons and head work by a Pro. I also think the pipes added quite a bit to helping the cam to work as designed.

Never ran the T-Man so no opinion.

DD7 is at a standstill waiting for the hyd clutch hose to be delivered, and was waiting to hear from SOHB on their "wedge" primary chain adjuster and just heard that they will not have it available for about 3 to 4 months so will now throw the primar cover back on . In no hurry, have close to 2ft of snow on the ground now and it is still snowing.

 

Hey Dalton and everyone else, I didn't mean to step on any toes about the "Dissing" of the SE203 cams. It just seems like no one likes them for some reason or another. When mention of SE203's is made, most people shy away from them and recomend either the SE204 cams or a different manufacturer. When comparing cams, I expect cams with vary similar durations and intake closing (SE203 and SE204) should be real close to each other for performance when set up properly. While the SE203 cams wont be the ultimate drag cams, set up properly they can still run pretty good and give a person a nice little boost over stock. Later, Calvin.

 

I've either had or ridden dealer builds with both of those cams. I had a 05 FLHTCI with the 95" 203 cam build and it was ok, it was a bump up from 88". My dad had a 06 Ultra with a 95" 204 cam dealer build that was identical to the 05 FLHTCI I had from AC to slip on's. I rode my dads bike many times and can say the 204 pulled just as hard maybe a touch harder on the bottom as the 203 and hung on longer than the 203. If I had to choose between the 2 cams I would go 204 without even thinking twice.

 

msocko3, were both bikes tuned by the same guy on the same dyno or were they running canned maps? Also I have to wonder if the better flowing '06 heads were helping in comparison to the '05 heads.

 

Dalton has given some incorrect information here that needs to be straightened out.

The 204 cam was designed to raise static compression from valve timing. It is essentially the the same cam as the Andrews 37B with a 4 degree advance. If you raise piston compression with a 204, you will be looking at a host of unnecessary and potentially problematic issues that the 204 timing wasn't designed to deal with..
The beauty of the 204 is that it has an advanced, early exhaust close timing sequence allows a simple 95" build make a lot of power everywhere.. By closing the exhaust valve early, you are raising the static compression into the 180-190 range, depending on your heads. If you use a higher compression piston above the standard flat top, you won't be able to hot start it, and the pre-ignition will be unstoppable. This cam gives some brutal low end power while not sacrificing the top end. It's just a "best of both worlds" cam.
If you want to raise compression and go with a cam with more overlap, you will gain more top end, but at a price (IMO) that isn't worth paying on the low end.

 

Hi all,

Just reading the thread, and have a couple of questions. I'm installing a 95 BB with a 203 cam. What mods do I have to make to the heads? I have been seeing a lot of talk about the Cometic .030 gasket. How much different is that than the provided gasket in my kit? Will I need to change out my stock pushrods?
Thanks

 

Both bikes were running canned Stage 2 maps. If you consider the bike with the 204 cams was running a canned Stage 2 map there might have been more to be had if it was running a closer map. The 203 is a decent cam, just when you consider that both cost the same I think the 204 is just a better choice unless someone is giving the 203 away at a fire sale price.

 

I have to disagree a tad bit here. We took my dads 06 Ultra with the 204 cams and sent the heads off to Hillside and had them do a pocket port, a good valve job and shave them to get us 9.7 compression. When I talked with Scott from Hillside he even said we could have pushed the compression closer to 10.1 and still would have no problems with a proper tune. I used the SERT in data mode to tune it and it started hot just fine and even loaded for a trip 2 up didn't ping. The bike pulled harder and ran cooler than it did before the head work and tune. So the 204 will take more compression if it is properly tuned. We took a ride out west this past summer and the bike ran for hours at 80 - 85 mph in temps from 80 - 95 deg with no issues at all. The oil temp never got over 230 and each stop to get gas the bike fired right up with no kick back or starter draging.

 

If both bikes were running "canned" maps, I would say that a more fair test would be take the bike that has the SE203 cams in it and put it on a dyno with no adjustments or tuning; get the base line run. Take the same bike, swap the cams from the SE203's to SE204's. Do no other changes and make a base run. I'll bet they are closer than one might expect. You could also do the same test on the bike that has the SE204's in it. Later, Calvin. PS: you can also run more compression with the SE203 cams. Another thing, the stock '06 heads flow better than the stock '05 heads.