I just went to my local bike shop and he has 4 twin cam engines he took apart all with the same problem. Cam plate bushings oblonged, tensioners worn to the metal, and Conecting rods are severly grooved from the crank bearings.
What the hell the more I find out about the twin cam the more I loose faith in harley.
How could they heattreat the connecting rods for a surface hardning and just run a open bearing with no race. The tensioners I really dont care for but the cam plate having bushings and not bearings WTF.
Can somone give me some good news about this engine

 

well, now you have a reason to MOD!!!

 

he may have 4 of them but there are 1,000,000 plus doing just fine

 

Evo, best engine HD ever made, thats probably why they discontinued it. Seems like everyrthing they make now is designed to break or wear out about the time you pay it off.

Just a personal rant, I wanted to like the newer bikes, but I just can't find a reason too.

 

What year TC are they how were they treated and is some IDNY shop.
51K on my Tc96 oil changed every 5k, primary every 10K and transmission every 20K.
Dynoed it just for the heck of it with 51K on it.
Oh but how can this be if I don ot have a indy shop replace every part in with a special aftermarket part how can my Hd even run after 10K.
Some early TC engines had well know issue that were esy to avoid turning into serious problems.

 

good news is - there are more than 4 of them! They're not perfect, but a twinkie will last quite a while if it's treated right.

 

I had talked to him quite a while and he says EVERY TC engine that he has done with over 35000 miles needs connecting rods. Then he proceded to show me his scrap pile of connecting rods all have the same, what looks to be, a 3/16groove in the top of the connecting rod bearing surface. then he shows were they decided to lighten up things i bit by tappering the connecting rod and now the piston pins are starting to spin in the connecting rods and getting loose. Now, these engines have a lot of miles on them, but shouldnt harlaey know that people r going to be riding the heck out of these bikes racking up miles on them. Also they went to a bushing style after they were using bearings for the cam plate. Doesnt make sense to sell a bike for major money when you can buy a bike for half the price and get twice the service.
Dont get wrong here guys I love my Harley and would rather sell my house then my hog. Im just saying harley needs to yet still step it up more. They have a tendency to make two steps foward and three steps back.

 

They would of had one hell of an engine if they would have taken an Evo,made it 96 cubic inches.Made the rocker boxes 2 piece,and used o-rings on the cylinder bases instead of gaskets.This would have been a great engine.

 

About the connecting rods, I cannot understand why HD tappered the top of the rod like they did. Maybe the though was to encourage oil to get down into that area better by leaving a space for it to enter there.

The thing with rods is the most stress in in tension more than compression. Jerking that piston down is harder on it that pushing it up. So they make that area smaller? Don't understand the thinking.

Another reason to keep the revs below 6000.

About the cam plate, I was thinking about the SE plate with cam bushings, but when I took the plate apart to change cams from Woods 7H to 400-6 there was, "No Wear", at all in that area.
This is one of the few places on the TC 96 where oil pressure helps from a plain bearing standpoint. I have from new had either a Zipper shim or now a biesley spring and always run Amsiol 20-50. So I put the stock plate back. Ain't broke.

The pinion bushing was perfect also, from which I figure the crank is OK (Just luck). But that would help the overall cam chain running smooth. No wear on the tensioners.

Like N-gin says, I love the bike and the brand. Thank goodness there is more to Harley than the bike.

Now HD calls the TC heads, "oil cooled". Wonder what that means exactly? More oil pressure from the factory and a cooler installed? Like people have been doing for years?

 

I cannot comment on the connecting rod issue as I have not seen it. running the plain bushing in the camplate just makes good sense as it now receives direct oil pressure from the camplate gallery. Older engines relied on "spash" oiling as there is not a way to provide direct oiling to roller or ball bearings. Automotive engines have used plain bearings for cam support almost from day one, without issue. The "oblonging" of the bearing has nothing to do witht he bearing itself, it is a product of crank runout being too extreme, which I have seen, but there are many, many 100k mile twincams out there running just fine. There have been cam bearing failures in the older engine due to runout issues also.