Hey All,
I have an 01 road king 5 speed 86" previous owner pretty much got all screaming eagle upgrades exhaust, cam, stage 2 air. and a Pwr commander. Almost made it to 80,000 original miles. Engine started making a new knocking noise. The first guy. Took it to told me I should send the whole engine to HD for a full remanufacture. He said he thought the fly wheel was warped causing piston slap. The guy was a little sketchy so I decided to get a second opinion. This one insisted that the bottom end was fine and recommended the following.
- 95" S&S pistons and jugs
- Polish the heads/valves
- S&S lifters
- Fueling oil pump
- S&S gear drive cam and cam plate
- Fueling push rods
And a bunch of other little stuff. I felt like I could trust him and did it for $5000. out the door.
I thought the combination of the gear drive larger cam and going from 86" to
95" would be a huge upgrade in power and exhaust thump but the truth is the engine almost sounds the same as it did when I had the piston slap. Used to be I could hardly hear the actual engine noise at an idle once it warmed up and not at all on the road. Now it has so much engine noise I am constantly stressed out on all the new noises when I'm on the road. Still sounds like piston Slap to me and I'm not getting the additional power I thought I would. Oh yah, it back fires on the decel. Around 3000 rpm now.
I took it back the the mechanic, he checked it out and assured me that it was fine and it's just a bigger motor now and I was going to get more noise from it. He also recommended that I toss the ER cross over dual exhaust and go with 2 into 1 Thunder header and take it to HD and get the power commander reprogrammed for all the new stuff. He also suggested a Baker 6 speed upgrade.
I know this is a lot of info. I'm new to the area, not to savvy on engine work and I dont know who to trust, my instinct or a mechanic I just met.
Is there anyone out there that understand what m saying and is willing to give some advise?
Bottom line is the engine noise because of the bigger engine or do I need to get in to the bottom end now? Or what?
Not as much power as I was expecting. Will new exhaust and reprogram the power commander be worth the $ and stop the back fire?
I like the idea of a sixth gear. Baker is $3000, Revtech is $2000. I stalled.
Thanks

 

ide take it to another shop & have them listen to it.the guy defanatly didn't do you any favors taking 5000.00 for what you described,WAY too high.(BTW,it was 88",not 86")did the guy check run out?if he did,what was it? if he didn't,he shouldn't be working on bikes and you could be in trouble

 

you should have a noticeable difference in the way the engine performs from what you have changed to. sounds like it's not turned right for the upgrades. a 2-1 exhaust is alleged to give better performance than duals. as far as the PC, it should have been reprogrammed with a new map after the updates... I would save the 3000 on the 6speed...don't really need it unless you're traveling 80 on the Interstates all the time IMO.....

 

Compression test would tell how bad it is

 

Doubt if the bottom end has gone bad, but as Kirby mentioned, what was the TIR on the pinion shaft at the point of the gear drive install?
Scott