I have a 80 XL (sporty) with a 1000 cc shovelhead motor. The tranny blew out this past summer so I think its time to rebuild the bike from the ground up. I would like to put bigger cams in the ol' shovelhead. Any recommendations? Thanks for your time.

--
JUGhead

 

As far as cams go there are plenty I favor the andrews cams myself as they offer good performance and easy gentla ramps. Sifton has some good ones as well as leinweber but they tend to be very noisy. I have had great done plnety with andrews and have had great results

 

sifton had some great cams, for cast iron sportsters but at this time sifton is closed and no longer manifacturing in san carlos calif. the machines were sold to one company and another the name only. product is being distributed under the name but nothing made or designed by sifton cams. i know this is a fact i was the product mng for the company for many years. tom sifton has passed away a great racer and performance product manifacturer.

 

Where do you want the powerband? Do you plan on setting up your compression and heads properly to match the cams or are you just doin a basic rebuild on stock ironhead heads.

BTW, your Sporty engine is an 1000cc "ironhead", not a shovelhead bigtwin, unless there is something your not telling us.

 

Whwn you say shovel are you referring to your sporty cast iron head motor? Shovehead motors have aluminum heads 1980 sporty motors have cast iron heads and 4 cams instead of just one like a shovel does I just want to be clear about what you have.though they might resemble a big twin shovel top end it's not a shovelhead they are called an ironhead .that should help you when your referring to your bike.there are only a few cams out there for ironheads Andrews p cams are a waste of money the very least to consider are the PB+ cams the Y cams make better power and work really well with lower gearing to spin the motor at a higher RPM
where the Y cams want to make that power red shift from zippers makes higher HP cams but again at a higher RPM the question really should be how am I going to be riding my sporty?

 

Well said... for late Ironheads replacing the Q cams with good ole P's is the Bomb!! Very hard to beat in fact!!
My Bone Stock '77 [with P Cams] has been 12.98 @ 100.96... standing start 1/4

 

WOW answering a post from 2005 you guys most be really bored

 

Yup...

 

yeah ..i wonder how he got on???

 

Prolly got the Hint, and moved to the Ironhead Sportster thread!!! I Hope