Hi everyone hope your enjoying your weekend,
I have a question, I am considering doing some work for my neibour, her 87 softail is leaking oil at the rear cylinder base, I've never done this job before on an Evo, I do have a FPM & service Manual up to 1988,
looking through the Manuals ,this job looks pretty straight forward, in searching through YouTube I came across Doc Harley video concerning replacing head bolts & cylinder studs with new ones & installing the Studs up side down to prevent the head bolts from bottoming out when tourquing , BTW this was not covered in my FM's
. . . So my question is are there any other issues I should be watching out for ? I feel pretty confident I can do the work, I have a snap-on digital tourqe wrench & am told the job can be done with the motor still in the frame . . . just a little side note I would like to use NOS OEM hardware & Cometic Gaskets . . .
thanks for any suggestions & input . . .
Best regards Troy ; )

 

87 was still a bottom breather motor is I remember right so watch the gaskets for the rocker boxes. If it has the plastic breather gear be a good time to upgrade to the steel one and the cylinder studs you already know about, Those are the main should swap items. Get the old ones out, doa straight edge across the holes to be sure they haven't pulled up crowning like shovel head bolt holes do. Factory studs were a problem, upgraded heavier aftermarket are well proven and have a set torque, book was torque to a number mark the headbolt then a 1/4 turn more nonsense. Cometic gaskets, yes

 

Hi TwiZted,
thanks for your input, because I am in Germany iam not familiar with what might be better as far as aftermarket hardware, could you recommend a good quality brand ? And maybe give me a cost comparison, I can get OEM Studs & head bolts for about 10 to 14 $ ea.
I am going to be doing this as economical as possible, I don't want cheep hardware but this is not a hi performance Machine either , so stuff like ARP type/grade hardware would be over kill I think . . . Would a brand like Colony be a good choice over OEM ?