Ok, I warned you guys that I was going to have lots of questions during my project Breakout. I'm getting ready to start, the parts are coming in and I believe the disassembly will start this weekend. I will be replacing many of the chrome covers with black (including upper/lower rocker boxes, cam cover etc.). I have decided that since I am changing the rocker box covers I will go ahead and change the push rod covers and the tappet covers. Now this leads me to my question. My original plan for this project was to make mostly cosmetic changes to the bike (with exception to exhaust, air filter and tuner). Now I am wondering if I should change the cams since I will already have the rocker box covers, push rods and cam cover out of the way. I have done some research and I believe the SE 204 cam is the best for me and my riding style. I have seen that many on here are big fans of other after market cams but I intend to use the stock push rods so it is important that I use a cam with a base circle the same as the stock cam. I have reviewed my service manual and watched many of the cam replacement youtube videos and I am nervous but feel this is not beyond my capabilities. I will be using the FP3 (already purchased) for the tune. Now to the questions:


Does the FP3 have a can tune for cams?


If not, how would I get it close enough to run "auto tune", and will "auto tune" adjust for the cam?


Keeping in mind that I am not dissatisfied with the performance of my bike now, will the SE 204 give a performance gain that will make it worth my time to put it in?


This would be my first cam replacement, what kind of roadblocks can I expect during this task?


The bike only has 200 miles on it, do I need to change the cam bearings or will they be ok (this may be a deal breaker for me since I do not have the proper tools to change the bearings)?


Thank you in advance for any help with this.
Gary

 

You should probably wait till 1k miles before internal mods. Everyone has an opinion on engine break-in. I also think you should talk with someone that builds or does any kind of performance work that is reputable, about what you are looking for. People can say this or that but a person that does it for a living should be more knowledgeable. Only bad thing about doing stuff like this is buying the tools you may use a couple of times. Whatever you decide I think cams are a great upgrade for a little more performance. I did stage 1 and cams on my bike. Someday head work comes next, money wasn't there. I was also happy with the performance before hand. I just wanted a exhaust note that had little bit of a lopey note.

 

What year is your bike? Skip the SE204 and get a better cam. There are lots of great cams out there that will yield a lot more power than a 204 on a 96 or 103 motor. Talk to FuelMoto, GMR Performance, Hillside Cycle, etc. These guys do this stuff for a living.

Harley cams in my opinion are not going to get you what you are after.

 

Like you, I did tons and tons and tons of research on cams. At the end of the day it came down to this for me.... Two things stood out about the 204 (three actually, but I'll get to that); the fact that of every recommendation or feedback I found on the 204, none of it was negative. As I searched around, i started to note that even on some of the more popular recommendations, one person or another would state "it's really great here, but not there" or "it'll do this but it won't do that", and so on. I don't recall finding anything negative (substantially anyways) about the 204. In fact the only (negative) comments I've ever found about the 204 were vague at best that "there are better out there". One statement sold me on the 204 with "it's not great anywhere, but it's very good everywhere", which fit like a glove for what I am shopping for; wanting a cam without trying to address one specific area. A lot of the popular cams seem to do this. Which is completely fine if you're addressing a particular area (e.g. wanting a cam with low end grunt to get a two up, heavy bagger moving, wanting big numbers and nothing else, etc)

The other selling point for me was from Jason at C&S Speed Shop (VERY popular, respected tuner) that'll do my custom map. When discussing my desires and goals for the bike, it came up just in passing that I would have 204 cams installed before the tune and his face lit up. Without any specific questions to lead the witness and without talking cam talk (me looking for a recommendation), he cut me off and slid in several statements of how great a cam that is and about how much great luck he's had tuning motors with that cam. That pretty much sealed the deal for me.

Oh...the third matter...Jason also stated you'll be hard pressed to find a better sounding cam out there. Not that that alone is the holy grail decision factor for a cam, but lets be honest...

 

The FP3 won't tune for cams...it's strictly a stage 1 (exhaust/air cleaner) tuner.

 

the son put the SE 204's in both his 07 Deuce and 09 NT.

He did op to install the 4* advance gear on both of them. as per our tuner recommendation.

they are hot little bolt in cams make for light bikes and have as good as lope on Idle as any cam I've heard...

heres the sheet of his 07 Deuce With V&H's BR 2-2 ---NOTE--you have to come in from the left side to read HP and and the right side to read the TQ on this sheet






Heres the sheet from his 09 Night train with V&H's BSL's






You can see in the two sheet's what a difference pipes can make.. The V&H's Big Shot Long pipes had less TQ in the lower RPM's VS the BR"2--2's

The BSL's made 70#s TQ at 2500 rpms
VS the BR's 2-2 made 88#s of TQ at 2500 rpms

remember both 96''er had the same mods -- SE/Ac, SERT tuner, both had SE 204 with 4* advance gear and was done by the same master wrench on the same dyno machine at Indy north in Indianapolis




..

 

Just for comparison to some Andrews 26Hs.,, here's my 07 Heritage, with SE-A/C, SERT, and only Rush slip ons with Andrews 26 cams done in Kokomo Ind. and dynoed by a different turner up there...

the andrews don't peak as much, but they have a pretty good TQ line from 2000 to 5000 rpms which is great for 2 up riding which I do 90% of the time..





IMO Cams is not just about more HP and TQ....
if tuned correct, you should get 2-5 more mpg and your oil temp should drop an easy 10-15 degrees.. and of course a big smile on your face when you wind her out a little..



.

 

Thanks guys for all of the information. After careful consideration, lots of information and a load of input I have decided to pull the trigger on the SE204's. Got them ordered today (along with a ton of other beautification parts) and the project will officially start. I'll post some pictures along the way for those that may be interested in my project.

 

I don't know if that's a fair statement or not. A tuner tunes for a certain target A/F ratio throughout the load (throttle position) and rpm range. Your (or the dyno's) O2 sensors and such don't know what cams you have and they don't care. They're looking for a certain ratio and you make adjustments to achieve that ratio. When you say a tuner is designed for tuning for cams, all that is is if that tuner has a map that someone created for those cams. If not, you just get it tuned with a custom map on a dyno and viola...everything (your cams) is accounted for.

 

The FP3 does in fact have the ability to tune for aftermarket camshafts. The FP3 allows access to over 51 tables in the ECM. Of which includes the tables to tune for camshafts. All a FP3 customer has to do is upload their current map for the exhaust and intake and we will make the adjustments for them, and send the map directly back to their device. Takes about 10 minutes or less depending on your connection speed and when you contact Customer Support. If there are any deficiencies within the map, then you can run the AutoTune feature AFTER the adjustments have been made by customer support.

If further explanation of how this works, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-592-2529 or send an email through the FP3 application.