I am thinking of putting new cams in. I'm hoping someone can tell me if it's worth it. I have a stock 88 inch motor with V&H pipes and a RSD air cleaner. I'm hoping to get a nice gain in horsepower and a better sound as well. I want that thumpety thump idle. Is cams the way to go or should I look at doing a 96 in upgrade? I'm thinking the SE 204s would be best? I ride solo 70% of the time and stay in the low to mid RPMs most of the time.

 

If you want the thumpety thump idle the 96 inch upgrade won't make a difference, unless you up the compression. The Cams will give you that thumpety thump idle you want by themselves. But if you combine the 96 upgrade with higher compression and the cams, you will get a more desirable sound. Check out the Andrews cams also.
You can keep your 88 cubic inch size engine and just replace the pistons for more compression and do the cams, that will save you some dough.

 

The stealer told me that if I upgraded the cams I definitely need to get new pushrods as well. Is that true? Also, will I get a decent bump in horsepower from swapping out the cams or just a better sound?

 

You can reuse the stock push rods but it will cost you more in labor to remove the rockers to get the pushrods out. Most people replace the stock push rods with adjustable and remove the stockers by cutting them with bolt cutters, this saves time. If your paying to havr them done you will probably be ahead by replacing them with adjustable.

I like the SE 204 I have them and they are a good all around drop in cam, a little more mid trange than the 203.

To get the most out of them you will need a tuner, the HD downloads dont cut it so look for a SERT , PClll ect and a good dyno guy or buy a PCll from Fuel Moto and they can set it up with a MAP that will be pretty close

 

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/softa...installed.html

 

Get a nice cam that will work with both size motors, 88" and 95"! Thats exactly what i did, put in the WOODS TW6 CAM for my 88". A real TORQUER and THUMPER. Knowing that if i wanted to go 95" i was already set! Which i did, a year later and everything worked out as planned! Cheaper to, as long as you PLAN AHEAD!

 

Thanks for all the help. If my bike is carbed, not fuel injected I won't need to have it tuned, correct? Anyone else have an opinion on the SE 204 vs the WOODS TW6?

 

You still have to tune it but you just re-jet the carb. No need for computer tuners to override the ECM. You can do this yourself with some practice.

 

i was on zippers page the other day and they have cams on clearance for about half price

http://www.zippersperformance.com/do...ist_120709.pdf

http://www.zippersperformance.com/downloads/

 

Springer, you haven't mentioned budget or if you want to do any of the work yourself. A cam will run you 225-300 and a big bore kit somewhere between 450-600, just for the parts and gasket kits etc.. If you do the work yourself, you're looking at $1000 or slightly under for both the cam and the big bore kit. If someone else does it for you, you're looking at $1600-2000.