Have to say it sounds mighty tasty... Do you notice an increase valve train noise that some people say Wood cams bring?

 

JC, you are a sorry **** my friend. I'm going to have to sell my bassani's and buy a Thunderheader for my bike. Ran them on my Street Bob and Night Train. Now, it looks like I'll be buying one for my Road Glide

Thunderheader is hands down the best sounding pipe that I've ever heard.

I went with the SE-204 in my 09 FLTR. It sounds like a stock idle to me. After they were installed, I had to ask the dude if he really put them in b\c it sounded the same...LOL.

 

I've run 204s in two different bikes and have liked them. Ran 203s in my first 95 inch upgrade and found that the 204s were more to my liking. Had a TW 37 in a softail with head work and was not impressed. I like the 96 motor for its low end torque but notice I am running out or poop above 4k RPM. I don't care to rip the heads off unless I'm doing other work necessitating removing the heads. Its real easy to put too much cam into a motor and sacrifice lower end for a little improvement up top. I ride my bike on a lot of long trips so reliability and yes fuel mileage are considerations.
The Harley guru Joe Minton recommends the Andrews TW 21 and hates the Thunder Header. His parameters are what makes the most power from 2000-4500 rpm the range where our motors live 90+ per cent of the time.

I'll rephrase the question if I may: What cam will make 100 (or close) foot pounds of torque on a 96 motor with stock heads, free flowing exhaust and intake, and appropriate AFR tuning? Anybody have that answer??

 

I got 99.8 tq with my SE-204's. Screamin Eagle heavy breather, stock heads, bassani slip-on's, SEST. Prob could get a little more with a better tune and a 2-1.

 

I'm running the SE 255's and lot's of folks have commented on how good they sound. Performance wise, I'm pulling 97 at 3200 rpm, 95 @ 4000 and 90 @ 4500. HP peaks @ 82/5500 rpm.

I ride a bagger, so I'm not racing. I have plenty of low end grunt and can pass easily loaded 2 up. That's what I wanted.

the sound isn't going to be the lopy EVO, but it hits hard and I think has a great idle sound. I have stock headers and the old SE II slip ons.

 

I've got the Wood's TW6-6 (not the h), upgraded bearings, a TTS Mastertune, Thunderheader and SE Heavy Breather. That's it. I had them reuse the stock pushrods, and the heads are completely stock. I wanted a minimum of changed parts.

In my opinion, my bike is a bit more quiet (valvetrain) than my buddy's with the same setup using the SE adjustable rods. His installer cut the old rods out instead of pulling the rocker boxes. Neither bike is that much louder than stock, except...

The valves open so fast that the intake pulses rattle the throttle butterfly at idle. That's the only weird noise. Other than that, it's all good.

Ha ha! I messed around with other pipes too, but really, there's nothing like the sound of a Thunderheader. In my opinion, the best sounding pipe as well. I'll be running one as long as I'm able. Just gotta keep away from SF cuz some cops impound your bike for running one...

 

Like yourself, most of my riding is in the lower rpm range, but, when I'm rippin through the gears at 5500 rpms, I want most of my gain in the upper rpms. I really don't give a chit if it pulls harder during lower rpm riding because it has an ample amount of torque to begin with. Why "hotrod" it, if you ain't gonna be hot-rodding it?

I'll rephrase the question if I may:
"What cam will make 100 (or close) foot pounds of torque on a 96 motor with stock heads, free flowing exhaust and intake, and appropriate AFR tuning,[/quote]
and not still sound stock?

This TW6-6 sounds awesome and maybe with a 4 degree advance, be just what I need.