Hi All,

Trying to find out the best route to take. Can anyone who has experience with both setups tell me what the difference feels like?

Looking to do:

Cams and stage 1..

Cams, stage 1 and heads..

Any thoughts on what the difference is would be great. Has anyone done cams and stage 1 and felt only a small difference than with out cams? Also, what does it feel like when you put the heads into the build? A much bigger difference?

I realize it's a difficult question to answer, but thought I'd throw it out there.

I know I posted a similar post yesterday, sorry, but this is a bit more of a defined question.

 

anything you do to help move air, is going to improve your performance (most anything), by doing the heads yo are allowing more air into the cylinder, and faster, (if done right. air speed/volecity is a big part of porting/polishing). by doing heads you can use a cam that will give you more power than what you would be able to use without headwork, but along comes compression, and the bigger cams that will help showcase all that headwork, don't work well with stock compression, so pistons might be in order to use all that cam, and airflow you got. it all has to work together, you don't need to build a race motor, even milder comp increases with a "medium" cam and headwork will translate into many smiles, talk with a good engine builder/shop, for recommendations on your riding style and what you are looking for, top end, low rpm torque, 6 second 1/4 mile times? (yea aren't we all!) get some good advise and you will save a bundle by doing it only once! it will cost a bundle too, though. speed costs...how fast can you afford to go?

 

Well i don't need a rocketship.. But I'd like about 30% more power than where I am now which is a sh*t harley map download, a breather and SE pipes.. Good call on the pistons.. What percentage in noticeable power all around do you think I'll notice with good high flowing 2 into 1 pipes, tuner, tune, and cam? Maybe go S&S where there is power above 3000 rpm, because, besides 1st gear, that's where I'm hanging. Just wondering if heads will be overkill for the objective that I'm trying to do, or if a cam will be underkill.

 

I don't know what kind of bike you have , what year, how big a motor is it, do you ride two up a lot are you still under a warr, 30% is a big jump figure from around 60 to 90 good amount of gain, can be done, don't think you will get that much with just cams though. head work is never overkill in my opinion, it will always show up somewhere. making 100 hp is one thing getting to 100 hp in shortest amount of time makes faster bikes, see what I mean? headwork will almost always make horsepower faster, so I would include it in your budget. You won't be sorry. lots of good builders on the east coast, look at zippers, in North car. excellent work. good people. one word of warning, depending on year of bike, we have crank shaft issues. I would get the runout checked befor you spend a lot of money on the top, while the bottom is all twisted and just waiting to eat an oil pump, more power starts the weakest link theory. dont get me wrong, I'm all for more power, but if you want power and reliability, you must build for it, a solid foundation is a strong crankshaft. just saying.
I would plan on some more compression, a medium grind cam, and some headwork, you gonna be happy. there are ways to get compression without pistons, thinner gaskets milling the head, again talk with sombody whos gonna sell you a package it will work better, s&s does sell packages that do work well together

 

Thanks for the great info.. I think heads are the way to go.. I'm working with a 2010 RK police 103 with 3500 miles on it. The guy I'm working with is excellent, he's a dyno tuning mastermind.

 

he should be able to steer in the direction you want to go, frankly he should have been able to tell you headwork is a good thing, one more tidbit, look at the 58mm throttle body, doesn't matter how big your motor is, if you're trying to fill it up thru a straw, its gonna take forever!! more intake, more hp!! (as a rule of thumb). You have a 50mm one now

 

I did my heads with the cam's and 95 kit while my cheap friend did the same minus the head work
until the following winter
major difference but that was in 01

 

He was talking about boring out the throttle body.. He has a machine guy that tours the country lecutring on machine work, he's that good.. It's $300 to do it though, didn't know if it was worth it.. He said it would produce 3% more HP, and may not be that noticeable to me.. hmmmm...