I have a '96 Road King. I need some suggestions please. I am sick of putting band aids on my motor every year. I replaced the cases last year due to the studs pulling out of the stock cases. Went with Ultima cases. I am always doing some sort of motor work every year. I am in a club and ride my bike hard all the time. Its just 80 inches. Have a Mikuni HSR42, Rinehart true duals and a Woods WS6 cam. I want to buy a complete top end kit with new cylinders, pistons and heads. Not sure who to go with. I do not want to lose reliability. And I do not want to bore the cases out. I just want to buy new heads and cylinders and bolt everything on. Can you guys please make some suggestions.

 

Which Hampshire are you in, the old one in the UK or the new one in the US?!

I don't see any benefit of doing what you propose, you might just as well buy an entirely new engine, indeed that is what you should have done instead of using new crankcases. There are plenty of bullet-proof aftermarket motors out there, from 80"-131" and beyond.

Alternatively your cylinders can be rebored for new pistons, and heads overhauled and ported, so everything works well together. To get a reliable build talk to a tuning shop. HDF has several sponsors who are top class people and any one of them can advise you and do what work is necessary.

 

I would stick with one of three sources if you're going to stay 80". Stock Harley, S&S, or Ultima. OTOH, I have an Ultima 96" motor I put between 8 & 10K on before I swapped the stock motor back & sold the bike. Never did put that motor in another bike, so it's just sittin' in the shop. $2000 + shipping & you have a bigger, better motor.

 

The only bigger bore you can do without boring the case is an 85" kit like the one by Revolution Performance. The RP 85" kit is just cylinders and pistons, you would still need to get your heads freshened up or pick up a pair of aftermarket like ScreaminEagle or S&S. A combo like that could run as cheap as $1500, or over $2k if your looking to squeeze some power out of it.. The reliability is still pretty good because you have fresh parts but obviously once you start boring out and bumping compression and all that good stuff you will sacrifice some reliability for performance.

Probably the most economical (and still reliable) option its to go with fresh "stock" parts, like some now pistons, hone the cylinders, and send the heads out to have them cleaned up and checked out. I would imagine you could accomplish this for around $1000, and it'll tighten up the motor pretty well.

IMO, if you do a lot of hard riding and want the best reliability you might want to check out the Harley reman program. You send them your motor, and they build you a brand new stock evo within 2 weeks that comes with a 1yr warranty. You just have to pull your aftermarket cam and carb off before sending it in because they will send you back all factory parts (unfotunatley you'd lose your new case. Its a little pricey at $2500 but you have a brand new warrantied motor, you wont beat the reliability of a brand new evo.

 

Might as well build a bigger motor since the reliability you don't want to lose is already in the crapper. I wouldn't build less than an 88" motor - the cost will be nearly the same as an 80".

 

I dont know if I'd say his reliability is "in the crapper", its an evo after all... From what I've read he could get this thing straight for way less than rebuilding the whole motor or buying a crate motor.

My assumptions:
-New crankcase, means the case is sold and new crank bearings
-Mikuni 42, cant beat that carb (mine has outlasted motors, and runs 0-6000ft elev. no problem)
-Woods cam, means he probably has newish torrington cam bearing and lifters

That amounts to a damn solid bottom end IMO. Now you just put new pistons, honed cylinders, clean solid stock heads, and maybe check out your rocker arms. You've got a pretty fresh evo for cheap..

Just my $.02