Not sure what we are looking at here, a wrist pin and puller? If not, please enlighten us.

In June 2009 I spent 2 weeks at a Harley/Northwestern University motor officer school and we rode police Road Kings for 2 weeks at very slow speeds in lots of circles and hard braking for hours on end in high heat. Generally there was no issue, except one bike did lose power on the rear cylinder. By the time we left the class the dealer they sent it to still had not figured out why it was doing that, as they found nothing mechanical wrong. I am guessing the compression release was staying activated somehow or the rear cylinder heat management shut off was staying stuck on somehow. The bikes shut off the rear cylinder about anytime you were stopped for more than a few seconds since they were so hot.

 

Looks like an exhaust valve to me that was so heated it froze to the valve guide. Just a guess though.

 

That was my thought at the time it happened since that was an issue that was occurring on 103 inch engines, but the dealer claimed the valves were OK. Who knows though, with dealers anything is possible.

 

Stage 1 upgrade and synthetic oil. No coolers, no fans... no problems!

 

my own theory is that excessive engine heat destroys seals.

 

I know for a fact that Olddeadeye is correct. They even place the bike inside of a tent and leave it idle all day long.

Dropping that valve is not that uncommon and isn't really about the heat, it's about the head castings being junk and having the guide too loose to start with.

You can kill these with the timing being off, but just heat itself? Nope... ain't buying it.

 

Its an interesting thread, I've often wondered about this. It sure makes me nervous moving 10 feet every 3 minutes for an hour in Sturgis.

I think Harley would say that the EITMS system is really about rider protection, not engine protection.

And now that I've installed the faring engine temp gauge, it makes me even more nervous, LOL

 

As long as the oil is good then it's something you really don't need to worry about. Just keep in mind that the hotter the oil gets the faster it breaks down, which is why a lot of us use synthetic because of its higher heat tolerance.