Has anyone else been having a hell of a time with S&S? Not only have most of their parts been on back order but my Indy has had to take my bike apart 3 times now due to poor quality parts! I purchased an S&S Hot Setup for my 2014 Softail with 1,600kms on the engine.... the bike is pretty much brand new. I had swapped out the 640 cams for gear driven 585's and subbed the high comp pistons out for the 10.2:1 low compression pistons from the LC124 that S&S sells.

The shop put everything together and bang... they got a shitty lifter from S&S. No biggie, they swapped it out and put it all back together.

Then they do a test run and discover the oil pump and cam plate I had bough from S&S wasn't giving adequate pressure. This led to tearing it down again and swapping out a pile of parts again.

Third time.... put everything back together and had me out the door and the bike had a bad noise. I took it back and now they tell me the pistons and cylinders need to be ripped out again and they believe it was from a faulty batch of cylinders from S&S..... they said they believe the crosshatching/machining in the cylinders wasn't retaining oil during the stroke.

Aside from the fact most of these parts have taken 6 months or more to get in, I have to say that so far... I am not impressed with S&S whatsoever. Is it just me or are others experiencing these issues with them as well? My Indy says that they believe S&S farmed out a lot of their machine work and that's likely where the problem is.

 

a friend bought a pair of slipons and after a a couple days, one of the pipes had a bunch of rust you could see on the baffle and the tip. hes had to wipe it out a couple times. looked in the stock pipes we took off, no rust...

 

I've got a $22,000.00 Canadian boat anchor right now (that was only what I paid for engine etc...). My bike has been down since May of 2021 either waiting for S&S parts or being torn down because of garbage S&S parts. I see their advertising everywhere and assumed they were the gold standard of aftermarket performance but so far I was wrong.

 

The S&S Crankshaft Flywheel Assembly used to be regarded as the best you could get for your TC, at least for resonable money.

Now storys amongst motor builders and workshops circulate telling of parts having to be sendt back as they were less than perfect...

Hopefully this is something that's just temporary.

 

Still is in my book and no issues with mine. Stories are stories.
Have to wonder about defective parts vs. defective Indies too. Way too easy to blame the parts when THEY fk something up too.
Just saying '...I know a guy does tech support for S&S and you'd be amazed at the stories he could tell you about so call builders and the **** they do too.

 

This shop has been in business a long time and the local clubs use them for their work so I tend to believe them in this case.

 

Bad lifter; like the OP says, "no biggie". Bad oil pump AND cam plate sounds wonky to me. OP says a "pile" of parts had to be replaced but does not say what caused the low oil pressure. If there was a defect in the pump or the plate; S&S would have happily replaced it.

Cylinders going bad because cross hatch/machining wasn't retaining oil? That really sounds wonky. Were the cylinders checked in torque plates for a true bore? Were the pistons properly measured for cylinder fitment? Maybe those two steps were taken; any good tech would as prep for the assembly. It these steps were not taken; they should be taken now and if the bore is not true or fitment is not within spec, a conversation with S&S should have been the next step. The OP never mentions contacting S&S which should have been done when the bad lifter showed up.

The OP does not mention the break in/tuning process; very important when talking about a new top end going south.

I am not a cheer leader for S&S and I mean no disrespect to the OP; all his issues could certainly be the fault of S&S. I know a guy on another forum that had to replace his 124" S&S crate motor three times before all was right. However, S&S worked with him and replaced each motor at no cost and ate the shipping cost. It was a frustrating experience for sure, but S&S worked with him until he was happy. It is unfortunate that the OP is having these issues; however, when I read posts like the OPs and things don't quite add up; I have to say hmmmmmmmmm.JMHO.

 

Low oil pressure after the initial build was caused by a faulty oil pump that came with the S&S cam plate/oil pump combo. This led to the first set of pistons, rings and jugs that had to be replaced along with the cam plate and oil pump. The second set of jugs are now believed to be the 3rd problem and now jugs, pistons and rings are all being replaced again. I don't know if pistons were measured for fitment.... I'm not the mechanic. I would assume they know what they are doing as they're the longest running shop in Edmonton. As far as contacting S&S.... the shop has been doing that as they're the ones having all the issues and requiring the replacement parts etc... Frankly, I wouldn't have a clue when they start talking clearances/tolerances etc...

That's crazy about your buddy going through 3 different crate engines before getting one that was built right.... that's a 75% fail rate. This is what I meant about the quality control. All I know is what I am fed through the shop doing the work and to me.... it sounded a bit fishy. Knowing that S&S shoved out three different crated 124's out of their shop though before getting one right kinda backs up my Indy's claims though. And you're right.... it's really ****ing frustrating. The shop doing my work detunes their engines for break-in. I go back in after 1,000kms and they dyno-tune the bike for peak performance.

 

There has been a lot of postings on a multitude of forums & groups concerning S & S's quality lately. And it seems to be across the board regarding parts.

 

You are totally correct! No doubt about that!

However in the case I wrote about one of the workshops is run by the former European champion (Three times) competing in Harley drags, and have been building Harley bikes for a living since 1986.

Another of the shops are run by THE guy to contact if you need your EVO or TC worked on.
He has also been around in the trade since the early '80 something.

They have a to good rep not to be taken seriously.

I guess one can not be 100% sure unless one have previous personal experience from dealing with the company and installing the products.

So, as you stated, stories are just stories and should be treated as that, unless one have personal experience from the exact situation.

(Disclaimer: English language is not my natural language, and spelling is not my best trade...).