As per my other post I'm back on a Harley (2010 Heritage softail) which uses a 96B engine.

How are folks finding those engines ? What have you all done to them or what needs doing to them ?

Cheers all.

 

I have a 2008 Heritage 96" and of all my 23 Harleys over the past 56 years in the saddle, she's been the most reliable so far.
Imported from North Carolina by her previous lover, I have a breather kit, V&A pipes which woke her up nicely, on top of whatever the last guy did.
We ride her long and fairly fast here in South Africa, never let us down.

 

I had a '09 FLSTC and only fault was the compensator starting to act up at
37 000 km/23 125 miles

Also had to clean the inside contacts of the ignition switch. Easy to fix and cost $0

One of the vulced bolt/rubber fasteners for the side luggage rack gave up and splitted. Was easy and cheap to fix.

Other than that it was great!

The motor had an SE aircleaner element and a SE exhaust. SE Race tuner (the orange box) fixed the lean running.

 

Needs cams for sure. Every stock Harley engine does. And a tuner. That's minimum..
Compensator is junk. They all are. I'd get rid of it.

 

I'd read a bit about the compensator but figured they were only an issue if the bike was ridden hard all the time ?

What cams are folk using in them ?

 

If the OP has not paid the "Harley Tax" and completed the Stage I upgrade, i.e., intake and exhaust he needs to include that upgrade along with a cam. Any cam the OP chooses will need more than stock compression to perform. If I had to pick one bolt in cam, it would be the S&S 509 which should boost CCP near 185psi. As posted previously a fuel management system like the Powervision should be part of the plan along with a dyno tune once the upgrade is completed. The OP needs to love the 96B motor about $15000-$1800 worth, depending on parts selection and love to get his hands dirty as well.

 

Just depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. Got an Andrews 57H in my 96B, got enough power to be fun but nothing to write home about. Even stock it was much better than the earlier 88 CI.

 

Too late to edit but need to correct a typo and add the purchase of the HD service manual would be wise.

 

I got about 120,000 miles on the same engine. Still ran before I took it apart for a rebuild. Agree with the above on the stock compensator. It is junk.

 

Well, since I just bought a 2011 Crossbones, (96B motor) my 'ears' perked up with this thread topic!

Since the compensator was pointed out as 'junk' I did some quick research and learned it's possible to retrofit a much improved 2014 version into the older engines (back to 2010 according to this video):


There is also an aftermarket upgrade:


Gonna dig more into this and will post what I learn.......