building a reliable hot rod : V-Twin Forum: Harley Davidson Forums

soco · 11-07-2003, 02:29 PM

i have a deuce and plan on doing some work to it. Most likely a 103. At the same time i also do quite a bit of riding. Next summer i plan to take a month and tour the country, would this be a problem with a built up 103. I was thinking cam choice would be important, i love the low and mid range power of a 203, but at 70 miles an hour on the highway it just wont be at home, is their a happy medium. thanks

**HDWRENCH** · 11-07-2003, 04:29 PM

The SE kit is over priced for what you are getting. I would also reccomend going to a gear drive set.

The 103 is very labor intensive as well as you are splitting the case's to replace the crank. A 95 or a 98 inch motor would run very well with the right cam to give you a setup making over 100/100.

csoday · 11-08-2003, 01:43 AM

To each, his own. Personally, I went with the 103" and 257 cam. As far as reliability, H-D offers a two year warranty on their SE 103". I still haven't seen any proof as to the benefits to gear driven cams and they do cost more.

**HDWRENCH** · 11-08-2003, 12:10 PM

No proof to gear drive cams I have a nice box of broken and worn out tensioners that I have been collecting. Plus valve train timing. Sorry but your SE cam and the chain set up is a VERY poor design, it will break.
You should see how jerky your cams are in motion compared to a gear drive. Your setup is very hard on the valve train do to the chain snapping back and forth. Gear drive is the fix for HD poor system.

Warranty wise did you buy a 103 motor complete?? Because HD does not warranty that type of engine work. Check it out call up HD customer service and tell them what mods you had done . NO warranty maybe your dealer but another will not honor that. I worked for a dealer for along time i know what they will not cover. I have seen guys from out of state get stranded over this very thing.

csoday · 11-09-2003, 04:56 AM

What I meant was H-D CVO offers the 103 on the SE Road King and it's warrentied. The work on my bike is well beyond anything the MoCo warrenties. However my dealer is giving me a 90 day parts and labor shop warrenty

SYCLONE · 11-11-2003, 10:09 AM

Any time you increase stroke to raise displacement you will realize more torque. But you also will increase piston speed as the piston has to travel farther in the same amount of time. This generates more heat and also increases side loading on pistons/rings especially at top dead center and bdc.
Increasing displacement by increasing bore size alone (95") does not affect piston speed. You can build a more radical 95" motor that will live longer than than the same build on a stroker.
Simply because of the type of riding you will be doing, I personally would save the money and build a 95" motor. You can make over 100 ftlbs and 100 hp pretty easily. It will rev quicker, run cooler, be less prone to detonation, and last longer. Dont misunderstand me, if the bike was ridden 2-3000 miles a summer, short trips ect.. I would build the big motor. Listen to HDWRENCH as far as gear driven cams are concerned. I saw a set of worn out blocks and tensioners at my local dealer on an 02 FLHR that had SE 211 cams and only 13,000 miles. The guy had the bike serviced by the dealer as per the manual. I run SE 257 cams in my dyna and I will be going gear drive this winter.

SIDEKICK · 11-11-2003, 04:37 PM

generally, the lower the output of a motor, the longer it will live.

it just dont have the ability to tear itself to pieces like the strong ones. the strong ones have a way of finding the weak parts and killing them.

just like the buffalo theory.

MPZ · 11-11-2003, 06:37 PM

The stroke on the 103 is only 4.37. A stock Evo is 4.25. So no reliability worries because of excess piston speed.
And at 70mph in top gear your motor will be right at home with a low to mid-range cam, meaning you won't have to downshift for power like you do with longer duration cams.
And I will agree with changing to gear driven cams. Even better, there's someone out there making a kit to convert TCs to a single gear-driven cam!

davidallen1973 · 11-12-2003, 09:32 AM

When I bought my '02 FXDX, I asked myself the very question you are asking. I thought, this thing needs way more power.....compared to what I had been riding I felt like I was on a bicycle. However, I also pt on 15k miles per year and I wanted reliability. I had the debate of 103 vs. 95. After much research I went with 95 (no HD stuff). I am very pleased.....making 114 and 105 and feel reliable.....only time will tell.

QUOTE: HDWRENCH "No proof to gear drive cams I have a nice box of broken and worn out tensioners that I have been collecting."

HDWRENCH is right on. I just had a 95" build done to my '02 FXDX. My tensioners were gone and spitting debris into my oil pump (after 16k miles). Went to gear drive cams and had to replace the cam plate and oil pump due to HD's **** chain set up. The shop told me he has seen tensioners gone after 5,000 miles! GO GEAR DRIVE if you are going to do some miles.

**HDWRENCH** · 11-12-2003, 04:40 PM

I am cleaning house right now and have some extra stuff around. ( cam stuff mostly) but gear drive sets i do have . They are the only way to fly.
Items that I have on hand will go cheap. Construction is not cheap ( new building)

I think that soon SE will offer the kits. HD does not like to be left out of the money , so if they are paying attention to the owners and shops. they will see that many owners are swapping to gear drive.