I installed a Crane 316-2 cam in my 01' Dyna, it had .510lift with stock springs. It worked fine. Seat pressure was 120-130lb.
Harley at the time recommended going to the 175 SE spring set on anything above 550 lift. It is also normal practise to install roller rockers on anything over 550.
Your 583's will do little or nothing for your 88 unless your willing to port the heads and up the compression. tuning without compression is fraught with nuisances and problems. If it was mine I'd wait until I had everything together to install together. FWIW windwolf

 

It literally warns you on the S&S site that 583's "Wont work" above 9.6 compression. They are not for baggers either, dynas and softail specific design. I am running them on a softail with ported heads at 9.25 to 1 because its getting a turbo and even naturally aspirated its gnarly. I got a aet off 3.875 jugs and piatons in the mail, I will drop a dymo sheet in a few weeks before the turbo goes down.

I assure you no compression bump needed

 

The 2006 and later Dynas and '07 later everything else can handle around .575. Before that, .510 is the max. There are a lot of good .510 cams out there though. Some that won't perform that well in a stock compression 88", but will push over 105 hp and tq on a good big bore build. Don't be stuck with SE cams either. Look at Andrews and Wood cams as well.

 

Don't piecemeal a build. Save your money until you can do it all at once. Otherwise, you will be doing nothing but frustrating yourself. Find a reputable indy near you, a reputable dyno tuner and talk to them. Tell them your riding style and what you would like to accomplish. Let them suggest a combo.

 

SNS is right. They went to beehives in 05.will get you higher lift.. problem is that 05 uses early castings. Flow wise they suck.

 

Everything sucks until you port them and thats the EPA fight the power lol. I have an 05 road king with TW88's @.547 lift on the stock beehives it runs great.

On the softail with the 583's I got some really nice kibblewhite springs and they were pretty damn reasonable and despite a lit more lift its a little quieter

 

The first thing you should do when considering an upgrade is to find someone to tune your engine after the motor work is done. Any potential gain in performance from the upgrade can be lost with a poor tune and you may have driveability problems or even hurt your motor with a bad tune. You do not want to compromise on this. Research until you are sure you have a shop that will do a good tune. This may cost $300 or more plus the cost of the tuning device which could be $400+. Having said this, do you want to spend $300+ for a tune after your cam upgrade then the same amount again after the big bore work? If not you should do the motor work all at once then do the tune.

Your cam selection will be somewhat limited if you decide to do the work in stages. Some cams just don't like stock compression but wake up with the proper compression. Depending on what your goal is, your heads may need to be worked also. I suggest slowing down and refining your expectations. Then do all of the engine work at once and get one good tune. Reading as much as you can will help as will riding a few modified bikes if possible.

 

Thanks for the input so far guys!!! The reason I don't want to wait is because I really don't know when I'm going to do the big bore. I should put it out there that I'm only going to go to the 95-98" build nothing crazy. Talked to a local shop here and was told that the cam install alone with the tune will be enough to get my pants wet!!! But again I would have to do the valve springs, something that looks like it might have to be done anyways according to some responses. Labour is free but I just don't want to do it yet.

 

you will get many opinions on this subject and only you know what you can handle at this time. Ok, that said, you asked who has a 203 cam and how it works. ANY cam can make or break the build. I have the 203 in my 95ci softail and ran it like that since new (50,000km). It is a vast improvement over the stock cam, period. Are there better cams out there? Probably a half dozen or so. But you can pick up a SE203 cam on ebay used for around 100 bucks if money is tight. Recently I installed ported heads (thank you Bean) with 80 cc combusion cambers and I can honestly say, that increased compression was the key to waking up the engine. It was good before, it is great now. Mileage improved as well from the stage 2 factory flash, to a TTS Mastertune that makes the engine run soooo much smoother throughout the powerband. My opinion is pick a 510 lift cam, buy a tuner, do the heads and if you have extra allowance money left over, bore it and install flat tops. It will be more than enough, for awhile.

 

Sorry guys I should mention its carbeurated.

 

Well you just saved a bunch on a tuner then. Get a DTT and some jets and you are off to the races. Still will require compression to wake up the motor.

 

05 heads have the exact same valves and valve springs as 06 and up heads. They can handle the lift with no problem. But the casting does suck, they changed the port design and size in 06 on all tc heads. If you want the 583 then get them. I wouldn't by sh*t from a hd dealer though.

 

Anyone else want to weigh in on this?
Thanks

 

Beehive springs in '05 and, per the MoCo, they can handle .575" lift.

The '05 castings were the worst of all the TC castings and flow pretty much flattens out at .400" lift and deal flat by .500" lift. So, why install a cam with .583 lift?

'05 was also the year of the sh!tty valve guide seals. If your bike is consuming excessive amounts of oil, the guide seals are the problem and should be replaced. The guide seals were a running change in the '05 model year so you may have lucked out and dodged that bullet. Mine were replaced under warranty. But, if you have to pull the heads to address the guide seal issue, a street port would justify higher lift cams. Or, if you could get your hands on a set of '06 or later heads, just bolt them on. Some dealers keep take offs around for that reason.

I would be looking at a street port and sticking with the 510s. JMHO

 

T-man is selling the sm600 as a bolt in at 600 lift on the beehive springs, like stated before though the 05 head ports won't benefit anyway. I
If I were to install cam only then the Andrews 26 would be my first choice, very under rated cam in an 88 inch application.

 

Well I ran 203 cams in a stock 88 for a while and it was a nice little boost from stock, now I was running that cam in a 97" for a little while and while it ran good, you would prob be happier if you have your heads ported when you go bigger bore

 

You need to know total valve travel to know how much lift you can use.Until you know that value it is all a guessing game.You have keeper to guide clearance, valve to piston clearance finally spring coil bind.Also need to know what your spring pressures are closed and open.

 

Not really. If the OP sticks with "bolt in" profiles and lift less than .570", he will be fine. Question is why go for lifts higher than .510" when the heads start signing off at .400" lift?

Bolt in the Andrews 26 or street port the heads and run the 510.

 

I put the SE204 in and love them.I think they are around .510 lift.Stock 88" for now.

 

in my experience the 26 is good in the 88 , my 03 fxst had that set-up. also I think I would spend my money doing a 95 inch topend instead of the cams and enjoy the power from the increased compression, which is a bit better than the power from a cam timing change in a stock motor, IMHO.

 

If I am not wrong the S&S 510 comes on at 3000 rpms and the Andrews 26 comes on at 1800 rpms...I am going with the 26 for low end pull in my 88 later to be a 95 or 98...

 

I had put a 551 in my stock 95". It came stock with a 203 and that was a good cam. A 585 in a 88 or a 95 will probably not really be what your looking for. A 203, or a 510, but not a 585. Intake closing is too late, in such a small motor. You'll have to wind the piss out of, and down low it will fall flat on its face.

 

Hi guys, I have a 2005 softail standard stock 88 except for a stage 1.
I wanted to put in a bolt in cam, specifically an s&s 583 easy start(plans for a big bore kit down the road) the problem I have is the dealer tells me that my stock valve springs will only accept up to a .510 lift. S&s tells me I can go to a .590 lift. They said it didn't change until the '06 models. Looking for an answer or personal experiences with this, I didn't want to tear into the head right now so I don't want to change the springs. HD tells me I can go with a screaming eagle 203 which has a lift of .510 but I don't think it's worth it to do that?? Anyone have the 203 in their bike? How do you find it?
Thanks in advance- sorry for making this so long
First you want to add .100 to the cam lift over stock but dont want to do the necessary work to make sure it all works together. Not good. All cam grinders have smaller grinds that work well with stock compression ,heads and intake. the 583 is made for higher compression and head work. You dont have that. Call S&S and tell them what you want to do. They have bolt-in cams that have the stock base circle(I dont think the 583 falls into that category) and will make compression with a stock motor. Best of luck

 

I think he was frustrated 12 years ago!