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Head Work & Porters (CycleRama?)

4448 Views 8 Replies 8 Participants Last post by  cdirk
I have a 2000 FXST. Andrews 37B cams, cycle shack slip ons, stock carb,
95" with Flat Tops, SBC Scottsman heads. Compression running 9.4.

Anyone have experience with cyclerama?

Have not had it Dynoed, but thinking getting better head work. Not too impressed with this build. Power is ok. Just want more. I want to keep all the components and just change the heads. Budget is under 1000. I suspect there is a problem with the heads I have so wanted to get new ones.

I was leaning towards Big Boyz, or Cyclerama. Does Dewey have heads he can port and send to me or does he only work on stock heads that people send to him? Budget is $1000 and under for the heads. Any opinions welcome.


Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks.
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Had Wes at Cycle Rama do a set for me 8yrs ago.80" EVO 98hp/100tq
Dewey's has heads {2004 - 2005 } to sell straight out or exchange. You said you have 9.4 - 1 comp. Take your heads to a machine shop and have them {fly cut} .020 off of them,that will get you around 9.8 - 1 or 10 - 1 comp. and it will make a difference ,plus use a Cometic .030 head gasket.
SILVER BULLET said:
Dewey's has heads {2004 - 2005 } to sell straight out or exchange. You said you have 9.4 - 1 comp. Take your heads to a machine shop and have them {fly cut} .020 off of them,that will get you around 9.8 - 1 or 10 - 1 comp. and it will make a difference ,plus use a Cometic .030 head gasket.
And there endth the lesson..... !!
The word on the street is SBC does good work. Bullet hit the nail on the head. Bump the compression to 9.8:1 or there abouts and you'll find what you're looking for.
Cyclerama has been around a long time and has proven results. They should really be compared with T-man, BC Gerolomy, Baisley, HQ, John Sachs ETC. Apples and Apples. They offer expensive, extensively reworked heads, and do get the job done when matched to the components they recomend.
A bump in compression will certainly help if you are in fact at 9.4:1. Also in your post you mention stock carb, has it been rejetted or anything? There may be a tuning issue there to look at. I personally like the HSR42 in a build similar to yours but you could also get your carb worked and it will preform better than stock. You don't mention what your ignition module is either. Is it still stock? If so you should consider replacing that with either a performance ignition or an adjustable map ignition module.

As for the heads, I am not a big fan of larger valves in 95" build but everyone has there own views on this subject as you will find in recent posts. Before I milled any off I would double check the Combustion chamber sizes and confirm your actual compression ratio. This will require measuring the deck height, valve reliefs in the pistons and combustion chambers. If you just want to change the heads and not be bothered with it, any of the choices you mentioned would be a good choice.

When it is all said and done, proper tuning is a must to maximize your performance. Being in NH, you might give Mike at Wizard cycles a call in Nashua (if he is still there, it's been 10 years since I have talked with him) or R&R cycles in Manchester has a good rep.
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The problem with the heads mentioned in the original post is that most often they have 1.940" intake and 1.610" exhausts with stock seats.
This causes the valves to be sunk very deep and then often the chambers are additionally clearanced to avoid the consecuent shrouding. This results in a chamber that is significantly larger the stock and they have to be surfaced/fly cut quite a bit to achieve even modest CR's (when actually measured)
This is where the clearance issues with the SE flat tops come in and they may not be suitable for further reworking unless it is very comprehensive.
At the very least I would measure the head height before cutting them further. You may also want to measure what the chamber cc actually is.
I went to see Reggie at R&R Cycles in Manchester. They do stage 2 heads and he said I could keep my components and just add heads and ignition module. Said it would get me around 90HP and 100 - 102 TQ. TQ is what I am looking for. I think what I am going to do is have the bike dynoed to see where I am, have them check the heads to see what the Compression is and if they can do anything with them to get the stage 2 setup. Otehrwise I will get a new set of heads and have them do stage 2 work. Get Compression up to around 9.8 or 9.9. If the Dyno shows that I am in the low 80's HP and TQ I will go with the stage 2 setup from R&R. As usual you have all been very helpful. Thanks for all the input
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