Whilst having a couple of bourbons and making some jerky I got to thinking.

I've got a little extra tucked away in the cunning kick so, what can I do (motor wise 96cu, 07 fatboy, 22000kms) for 3k?

I spoke with the HD shop down the road and they will do a stage 3 for 3k. I already have SE Tuner, RSD cleaner and V&H Bigshot staggereds on.

Question is. Is this worth it? What other good options are there?

A mate has 204 cams in his but I would like a little extra. Some good torque 2500-4500 with more go etc.

I grew up on 2t MX bikes but have not yet delved into the world of motor wise pulling this one apart, so that adds on the fact that someone else has to do it.

Pretty basic and probably asked before but couldn't find too much using the search function.

Any ideas appreciated.

Cheers.

What does the HD shop say you are going to get for the Stage 3 set up ... was the HD shop Gasoline or Morgan & Wackers ... not that there is anything wrong with those 2 but definitely check out a few after market places ... there is a few around these days .

Definitely Cams are a sure fire first step but get ready for every ones opinion , there are a shit load of options ... going bigger bore is another way and of course a set of performance heads will make her breath a lot better and changing the throttle body .

Me , I have only just upgraded from a 96 cu to S & S 106 cu Barrels and Pistons , $ 1060 ... S & S 79 cc High compression Heads , $ 1400 ... S & S 585 Gear Drive conversion Cams
$ 1000 ... now that last one you can save a shit load on by staying with the Chain Drive Cam set up ... I just wanted to go that tiny bit more ... Fueling Lifters $ 150 ... Screaming Eagle 50 mm Throttle body , up from the standard 46 mm , $ 500 ... Adjustable Pushrods , Screaming Eagle or S & S , don't have that price at hand sorry .

Of course there are things like oil filters , gaskets and of course Labour ... I ended up putting on one of those Jims Force Flow Fans to help keep the heat at bay ... I think you are from South East Qld , so the summer months up here can get mighty warm and Twin Cams tend to run a little hot and with extra motor work done means more Heat usually .

All up for mine it came in at $ 4700 ... now if you went for Chain Drive Cams instead of Gear Drive and The Heads and not the bigger bore , or vice a versa and all the other goodies I reckon you would come in well under $ 3000 and be pretty happy with the performance improvements ... I reckon even if you went the Heads AND bigger bore and went with the Chain Drive Cams you might get pretty dam close to the $ 3000 mark .

The guy who did my work charges $ 80 an hour ... Gasoline and Wackers are up around $ 120 if I am not wrong ... Heavy Duty are $ 100 an Hour , I think ... there will be plenty of different ideas from guys here some of whom really know their shit others well not so much , Lol ... what I have done over the last couple of years while on here is get different peoples ideas and use what suits me best ... if and when you get closer to going ahead by all means send me a PM and I put you in contact with the guy doing mine .

Haven`t had any Dyno work done as yet as it is still pretty fresh but have seen figures of very simular work where he was getting up to 120 Hp and 118 Torque ... if mine comes in at a 115 plus Hp I will be very happy ... Numbers aren't the Holy Grail for me though they are nice to know , one of the main things for me is how it feels to ride and so far fricken great , Lol .

Hope some of this helps , it`s a never ending Journey this owning a Harley though , Lol ... but fun ... most of the time ... Cheers , Tim .

Thanks for the info Tim, much appreciated. I was following the thread on here re the SS 106 build and was curious about what you had done to your bike.
I have recently moved from Bne area to country NSW (work), so I am a bit limited for dealerships etc here. GA was where I used to go for servicing, parts etc and they certainly hit you with the labour. I had a bloke out Ipswich way do a fair bit of work and he was $80/hr and real easy to work with.
The Stage 3 was - 103 cylinders, 10.5:1 comp pistons, 259E cams, valve springs, perfect fit pushrods and clutch spring. This included a SE tuner which I wanted to keep to put on the sporty that lives here too, otherwise -$350.
I was looking at keeping the OEM heads for now as that would help with the price etc and allow me to sort them out a bit later along with a TB.
Agree about the knowledge on here, some very helpful guys that know what they are talking about and always good to read their posts. Always good to read others depending on the amount of rum consumed lol.....

Cheers.
Buck

Any time Buck ... depending on the circumstances Rum nearly always helps , Lol .

It's not rocket science to pull the top end apart if staying under 107 CI if you have worked on motors before, drain the fuel tank first, buy a couple of allen keys to modify with the angle grinder to fit the throttle body bolts, you may need a cam bearing removal tool. Buy a workshop manual for the procedures and torque values. M&M cycles have S&S kits for what you are looking at doing at a reasonable price, quality of the components would be better too. Some people don't think you need roller rockers etc until your over 600 lift on the cams, 120's don't even have them. Not sure which cam chain drive setup you have as they changed somewhere near 2007, the later twin cams have a better chain drive setup, mine is 2008 and it is fine with chain drive cams. If you buy a complete kit then those decisions have already been made for you by S&S. You can get your standard throttle body bored and ported which works very well and is a cheaper option and will outperform the S.E. one. Postage from the USA is not too bad and doesn't take that long. Support the local people when you can, but when they don't stock the bits I'm after (which happened a lot), it's US postal from the US, it gets to WA quicker than stuff from the eastern states does and the postage is not a lot more. M&M have S&S kits which I didn't see on the S&S site, they will also get the ones not on their web site if you ask.

Its cheaper to do what you want to your motor in one go then to keep upgrading in stages, or upgrading and then downgrading  again, learn from the expensive mistakes a lot of us made there, "SEARCH" on this site at least, do some searching on the S&S site for recommendations (more believable than the Harley one) and Indie motor builders. Don't get carried away chasing the highest numbers on a dyno unless you really have to have them, aim for where you spend most of your time when your out riding. Top end power comes with the loss of bottom end torque. Everones got an opinion and mine is aim for a good wide midrange torque curve on a street bike. Chasing HP in a Harley is all top end power, it is a mathematical function of torque and thats why it always cross's the torque curve near 5,000 RPM on the dyno graph (forgot but think its 5250 RPM). A Harley twin cam red lines near 6,000 RPM so the HP part is not going to be a very wide power band, quite different to a jap or MX bike. Torque bikes are fun to ride too as the power is right on the throttle and no need to drop a gear or two to accelerate. A high point on a dyno graph giving a high peak figure is not as good as a nice wide flat curve. Sounds good for bragging or driving a generator at fixed revs, but not as useful on the road. The bigger must be better, or fashion looks good, line of thought with motor parts does not work so well when chasing torque.

The Harley oil cooler kit with the thermostat which only opens when the motor is hot, works well in Perth summers from watching the oil temperature guage, very happy with mine, works better than I thought it would. Got it on ebay or Amazon so it wasn't much and a lot cheaper than a overheating motor. Don't know if its the best system but it works.

Harley's have a patent on extracting money from your wallet, its like an addiction, expensive but fun. Am convinced they sell low spec bikes slapped together so they can sell a bucket load of bits to upgrade them at an inflated price.

Got some good advice there Captain Hook ... Have got quite a bit of stuff from M & M myself over the years ... they nearly always have the uncanny ability to sell stuff cheaper than the actual people who make it .

Got my 6 piston front calliper from them cheaper than PM themselves and seriously half the price as what I could have got it here at the time , crazy hey .

Figured I spent a bit to much this time going through Rollies over here but by the time I would have got the S & S Gear I mentioned above due to our dollar at the moment it came in a tad cheaper and like you say when I can buy local I will .

Your not wrong about it ... owning a Harley ... is like a bit of an addiction but hey as long as I am paying my normal bills and not depriving the Missus of any thing ... with in reason of course , Lol ... then if spending money on my pride and joy makes me happy then why not .

But you are absolutely right , one has to not worry to much about top end figures and if you come from a Jap Bike back ground like myself then the biggest challenge is to realise these things are a completely different animal ... which I am finally getting into the groove of doing .

Captain and Tim, Great info, thanks very much. This is what I was looking for.
I have had a look at the M&M site and they do have some good kits on there. Just gotta decide what to do from here.
After owning jap bikes and Ducatis, I certainly have enjoyed the last few years riding the fatty and the huge difference in engine dynamics.
Once again much appreciated.
Cheers. Buck

A well built 106 or 107 is a probably the best value out there, cheap if you do it yourself. Get a good dyno tuner to tune it and its happy riding. A lot less than the $12,000 I was quoted for a drive in drive out 120 and you can still frighten a 120 owner. Lots of satisfaction from having done most of it yourself. Excellent value for money, well for a harley anyway.

Spend some of the money you've saved on the brakes and suspension, they are very ordinary as well. One word for the front suspension INTIMINATORS, best value for money I've seen in a long time. The rear depends on how much you want to spend, search function on this site or google. Lot of people like Lyndall pads as a good brake upgrade and value for money.

 

So after some procrastination I have some gear on its way over from the states for this upgrade.

I went with 103 cylinders, pistons, heads ported/decked (pic) and some cams.

All in all seems like it will be decent upgrade for the bike.

The heads were decked .010 so comp will be 9.93:1 with a .040 gasket. I am going to use Andrews 55's for this as well. I have the flow chart if anyone is interested.

This is the first crack I have had at this and I wasn't after anything out of control.

Something to widen the grin, stay rideable with some mid torque.

Thanks for all the info guys have supplied definately helped me make a D about this, especially doing it all at once.

Cheers.

Bucky

Oh and the 3k will get a bit of a nudge too.

that port in the pic looks downright sexy!

We must be a sick bunch when an exhaust port looks sexy !!!!
Bucky, If you have the correct deck height, I would use an .030 head gasket to gain a touch of compression.

Why fix something that is not broken, why pull apart a low mileage bike, I often ask myself why would you spend more money to try and go faster on something that doesn't brake or handle.

Anyway that is my personal opinion, I think my 96ci Fatboy goes great the way it is :-)

Here you go Tuss, some more porn for you lol. Don't worry mate I thought it looked good too.

I thought of the 030.gasket, I guess that would take it over 10. Does that effect reliability etc??? Some say yes, others no. Happy just to get it together and see how it goes.

Yeah it does have 22k on the clock, but I want to start doing a couple more trips and with some kit on there I wanted some more go. Guess it is an addiciton. Hey, a blokes gotta have some vices.

Plan is down the track when I get sick of work, I would like to start doing this all myself, so this is dipping the toe in I guess.

Buck

I started to get a boner when I saw the first pic ,,,, after the last pic,, I'm starting to lift up the fucking kitchen table !!!!

Good luck with your project mate !!!!!

Where did you source all the bits from???

Steady on there mark, don't want to spill that dinner!!!
Sparra-These heads are from Dunn performance. There are some others on here that have used them and have been very happy with the work done. Keith Dunn seemed like a pretty decent bloke and spoke to him a couple of times on the phone, so thought why not. Might be on a winner.
After talking to Keith he said with the setup (duration etc) that the 55's would be ok. He has used them before on dynas and softails and had good results. He prefers 54's on the tourers etc. From what I could find out, the 55's were good from 2500-5000 rpm which I gathered on the highway would work ok. Happy to be corrected speedzter as I'm a newbie to HD engines. There not in yet so if something will work better there is always an option to change.

I'm not going to 2nd guess Keith. I would think he knows what works with his heads.
I just see the TW55 as a fairly radical Cam in a Fatboy, unless you like to spend your time in the higher revs.
An absolute perfect choice in my opinion (at 10.2) would be either a Tman TR625 (if springs OK) or a Wood TW777.

Yep I have used the 55s in a build and first I just fitted the cams and it didn't work until the later RPMS then went 107 and a comp of 10.5 and it hammered every where

there is a big picture to getting engines right , and head are % 20 of the build , now , % 80 to go guess which parts ?