Thinking of throwing a stage 4 kit in the bike, what are peoples thoughts between the S&S 107 big bore kit with 585 cams and the screamin eagle stage 4 kit

there is alot more to it than that, if non gen HD, then which heads would you use?  then theres exhaust, tuning etc...

Cheers Daggs if i went with the S&S 107 id probably go for some S&S CNC ported heads not real sure, exhaust id have to look into a little more maybe something 2 into 1 for more performance and im tossing up between 3 tuners SERT, Thundermax and Powervision.

Hi Damo

As you and Daggs have touched on, the S&S big bore kits and se stage 4 kits aren't comparable. I dunno all the inclusions of the stage 4 kit but I know it includes cylinders, pistons, rings, pushrods, cams, tuner, heads, gaskets, throttle body and injectors. Not sure if lifters are included.

The S&S kits include cylinders, pistons, rings and not much more from memory but then you choose all the rest of the parts that you want and aren't stuck with the parts the harley puts in the se kit. This is key as you really need to work out what type of performance you want. For example I didn't want super high compression that would be overly sensitive to fuel, temperatures etc.  Similarly I didn't want a big hp cam that would make the bike gutless and rough down low.  For me I wanted an increase in the mid range but the bike had to be smooth down low. Afterall most of my riding is putting around or on the highway.

Re heads, work out if you want or need the extra performance they provide. The oem heads will handle cams with .585 lift but you wouldn't want to go any higher lift without changing springs. Leave the oem heads on and you won't need to upgrade throttle body and injectors but you'll probably be limited to about 100hp. That is plenty for most.  Or if wanting to upgrade heads, cheapest and best performance will be custom work on your oem heads, not new heads from se or S&S which will cost more and not necessarily as good. Custom heads can be worked for YOUR build, cam selection etc

If you're in SA, you have Mark Hood for machine and head work and Neville Lush for tuning. Chat to them about what you're after and some of the options available as they might be the ones who work on your heads and do the tuning.

Stay away from thundermax replacement ecu as there's nothing wrong with the oem ecu which can be flashed. Buy the tuning product that your tuner recommends. I used a TTS and tuned it myself using vtuning and got it pretty good up until 3,500 rpm - the dyno tune finished the ve tables upwards of 3,500 rpm and made some adjustments to a/f ratio table to make the bike ride smoother.

Not wanting to cause any angst with the se stage 4 kit owners but they are known to use oil which turned me off. However I'd consider this kit if my bike was under warranty and the stage 4 kit meant keeping warranty.

Thanks for the in depth write up thats the sort of info im after, i recently had Hoody machine up some spacers for me when i got some new wheels i might have to pop in and have a chat with him through the week

I've had 2 stage 4 kits  , one in a 2011 fatboy and now got one in my 2014 fabob both have been great , plenty more tq & hp than stock with no problems of excessive oil use . 

My St4 in my 2014 Fatbob still going well after 52000 km.

You've done some k's Darkash!!

Haha. Yer done a bit. Not as much as the amount I had on the last one ( 2010 Fatty Lo) which had 96000km when traded in for the Fatbob. Had that 3 years and now coming up to 2 years in Oct with the Fatbob.
But I'm happy with how the Fatbob is going. Seems to get better the more Km I put on her.
Haven't had it dyno tuned since early in its life so wondering if another fresh tune run may give more improvement.
Over 300Thou km in 9 years come this Oct !

.https://youtu.be/yIXXZGrZ9QI

sounds like my story darkash, over 52,000 on my fatbob (including some 1000 k days across the NT and WA desert) with stage 4 since day dot and same thing just seems to go better and better.

A stage 4 put together right does the job, can you build better? yep you can, is it worth the trouble to do so? that's up to the individual, for many that's a no, main thing is that your happy with the outcome and you ride the bugga

Very True Chriso-do you feel with yours it could do with another fine tune ?
Have a feeling a little more fuel could be added( possibly ??). Could just be getting use to it. Lol

LocKs- your right in saying that there could be more from this combo. Slight better head work and cam choice- albeit the chance of putting more stress into the internals.
Though saying that a 107", slight Head work and cams might be in the thought pattern- though a 113" is also running through my head. Lol
Pipe choice is crucial as I was getting better torque out of the BigShot Staggered than the Supertrapp( only minor though), but getting better horsepower out of the Trapp !
All in all these engines are a good runner and reliable( as such so far )

 

When got back from around the country ( 32000ks on clock) I felt it could do with another tune ,just started popping a bit and could tell at idle it just wasn't as smooth. bike ran a lot better after it. And got better numbers then original tune.

Dead right about pipes, so important for good performance 

Ok. Good stuff.
So the feeling I got of needing a tune is right !
Hmmmm something to think about and maybe a pipe change lol