Why do I see everyone replacing Harley Cams and Lifters in their Eagles with other manufactures products?
Simple... there are
much better cams and lifters on the market than the MoCo ones... and LOTS of other internal and external components, too. You're not going to pick up an instant 20Hp or 20 ft/lbs of torque from installing aftermarket cams - but given the right cam for your other components, you can pick up several HP and better torque easily. Engine performance is a balance of lots of different factors, and the build has to be right in order for all of these components to work together
for the way you ride your bike. You may want a lot of low end torque, or you may want more higher-RPM HP. I am more of a low-end torque rider myself - but lots of guys love to rev it to the redline. I don't like to do that much, because it's hard on the engine, and everything wears out faster.
Harley cams are built to keep the EPA happy, and to make a lot of money for the MoCo. Period. You rarely see the MoCo doing anything really radical as far as performance goes - because they don't want customers coming back with reliability or performance imbalance issues. They are in the business to make money - lots of it - and when you go out on the edge performance-wise, you are naturally going to run into problems that you would never see on stock builds - because you're pushing the envelope. The MoCo doesn't like to have problems nor do they want to tinker with esoteric stuff... they want everything running smoothly, with minimal downstream customer hassles. They operate on volume and optimal business efficiency - not on getting maximum performance.
Aftermarket manufacturers have a completely different business model - they focus on delivering products that will
improve the performance of their customers' bikes. Aftermarket cams (Andrews, S&S, Woods, V-Thunder, etc.) are built to get
maximum performance... that's why we buy the darn things. If they didn't deliver on this premise, then all of those cam manufacturers wouldn't be able to stay in business very long making "better" cams than the MoCo. As to lifters, I chose the HQ Black Ops (on the advice of the Wizard who tuned my bike) to quiet down the cam chest noise, and they do it very well. They are engineered for maximum performance, not manufacturing efficiency, and they have to be. If they weren't better than what you can buy from the MoCo, these guys wouldn't be able to stay in business very long making lifters, either.
This is not to say that
any aftermarket cam, or lifter, or anything else, is going to
automatically be better than the MoCo's... because that wouldn't be true. But most are, or the manufacturers would quickly go out of business. Plus, the aftermarket guys are not strangled by EPA regs the way the MoCo is. Harley is big and very well-known, and they have to toe the EPA line very well because of their visibility. The aftermarket guys have more freedom. For example, the "right" cam will enable your engine to breathe better - to move more air (and fuel!) through the engine, which enables the engine to make more power -
given that the other components (pipes, A/C, etc... and the TUNE) are correct - to enable the cam to do its job properly. Everything has to work together - in harmony - to deliver all the performance for which your engine is capable. A stock Harley - even a CVO 110" - is NOT optimized for maximum performance when you buy it at all! It is optimized for (1) profitability to the MoCo, (2) EPA compliance, (distant 3) reliability, and then (even more distant 4) the best performance they can reasonably deliver after the first three objectives are completely met.
Nearly all Harley owners replace their pipes and A/C (on a non-CVO bike) first, and have their ECM remapped (tuned) for proper AFR - because that's the biggest bang for the buck to improve performance. That's called "Stage 1" - opening up the airflow path through the engine. The next step, "Stage 2", involves changing cams (and cam bearings!) and likely lifters, to get more performance by further optimizing the airflow. The next step, "Stage 3", involves changing internal engine components such as head porting, stiffer valve springs, roller rockers, higher-compression pistons, bigger throttle bodies, etc. At Stage 3, you had
better know what you are doing - because once you starting messing with internal engine components the picture gets a much more complex. At this stage, you are changing multiple variables, and it's
much more difficult to keep everything in harmony to produce maximum power without destroying the engine with an imbalance somewhere. Reliabiliity is also increasingly difficult to maintain at Stage 3 because of all the variables to manage. There are lots of things you can do once you really get into the engine... all it takes is MONEY (a LOT of it), and KNOW-HOW.
I will probably stop where I am at "Stage 2", and try to enhance the tune with my current components - because I don't want to spend another several thousand dollars trying to create a fire-breathing monster that will blow away any other bike on the street - but end up needing a top-end job every year or two... or worse. I want to ride this thing a lot... not rebuild it.
In my opinion, if you're going to go with aftermarket parts... you need to read, read, READ, and hopefully make contact with people who do this for a living, and who really know what they are talking about. That will help keep you from going astray in the search for better performance and not achieving it. This forum is an excellent place to make those contacts. It's worked for me!
Author
Topic: POS 110 (Read 8904 times)