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[Fired00d]

........[highlight]I'm with BLM generally on the SEEG bling issue--for me, it has plenty[/highlight].....

Dave

Dave,
Congrats on the bike, may you have many safe and enjoyable miles on her. [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]I just want to see how long you hold to the above statement on the "bling" thing? I bet there are more here then not that have said the same thing, only to have had to eat those words after pondering the P&A book a time or two. Not to worry we will not hold it against you, we will only welcome you into the "OCD" club with the rest of us.

[Siegfried]

Thanks, big fella.  Yea, I freely admit that I may change my mind regarding the bling factor--especially after having her in the garage and appraising her from all angles. "Does this chrome make me look fat??" I can hear her asking me already.....  But first to wake up that engine, and this site has chit-loads of ideas about the best combination of mapping device (SERT vs. PC), breather and pipes for the money.  I guess it depends on what your performance target is.  As Hubbard says, speed costs $$$.

Something I'd like to hear some opinions about is this.  I have read about the pros and cons of buying an extended service plan.  I'll have 8 months or so of the original 2 year warranty left.  Given the types of issues I've read about owners having, I'm inclined to plunk down $1,200 for the extended service plan--at a minimum, it's a great thing to have at resale time, should I sell before she's been all used up.  The next issue is:  use H-D folks to do the tuning or one of the good 'private' tuners in the Phoenix area?  I'm familiar with Magnussen-Moss, and would be prepared to feed it page by page to my local stealer should he suggest that my warranty is void with respect to a chrome peeling problem because I have had my heads re-squished, if you take my meaning.  It has been suggested that I play it conservatively while my warranty is in place, and then do what I really want to do.   But if I can afford it now, and if I plan to buy the extended service contract anyway, should I just get 'er done in one stroke?  I'd like to end up with 100+ h.p. and 105+ ft. lbs. of torque.

A guy in Dallas had his punkin for sale back in November, and his Trader ad mentioned SE251 cams, head work by Darcy Racing (unclear exactly what was done), SE pushrods, a SERT, a SE breather kit and D&D Fat Cat 2-into-1 exhaust.  I asked him about a dyno sheet. He sent me two from Texas H-D:  the first (before) showed 80 h.p. and 89. ft. lbs. or torque--in line with what I have heard here, while the second showed 104 h.p. and 107 ft. lbs. of torque--torque hits 100 ft. lbs. at 2,500 rpm and stays above 100 until past 5,500 rpm, while h.p. builds in a linear fashion, peaking just past 5,500 rpm.  That is as pretty a chart as I have seen.

Whatchathink??

[spydglide]

Whatchathink??

Sounds good.  Wonder if anyone we know got that Texas Punkin?  [smiley=nixweiss.gif] spyder

[GC_Super]

Dave, one thing I can tell you is I live close to Darcy Racing, and he did a set of heads for me on a 95"/TW37 build that was excellent performance wise, and you could not make that bike ping if you tried. I would definately let him do a  set of heads again for the CVO. I've heard that he has done a few of these heads.
  You're on your own on the warranty situation. Personally, I 'd bank the $1200 and take my chances, especially if you're inclined to do some tinkering on the bike.  Good luck.    [smiley=xyxthumbs.gif]

[BLM777]

Dave....I think you might be able to make a decision much easier if you combine the warranty and performance goals as the same issue.  From reading your posts, it seems like you want to get what you can get out of the 103 and maintain the reliability.  I look at extended warranties on a basis of return on investment.  To do that, you have to look at the most likely expensive items that can go bad.  Number 1 on the list has to be the cam tensioners that can, if not spotted very early on, take out the entire engine.  Following, would be the ECM as an expensive replacement and thirdly would be the "new" main bearing which, upon failure, can create extensive and expensive havoc.  Any of those items, if replaced under the extended warranty would get most, if not all of your "investment" back.

Flip the thought process to the performance that you're looking for and one of the 1st items to consider is a cam change prior to tuning.  The cam shoe liability issue can be resolved at the same time by going gear drive and "losing" the tensioners.  The ECM issue may resolve itself if the new Zippers cam (currently testing) works out as expected and is combined in a package with their Thundermax, breather and possibly a 50mm throttle body.  In that instance, your OEM ECM would then become a spare.  As far as the bearing problem is concerned, I'll start a "chitstorm" by stating that a good portion of the problem is "pilot error".  For those of us who built stroker motors long before they became popular in the 103 there were Timken failures also with riders that had no clue about strokers and their inherent need not to be "lugged" at low rpm then accelerated by twisting the throttle instead of downshifting and getting the rpm's up to 22-2400 before twisting WFO.

If you're going to wake up that 103, the $1200 spent on the warranty purchase will take you a long way down the road to getting the reasonable numbers that you're shooting for and clean up a majority of the liability issues.    As far as the tuning preferences are concerned, it's been my experience that the "best" tuner may or may not be associated with an HD dealer.  It's simply a matter of experience and results.  In your area, a valuable reference is Short Block Charlie http://www.motorcyclemachine.com/ .  I think they would be able to turn you on to a real dyno pro.

If you're happy with the numbers you mention in your post (100 and 105), you can easily attain that performance without getting into the heads.  Might be a good idea to save that work for the next go 'round in the need for speed.

Just my 2cents, but, I think a thought or two worth considering.

[spydglide]

[Siegfried]

Brian -

Thanks for the thoughtful response.  I'll look into the gear-driven cam option now that I better understand the advantages.  I'll be interested to see the results of the Zippers testing.  I also appreciate the mention of Short Block Charlie--that place was already on my short list because of numerous positive mentions it has received in various threads.  I'll see what they have to say about the performance numbers I can reach without getting into the heads, and then check the performance level I can get to if they add some squish. I really like the idea of solving potential costly warranty problems while tuning the engine--I'll reconsider the extended warranty purchase.