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[SIX38]

It seems that no sooner is an issue with the 110" motor solved, that another one pops up. The number of posts about failed lifters at around the 20,000 mile mark, is waving a red flag at me. Here we go again.
So let me jump into that big pool of CVOHARLEY knowledge out there and get your opinions on the following questions:
                      1. Change lifters now on my 09 SEUC(11,000 miles)?
                      2. New lifters, original cam, I'm not liking that even with roller lifters.
                      3. Do nothing, hope it fails close to home, find out how well the extended warranty works.
                      4. New cam and lifters. Stock or aftermarket?
                      5. If aftermarket cam and lifters are installed, what else should should be changed or added to engine?

Note: I'm very pleased with the way the bike runs now (1 3/4" fullsac cores, Ventilator A/C, non cat 96" header, TTS with a Dave of JD Cycles tune) and most of my riding is long distance touring, two up 50% of the time. Therefore reliability is a high priority. Thanks for any advice
Tom P.

[Unbalanced]

Maybe Check your crank run out for peace of mind and if nothing is broke leave it alone.    Have a plan in place, but if it aint broke why mess with it especially since you have warranty and extended and you say its running good.

[harleycharlie1992]

the only fix is to go in guns blazing!!, I did , with 11k on my motor and six mo. left on warr. did the whole thing! crank, rods, pistons cams heads, diamond cut, se comp.,rocker boxes, spent a ton of cash, (around 5.5k) but now I have a bike that I don't worry about, and its stink fast!! Its not right that you buy a 35k bike and have to do that, but I think these 110's will drive us all to drinking, if you don't do it. lifes not fair, I didn't bargain for this, can't really afford it, but couldn't not afford it either, as I love to ride this bike. (09 serg) 

[Unbalanced]

Hell if your gonna spend 5.5k .. might as well just go buy a 120r and a 58mm throttlebody and be done with it and when your done playing put the stock motor back in and move on down the road.

[grc]

I would suppose if you wake up nights thinking about lifter failures, it might be a good idea to pull them out and closely inspect them (bearings, axles, rollers) to make sure everything is working properly and there's no sign of impending doom.  Of course, that doesn't mean they still won't fail next week, but at least if you have a roller starting to fail you might catch it before it tears up the rest of the engine.  Assuming there has been no sliding instead of rolling, I don't think you need to worry about changing both lifters and cams. 

This sort of reminds me of the spring loaded cam chain tensioner problem of the earlier Twin Cams.  Do you wait for them to fail (and tear up oil pumps and various other pieces), or do you replace them prematurely in hopes of forestalling a failure?  And will the replacement eliminate the problem, or will that also fail?  A person can drive themselves nuts worrying about this stuff with a Harley.  Funny how I never worried about any of this with my other vehicles over the past 40 years.


Jerry

[Mr D]

Hell if your gonna spend 5.5k .. might as well just go buy a 120r and a 58mm throttlebody and be done with it and when your done playing put the stock motor back in and move on down the road.

Kind of a no brainer 

[mjb765]

Like it has been said before, if this is going to keep you up nights thinking, then do a cam and lifters--it not that big of a job. Maybe change the oil pump while you are in there.

Good to see back and posting again Tom. When the weather breaks let's take a ride.

Mike

[harleycharlie1992]

actually, the 120 isn't any better than the stock 110's still gonna have similar problems with the cranks, with wrist pin bushings spinning, same lifters, same lot of stuff. I didn't build the 110 to make it only faster, but to take care of the problems that harley has left us with. without truing,&welding crank, its all a waste of time, the rest just follows, plus you don'gt get the headwork, or h-beam rods, with tapered brgs. some of that money went to tp rocker boxes, and diamond cutting, could have cut corners there, I don't think the 120 will hold up any better than the 110, which is a shame. I may be wrong, so be it, I still have a bulletproof motor that I built my way.

[harleycharlie1992]

Oh yea, the balanced flywheel is so much better, smoother, revs quicker, and really makes itself known driving down the road. Any way you cut it or how large you make it, the 120 is still a production motor, with all the quirks that come with it.

[HD Street Performance]

actually, the 120 isn't any better than the stock 110's still gonna have similar problems with the cranks, with wrist pin bushings spinning, same lifters, same lot of stuff.

Are you sure? I would not draw that conclusion yet. The rods are full compliment at the tops, the crank is reported to have tighter tolerance runout spec., and a increased press fit, plus it is hot forged steel. The barrels are 4.060" but have a spigot .625" longer than the 110 and offer more trussing at BDC for the piston skirt. I am not saying the motor is perfect but it sure is a better piece in stock form than a CVO110 IMHO

[cvobiker]

Hell if your gonna spend 5.5k .. might as well just go buy a 120r and a 58mm throttlebody and be done with it and when your done playing put the stock motor back in and move on down the road.

Just make sure you dont buy a Jim's... or you'll be worse off with a double whamy rebuilding an $8,000 motor..   

[SIX38]

Thanks to everyone for your replies. Keeping me up at night is not the problem. But this year I'm planning a 6000+ mile trip out to the southwest, followed shortly by a 2000+ mile to the GTG in Maggie Valley. Breaking down 100 mile this side of nowhere is a big problem, so I'm trying to eliminate potential failures. Like Jerry (grc), I've never worried about this with any previous vehicles, both 2 and 4 wheeled, but sadly these motors appear to have quite a few weak links. So for now I think taking a good look at the lifters and checking the crank run-out will give me some peace of mind. Next winter I'll consider my options, engine build, 120R, new ride? ( Are we ever satisfied?)
Thanks again,
Tom P.