Bike is a SE 2007 Ultra Classic. Bore and stroke are stock. Build includes Bub Seven True duals and TTS mastertune. HP, Inc 51mm throttle body with 4.89 injectors, Dan Baisley’s Pro Street Head job with 2.120 intakes and 1.650 exhausts. Compression is 10.5 with a .040 squish. Domed pistons. Feuling push rods. Dan Basiley's geometry corrected roller rocker arms. Valve spring seat pressure at 210.
I heard a terrible nosie the other day and removed the rocker covers and found that the rear rocker support plate was broken around the rocker shaft directly over the exhaust valve. When I put this engine together back in 2008 I had read about the HD support plates failing so I installed the Delkron Billet support plate in hopes of avoiding this type of problem. Wouldn't you know it that this high dollar part I installed to avoid this issue was the only thing broken. I guess I will use the SE forged plates this time.
One bite in the a$$ is that the valve stem oil seal had come up off of the guide and slid up the valve stem. I don't want to remove the heads so I guess I will buy the nub tool which claims to be able to remove the valve spring with head still on engine and in the frame.
The rocker support plate was badly hammered so now I will need to remove the cam chest cover and support plate and clean out everything and replace the inner and outer cam bearings as well as inspect the oil pump. I guess I will need to remove the rear wheel too and drop the oil pan and clean up any crap that may have gotten deposited there. The fun just never ends! Lol
I assume no metal bits can get from the rocker boxes and into the crankcase area? I believe the drain back holes in the heads lead back to the cam chest and therefore any metal bits would be picked up by the scavenging side of the pump and dumped back into the oil pan where the pressure side of the pump would pick up the trash and provided the gear rotors did not get destroyed, send it into the oil filter unless the filter was bypassing, and stop there.
Anyway the engine always was noisy at the top end and had severe pinging problems no matter which professional tuned it. Only Sunoco 98 octane fuel would solve the problem but at $10 a gallon its way too expensive and not available on trips. Most folks agreed that the Woods 408 G camshaft is causing my noise and pinging and I think this would be a good time to change out the camshaft.
My riding style is mostly long road trips, two up and loaded with luggage. I guess I am looking for a good low end torque, quieter top end and no pinging. I don’t want to remove the heads to check valve clearances so I guess anything with less lift than the Woods 408 G would eliminate that issue.
Thanks for reading!