This is the continuation of one of James Russell's articles that contains useful information.
Due to his opinion differing from mine in many ways, I have edited some things to suit my way of thinking.
All the information contained in this article does not just pertain to Harley Davidson Motorcycles, it can be presumed that it applies to all motorcycles, where not specifically implied.
I have been injecting James Russell's name into some places to show that was his opinion, not mine. Now if you read this it will be unchanged. Anything that is to credited to me will be in orange text, while the original text will be in blue.
“A man’s got to have a code, a creed to live by.”
Part Six.....
86. Question:
What should I do to preserve the engine life of my Twin-Cam bike?
Answer:
Buy an oil cooler as heat kills air-cooled engines. Internal parts can warp from the heat and deform out of specifications and score cylinders, pistons and cook the valves and valve seats and crack hot parts. Use synthetic 20W-50 oil. Harley-Davidson Syn3 oil is good stuff, but some bikes may have noise issues or even oil leaking problems and need to use a thicker grade oil and that's okay too. Try to use a 50-50 blend of synthetic and mineral oil. You can blend it yourself. Make sure you have a motorcycle specific large strong magnet on your oil filter. Why? When an engine wears (especially hardened steel roller bearings and races) these hard tiny bits can grind up your engine until your next oil change only to contaminate the oil again and again. Worse than sandpaper as these hardened bits of steel will not give. It's like valve grinding compound in your oil. It ruins everything they touch! The magnet catches these hard specs that pass right through the filter media! Also, if you have a bearing or cam chain failure a lot of steel is sheared into the oil and goes to the crankshaft and rips the journal bearing to shreds. The magnet will catch the steel so it will not circulate into the crankcase or piston and valves and rocker arms. And last, ride sensibly. You can open the throttle and have fun, but do not put any shock loads on the crankshaft. Speed-shifting, pulling wheelies, doing burn-outs applies high torque and shock to the crankshaft that can cause the flywheel webs to slip out of balance. Dyno runs can do it too and these Dyno runs are so damaging they can break your tire cords internally, snap your drive belt in two, and overload the engine crankshaft, primary and transmission components.
Dyno runs can be dangerous, but under the control of a skilled operator, they can be an indispensable tuning tool.
87. Question:
What can take the place of a Dyno run?
Answer:
Nothing was the word not long ago, but now things have changed. You don't need a Dyno tune anymore! In fact, once you get a Dyno tune you can't change your pipes or you ruin the Dyno tune. It means you have to pay for another Dyno tune. If you later put in bigger piston, valves, cams, crankshaft you got to Dyno tune again. No more! With the Cobra Fi-2000 PowrPro tuner you just plug the thing in and ride away. This thing Dyno-tunes your bike all of the time no matter what you do to it. That's right, add new pipes, put in cams, pistons, etc., and this beast goes to work automatically Dyno-tuning your engine every moment. Russell's Quote: " I bought one for my Harley and it worked like a charm. I change my exhaust and intake flows and it adjusts perfectly."
The engine is constantly being tuned for maximum performance and the power is just unreal. The cost is about $500. And you can take it with you for it is not "married" to the bike. As long as you buy a similar model bike it will just be another plug-n-play. It only takes about 30 minutes to install. Tip: I routed my front O2 sensor wire from the Cobra tuner along the underside of the gas tank instead of along the bottom frame rail. Why? Because running the wire low can cause problems. If the wire shifts position due to a broken wire tie the wire will sag and going over a road bump (think speed bump) the wire can be crushed or cut. Same with motorcycle lifts, they can also crush and cut the wires. You could also hit an object in the road that can rumble under the frame and chew up the wires. You don't want these wires to be cut especially when far from home as the engine will not run or run too lean and burn a hole in a piston.
Cobra has a winning product here! To be free of Dyno tuning is a huge money saver. I like the way we can change things on the bike and the Cobra fuel manager makes all the adjustments instantly. Amazing. I think you will like the idea of not having to pay dealers and shops to tune your bike on their Dynometer and pay, pay, pay their price again, again and again. And how about the numerous riders who pay for Dyno tuning only to get a poor job done or a fraudulent job performed? With Cobra, you get the power and it's done right the first time.
Cycle World Magazine test of the Cobra:
http://www.cycleworld.com/2012/07/03/cw-evaluation-cobra-fi2000-powrpro/
88. Question:
What's so great about Sportster's each having their own cam for each valve?
Answer:
Gear driven cams are dead on timing and that gives maximum power all of the time because there is no slop or lagging in the valve timing... it is spot-on. Also, with gears driving the cams there are no slapping chains or worn cam chain tensioners to deal with. It means no breakage. Gears that drive cams just don't wear out. Think how long transmission gears last and yet the have all that monstrous torque passing through the gear teeth and they don't even wear out. Cams don't put such high loads on the cam gears, so they won't break or wear out. Racing bikes do not have cam chains, they have cascading gears installed to drive the cams. Yes, even the Jap racing bikes with overhead cams have gear driven cams with no chains driving the cams. Once you ride a 1200cc Sportster you'll see the power for that size engine is awesome. The engine is reliable with no defects. The cam gears make the bike reliable and powerful along with many other engine design enhancements. Cam timing is crucial for engine performance and only gears get the job done right. Cam chains are horrible and the chain wears retarding cam timing. The followers wear creating chain slap. Hard acceleration cause chain slap too and can even cause valve floating where a piston can be holed and the valve bent. You just can't beat gear driven cams for consistent performance and reliability.
89. Question:
I read magazine article on how to install the new hydraulic cam plate. Is this a job for a novice?
Answer:
It can be, but one thing I have discovered in magazine how-to articles is that they always seems to leave out very critical procedures. For example: They may leave out coating gear rotors with assembly lube, aligning the oil pump, and these two things can create disaster. They may forget an o-ring or omit checking certain cam gear clearances and shim adjustments, etc., and severe problems can be the end result. Having proper and complete installation instructions will allow you to do the job even if you are a novice. However, just using a magazine or U-Tube video alone will waste your money because something is going to go wrong and in Twin-Cam cam chest and anything that goes wrong there is very likely to destroy the entire engine when it fails. The best way an individual can learn how to fix motorcycle engines is not to learn on your own bike, but to buy a used engine to disassemble and reassemble. That's what all the motorcycle repair schools do, they have engines just for the purpose of teardown and rebuild. Another method is to cut a deal with a independent repair shop to allow you to be an apprentice on a cam chest job. You pay them a fee for the privilege so they make some money and you get all the inside tips, sort of like creating your own motorcycle repair school. This way you pay for only the things you needed to learn how to do. There are special tools involved to repair or upgrade a TC cam chest so you will need to add that into your cost. Best advice I can give to those who love Twin-Cam engines is to learn how to fix that engine yourself. Primarily the cam chest and top-end overhaul. Later, if need be, you can learn the transmission, primary and crankshaft repair.
90. Question:
Why do some Twin Cam engines have cam chain follower problems and other do not? If the defect was the plastic chain tensioner then they all would fail, wouldn't they? What is the mystery going on we need to know about?
Answer:
Prior HD's newer hydraulic cam chain tensioner system there was an issue with the cam chains, a hidden issue that has come to light over time, but too late for most for many riders. When the chains are manufactured they use dies to stamp out the individual links. As these dies are used they tend to wear out and begin to create imperfections in the chain. Think of tiny metal burrs that act like sandpaper grinding into the soft plastic cam chain tensioner. Also think how ridiculously hard that spring-loaded tensioner was pressing on the cam chain and that make tensioner wear even worse. Think of plastic on a grinding wheel! Some lucky riders get a nice chain with no burrs and others are unlucky getting a chain with burrs. This is why the hit-and-miss failure took place. Of course, there are other factors to consider like keeping the oil clean, using an oil cooler and relying on synthetic oil to keep the sanding effect lower. So, that's why HD changed the design of the cam chain and also got rid of the spring tension by switching to hydraulic oil tension instead, which lowers the pressure on the chain tensioner shoes that are prone to wear and grind down to bare metal causing severe engine failure. Now, just because you did not yet experience a tensioner shoe failure does not mean you are saved... all TC engines with or without the HD upgrade will still face engine disaster. It can't be stopped because the upgrade does not fix the true underlying engine defect of a poor design! Since there is no true and real fix to repair the defect the only thing all TC engine riders must do is periodically pay (or do yourself) for frequent cam chain shoe inspection and replacement. The problem is, it is hard to do and time consumer and requires special tools and knowledge. The cam chest is a overly complex environment. Most riders can't afford these frequent inspections, yet they can't afford not to. If you use luck, one day your luck will run out because those cam chain followers are wearing down each day you ride and when they hit metal to metal it is all over. Think oil pump failure and what it does to the entire engine! Catastrophic failure. You can switch to the aftermarket gear drive system, but that too is not a true fix and can be even worse if the gears bend the crankshaft (pinion shaft) requiring a new crankshaft or some extensive and expensive work only to reinstall the new crankshaft and the gears again bend the pinion shaft later on. Believe me, HD thought of the gear fix and found it was not a fix, so do not be fooled thinking gears is a fix for it is not.
Well, that's it for part six....
Yes, I know it is shorter than the others, and there is still a lot to cover, but I don't want to occupy too much of your time at once.
Besides, I am going to start mixing in some other stuff.....
Hang in there.....
J D Redneck
