 Continuation from New Members Area
I have moved a thread from the new members section to this one. MPH
evoKENevo wrote: To begin with here, you're right.. Springer front forks do take a little (?) getting used to. In fact,even with the shock absorber (single) on mine the dampening leaves something to be desired………………… That and it's handling charactoristics are a little tricky in the curves and/or turns……………………...but,not nearly as chaotic as you described with the older and/or more radical bikes you've ridden…………..Maintenance & cleaning are also more difficult……………..Yeah,and, "detailing" the sucker is definately another story..but, I don't have the "salt - air" here to contend with..and,I've gotten "detailing" any bike down to a bit of a simple science…..Just spray any good cleaner/degreaser in those hard to reach places..let it set a few minute..hose it off...and "blow-dry" with air-hose...noting that a little WD-40 sprayed into those areas does a good job of preventing rust,as well as "bug build up",etc.
Are you happy with the springer front end now that you’ve gotten used to it? As I noted, they are jewels to the eye, but the maintenance requirements and handling characteristics always left me wary………. I ride a lot…………..
I went with an Andrews EV-27 cam………….
In bikes and four-wheeled vehicles I have used Sifton, Isky, Crane, Edelbrock, Competition Cams, Crower, OEM manufacturer HP and racing cams, and a few others that most folks here probably have never heard of. I’ve yet to use Andrews, but I understand that a lot of Evo folks use them. I have never heard anything bad about them either, so I assume that they are well made, properly heat treated (no premature wearing down of the lobes………what we used to call “going flat”), and well developed for their intended application. By this last statement (i.e., well developed) I mean that the folks at Andrews have done their homework, spent a lot of time on the dyno, AND a lot of time on the road actually using their product (dynos are great for specing and developing things, but don’t simulate real-world conditions very well). I went to J&P’s web site and looked at their listing of Andrews cams. The EV-27 seems to be little more than a later development of the EV-3, which implies to me that the folks at Andrews stay on top of their products and seek to obtain the best overall performance that they can out of those products. That impresses me favorably. Can you tell me if Andrews camshafts are forged steel or cast iron? Or does that depend on the camshaft? Either would work just fine for about any street engine, but I’m just curious.
I, for the most part anyway, intend on leaving the engine in my FLSTC as stock as possible, only changing things where I think there might be a cost-effective payoff. I have lived with radical vale timing before in street applications (and still do with one of my trucks) and it kind of sucks. I seek a reasonably good performing engine that is reliable, gets reasonably good fuel economy, and is easily ride-able (aka drive-able). That said, the EV-3 initially caught my eye as being the most appropriate for what I am looking for, but when I looked at the EV-27, it seemed that this camshaft is really the one that Andrews is pushing for this particular application and is still only offering the EV-3 for those who just have to have an EV-3 (kind of like Coke Classic). The lower price for the EV-27 versus the EV-3 also suggest that Andrews I pushing this camshaft more and/or demand for it led to a larger production run, hence the supply of these is greater. What do you—or anyone else for that matter—think?
Oh yea, are you using stock pistons and heads with the stock 8.5 to 1 static compression ratio? Ideally, I think I would prefer something in the neighborhood of 9.5 to1, but for the time being I intend to leave my FLSTC as is until it bugs me to the point that I change the pistons or whatever to boost the ST compression ratio.
The reason you never heard of a Yost CARB is because they don't exist. What I did was to install a Yost-Performance carb KIT (jets,needle,imulsion tube,spring,etc) in the otherwise stock CV-40 carb.
Yes, I did a little on-line research and discovered that…………….;-)
It worked out great for me..but,knowing what I've learned since,I'd just go with a 45 pilot/slow jet...the stock needle from an '89 Sportster...and,185 main,for a lot less money...along with drilling the slide vacum hole out for free with the bit already on hand...noting that I'm not so sure that enlarging the hole is required,because I just kind of went along with the program/instructions at the time...excellent throttle responce though.
I thought about what it is I want from this bike some more and also my past experience with Keihin CV carbs and decided to stay with the stock Keihin CV. I’ll modify it as necessary. I had two very similar Keihins on a 1993 1500 twin-carb Vulcan (sorry to use that word here……..;-)……....) that I used to have (my youngest son now has this bike). They were 36mm units, but otherwise just about the same as the 40mm unit on my FLSTC. After tweaking those carbs on Vulcan (using Dynojet products), along with a few other mods, I could simply twist the throttle back at 55 mph (it had a four-speed tranny) and the bike would instantly and very strongly respond—it felt like it wanted to rip my arms out of their sockets it pulled so hard. While I don’t expect that sort of performance from the FLSTC—nor do I need it--I do think I can get the brisk response I am looking for out of the stock unit doing some similar tweeking. Besides I like the theory of operation of the CV carbs better than I do of the standard butterfly units, especially for street applications.
This whole matter kind of reminds me of my high school days with cars when it seemed like everyone with a warmed over small-block Chevy had a Holley carb on top of an Edelbrock intake manifold. I liked modifying the GM Quadrajets and using those instead. I liked the spread-bore arrangement and thought they made for a more street-able engine, even with the similar valve timing and other mods as the other guy’s mills….…..
Could go on forever here..with other mods bouncing around in my head. But, highly recommend you check out other/previous EVO threads in the forum..that cover a lot of the above,from different angles.............
I love talking engines and the like, as I’m sure you discovered. I will read what’s currently available in the threads here and then pose a few questions thereafter……………
MPH  |
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