This publication is not affiliated with The Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Inc. or the Harley Owner's Group (HOG).



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Disclaimer: this is NOT an official Harley-Davidson site and so, trade marks, names, part numbers, extracts of catalogues (etc) will
only be used for reference only.
Some technical procedures might also be explained but in NO way does it infer that these practices are condoned or advised by
the Harley-Davidson Motor Company.
Hippo's Tips.

Big bore kits and heads


Tips and miscellaneous info to be used in addition to the factory
manual and aftermarket part instruction sheets


* Use only one O-ring # 11256 on each cylinder spigot, i.e. check the old ones
have been discarded. Use one O-ring # 11273 on the oil return dowel that
has the machined grooce in the engine case for each cylinder. One per
cylinder, two total per engine. Mistakes in this area can lead to cracked
engine cases.

* Cover engine case openings with rags when removing or installing wrist pin
retainers.

* Install pistons in proper direction with arrow pointing forward.

* If valve reliefs are machined to different sizes there will be a front and rear
piston and the larger relief has to face the intake valve.

* Measure ring gaps and properly space the gaps aroung the circumference
of the piston per factory manual.

* The second ring has a dot on one side and the dot has to be on the top
side of the ring as installed. Failure to do so will result in excessive oil
consumption.

* Use cometic .030" spring steel head gaskets and torque to specs in
factory manual. Big bore head gaskets do not use O-rings on the dowels
between cylinder and head.

* Check for proper clearance between valve spring retainers and rocker
boxes.

* Lower rocker box gaskets are directional, make sure the openings in the
gaskets match the openings in the rockers boxes.

* If using new lifters pump them up as best possible with a pump type oil
can. Pump oil into the feed hole of the lifter until it comes out of the hole in
the pushrod cup.

* When adjusting pushrods rotate engine with the rear wheel and bike in 5th
gear until the cylinder you are adjusting is at TDC on the compression
stroke. When turning wheel/engine in the normal direction of forward
travel observe the exhaust or outside lifter go up and down and immediately
followed by the intake or inside lifter. Once the intake lifter seems to be
nearly at the bottom of its travel insert an object large enough that it can't
fall into the spark plug hole and continue to turn the wheel/engine until the
piston reaches TDC. Adjust intake and exhaust pushrods according to their
instruction sheet and if no sheet is available whatever number of turns or flats
is required to extend the pushrod .100" from no lash. This applies only
to hydraulic lifters as travel limited, solid or hydrosolid lifters require a
different procedure which is usually included with the particular type of
lifter.

* Wait until you can rotate the pushrods with your fingers. Time will vary from
no time with new lifters up to possibly half an hour if reusing lifters.

* Once lifters have bled down rotate engine thru several revolutions to make
sure there are no unusual noises.

* Proceed in the same manner for the other cylinder.


Cam Kits


Tips and miscellaneous info to be used in addition to the factory
manual and aftermarket part instruction sheets


* Make sure you are using the proper cam plate for your engine. Late cam
plates have an extra oil feed that need to be blocked when using these
cam plates on early non balanced engines.

* It is strongly recommended to remove the oil pressure releif piston for
inspection. Make sure it moves free in its bore.

* If using a fueling oil pump, shim or stretch the oil pressure releif valve
spring as per fueling instructions.

* Check the assembly order of the oil pump. For the OEM pump it is wide
gerotor, plate, spring washer, plate and narrow gerotor. Some early pumps
have only one plate and it goes in between the wide gerotor and the
narrow one.

* Use EVO lifter block alignment pins to align oil pump as per factory manual.

* These pins cannot be used on the Feuling pumps. To align them install the
longer supplied oil pump bolts finger tight so as to hold the O-rings in place
and progressively tighten them in a crosswise pattern while turning the
engine over with the rear wheel and gearbox in 5th gear.

* Torque oil pump and cam plate to specs in the factory manual. Note that the
cam plate bolts can strip easy, in particular the ones that go thru the locating
dowels. yuo may want to use the lower limit of the torque spec.

* Do not mix up the 1/4"-20 x 1" cam plate bolts with the 1/4"-20 x 1 1/4"
cam cover bolts. Use of the incorrect lenght bolts on the cam plate can
cause oil pressure loss and lifter bore damage.

* If you intend to replace the inner cam bearings it is imperative you
use the special tools intended for the purpose. If you drop a needle in the
cases you will likely have to split them to retrieve the needle.

* If you do not intend to use a cam gear drive it is recommended the back
side of the cam chains be polished to a mirror finish with a cratex or similar
fine deburring wheel.

* Check alignment of the cam sprockets to within .005" and replace
sprockets and spacers as needed. On early engines you may find large
discrepancies that will require a cam sprocket spacer kit.

* If you do use a cam gear drive check clearances between the rear cam
gear and cam cover as per instructions.

* Check the fit of the pinion shaft cam gear on the shaft and check for
presence of a chamfer where the inner side of the gear mates with the
pinion shaft.

* Use new bolts provided with the cam gears or with the retention kit with red
Loctite and torque to spec. Make sure the threads in the pinion shaft and
rear cam are free of old Loctite and perfectly clean. Failure to follow these
steps can result in insufficient clamping force on the pinion shaft cam gear
and damage too the pinion shaft amd/or gear.

* Pushrod adjustment are covered on the big bore sheet.


Original sheets: 1 .... 2 .... 3 .... 4

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