Shovelhead Build YOU MUST CHECK THIS - Pistons, Cylinders, and Tappets - The Curve Bike Part 4 

I absolutely LOOOVE the real world, honest and unedited as-it’s-happening situation; right on the workbench with calculator, pen, and paper and all of the pristine parts right in front of you, and us 🔨 Another phenomenal, in-depth tutorial from Professor Baxter in the books - thank you, sir! From southern California ~ Ride Forever! 🦅 🇺🇸

Me being a 40 year old gearhead, watching this video had the voices of my old math teachers yelling MATH IS EVERYTHING in my head. lol. Great work Mr. Baxter.

Adapt and overcome. That's some impressive engineering, Kevin. Great video!

Can't wait for the Evolution and Panhead builds.

Detail...Detail...Detail... Mr. Baxter you are the "Man"

Best line " that's not good, crap." Still chuckling.

In the “80” SS stroker kits came with tubes you would drive in the cyc. In bottom of cyc. and you would drill down the case and drill into case on inside of case to lower oil return past rings

Shovelhead, Evo, and Panhead is great. Sportster Ironheads would also be great.

Kevin you are the man. I always try and catch up on the video s. Keep them coming.

Not really sure what to say except... INTENSE!

Great video and work Kevin! I'm a retired moldmaker/toolmaker.. so I thoroughly enjoy (and really do appreciate) all of the challenges, calculated steps, and solutions to moving forward in this project. Also, so much looking forward to the Evolution segment ahead! Thanks for such a great channel!

I’ve built about 6 Shovel Heads and I’ve never checked that before. Guess I got lucky. I’ll be checking it in the future. Great info and thank you for sharing.

Great video as allways! Looking forward to the Pan and Evo builds !!

Catch this at work.

good lord shake a goat! you are definitely the motor madman, great your doing this, it answers a lot of shovelhead questions, and you're on your game. keep em coming, its pure knowledge

Another great informative video, I hope you find a apprentice so you can pass down your knowledge eventually. Not alot of people with your skills,knowledge out there,especially with old Harleys

Kevin, you are amazing, glad I ran across you.

Love from DeKalb Mississippi USA 🇺🇸

Berry Wardlaw is a God.

After looking into this further I've found that 1200 cylinders and 1340 cylinder have the drain hole at different heights. The holes are in different places because of the difference in the stroke. Also 1200 cylinders, once bored out .060 inch are at a 1340 standard bore. This is most likely the reason you are measuring the difference between these two cylinders. S&S has a fix for this that they came up with many years ago. They completely plug the drain hole in the cylinder bore, of the 1200 cylinders, with a plug that has an interference fit and red Loctite. Then they machine a groove, into the left side case, where the oil drain from the heads (machined into the cylinder) hits the gasket deck surface. They groove it 1/4" down then 1/4" sideways ( in an "L" shape) to get the oil into the bottom end without having the oil go into the cylinder. I'm guessing they use an "End Mill Bit" to do this. Since most people don't have a Bridgeport you can do this with a hand drill if you are careful enough. I'm not sure that my explanation is total clear but I hope this makes some sense. I also have some helpful videos on my channel but I'm clearly not at your skill level. Let me know what you think as I'm always up to learn.

This is why they are called Trouble heads

Kevin. You stated at one point that the lip on one cylinder was shorter, .165 and the other was at .200. You measured BDC on both cylinders at different distances. What happens if you add the .35 back to the BDC measurement and the measurement from the top of the hole to the top of the cylinder? The piston still travels the same distance in both cylinders it's just that you lowered the lip to increase compression.

I wish I could do that 😊thanks sir

Why not use the S&S stroker procedure and drill up into cylinder bottom then insert brass sleeve into cylinder to block off hole into cylinder. Then drill hole in deck to exit oil into cases. Done this many times building strokers and it works great. Also completely removes heated oil from rocker boxes being dumped on one side of piston.

70s Sportsters have the same drainage hole.

Hi Kevin, I don't know anything about shovelheads apart from my bsa b33 has a 90mm shovelhead piston in it 😗, but was an Automachinist in the 80s and 90s , just wondering about your problem hole , could you drill and tap/fit a cast iron taper A plug . Cheers

I'm not sure if you use all you measurements for other things, but in my mind it's much easier to use the cases as zero position and go from there. You dont even have to assemble anything to get it right.

This might be ignorant, im nowhere near as talented as u, but could you also run a bit thicker base gasket to give ya some added distance? Love this video btw.

Did you neglect the fact that the piston doesn't come up to the top of the cylinder? TDC on my cylinder is: .150" below the lip. Ya need to add that number to the stroke and the oil groove measurement to determine how low the oil ring goes. THEN compare that to the oil hole distance and the gasket space. let me know please.

can you just use a thicker base gasket and which top cylinder skirt/lip was higher because that"s were you took the measurements from, to the oil hole.. I think it was the rear cylinder had the lower lip, so maybe deduct the height of the lips and see what ya have, so measuring from the top gasket surface to the oil holes....

Hey Kevin, great videos as always , couldn't you Mill down the base of the cylinder to bring the hole lower in relation to the piston ?

That oil drain hole is inline with the wrist pin, nowhere near the piston skirt. So as long as it clears to oil ring all os well..... ....RooDog....

May I ask your opinion on the S&S shovel engines, have you ever had much to do with them?.

Kevin, would you be able to do the differences between the 113” and 120” offered on your website. Both are rated at 110-120hp | 125-135ftlbs | 40+mpg, why go with one over the other? Thanks! 2000 RK Carb

Is there much different clean a pan and knuckle?

Kevin, is there an advantage of using two rear cylinders other than the carb serup your using? Or, is this just a custom build you want to do?

Kevin, I am late to the party and do not know the history of this engine. Since the build is keeping the motor performance stock, wouldn't it be better to just get jugs and heads that do not require so much machine work? It seems really labor intensive for a stock build. I just did a top end on my 83 shovel. Luckily, minimal machine work. I kept it stock for the most part. I did not measure the clearance on the cylinder oil port to piston oil ring. Must have been okay because its not smoking. Runs good. Probably dodged a bullet. Next time though. Great info.

Kevin, why braze the hole instead of welding with a MIG or TIG? Doesn't brazing use more heat then welding?

You clearanced the lifter block to clear the center case bolt.. Could the deck on the block be too high? You've got .200 difference from front to rear cylinders. Would it be an Option to cut the rear deck?

just get a new cylinder grinding welding on the cylinder crazy .

What if the brazing breaks of down the road

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i dont know why you wouldn't want to use that oil pump they made a monster replacement pump. my shovelheads made about 7psi at ideal but if you clipped on of those lines( also bigger than stock) it would bleed out in 3 seconds. thats one of the changes i thought they went backwards on.

Why can't you just shim the in bottom of the engine case to bring up that cylinder to put that hole where you need it?

You currently have an "unavailable" T-shirt on from Mason's Custom Cycles, Camby Oregon. It it now closed.

Shovel head stock barrels are good ,the after market zel Twain cylinder are shit, material the brinell hardness is too soft

Are those original jugs? How was anyone allowed to have THAT MUCH of a tolerance? That’s shameful.

Bikes shouldn't be this redickqueuslyy complicated. Or expensive.

Would you really trust someone that calls lifters, tappets???

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