Swapping Your Harley-Davidson Engine is Better than a Rebuild 

I'd go for a crate motor from Harley, but for 2023 they have dropped the early 88ci. motors. Now they only offer 2007 and up. I guess not enough takers for them. Still, for less than $6000, I thought that was good.

I would swap the engine for an aftermarket assembly. Easier to do than the headaches of what you will find with the old engine plus the after market engines are powerhouse engines already

had my 05, 95 big bore totally rebuilt to a 103.

On my 2012 FatBob 103 i would pay the 7k and get the S@S T111 crate motor....No mess....no fuss...

@GixxerFoo - Sir... always enjoy your content and delivery please keep it coming. If you are open to suggestions - you introduce topics like big bore upgrades/new crate motors cam chests rebuilds, etc... How about a video on break in rather its after new cam chest internals or a big bore install, or just a crate motor install? Thanks for the consideration! Cheers - Tiger

Same

Yeah I am the same on that, I feel much better doing it myself I know exactly what's going in my engine, I guess I am fortunate and inclined enough to do it

@Peter Angles Brand New Long Block cost about that. It’s a sliding scale. Do you salvage a bottom end, are you renewing the block and gaskets, etc.

@Peter Angles Harley’s are a labor of love. I suppose my IQ is lower than average but luckily I’m rich so I guess I can toil with junky Harley motors

Wow that's up there quite a bit! I was at the parts counter at my local dealer, one of the few small one owner dealers left out there. A guy was looking at a Twin Cam stage 4 and the parts manager was completely honest with him, it would cost just about the same as if he went with a 120R or ST screamin eagle crate engine. He ended up getting the ST version with an S&S cam.

4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 44 4 4 4 4 4 4

Thank you! I appreciate the support!

Only problem Mine had was user error, and didn’t listen to the forums about changing lifters and push rods every other season, decided to test my luck and it bit me. 20 000 miles on it. Was fun while it lasted.

What motor are talking about? Im about to by a 120 twin cam and live in Fl 20000 miles wont take long

Yeah, depends what one needs out of a warranty, there's different kinds. Some just cover labor, some parts, most any warranty or insurance will be an arguement and a flurry of emails. Customer service is dead. I agree, less headaches if its a bought crate motor, but tbh i don' t really expect them to be more reliable than a rebuilt motor. All depends on the quality of the monkey and the wrench. Have fun riding.

wow! I got 2 evo's softails, 25k & 8k miles. I don't ride them hard, mostly I'm sitting in the 40's-60s mph. I hope they won't need attention at 66k miles. I agree with your comment about getting the crate built up motor.

That's awesome! I love to hear that!

My brother has a 2014 stage 2 and same thing happened, I had to rebuild his tranny, they sucked that year.

PRECISELY what broke? HD transmission design mistakes have made Burt Baker gobs of money.

I love it! That's what I like to hear! Nothing wrong having the work done just because!

Me too, way I see it, buy a crate motor, sell my stock motor as a good running lump.

Scooter tramp Scotty has worn out several bottom ends and that’s with an evo, but I think he said he usually gets several hundred thousand out of them.

come on man

Yea that's probably correct. Why do you think Harley changed the spec on crank run out . Most want even know it till it fails , wiped out oil pump , cam plate. Or a lifters failed and sends metal through the system

This dude.....gonna go Lev limiter my Limited TC w/over 100k miles on it today.(probably the 500 time)

@@toddbaa you have got one of the better made ones. The guy that worked on mine said he has rebuilt numerous twin cam 88s with that same problem. The runout is so far off it destroys the oil pump. There is another video that gixerfoo has acknowledged that this is an issue with TC88 engines.

That's sad and l hate hearing you got yanked around by a shop. Places like that give good indy shops a bad name. I had a buddy that got an S&S crate and had a authorized indy dealer install it. Motor blew up, no fault on the shop but S&S send a brand new one and covered the labor. They wanted that old one back and to talk to him, they were truly interested in what failed and why on that motor. They took it personally that it failed.

@@GixxerFoo S&S obliged my Indy as well with the supposedly faulty parts. Regardless of whether mine was a bad batch of parts or not…. if I could tell the bike wasn’t running right, they definitely shoulda caught it. I also don’t believe that on 3 occasions it was S&S’s fault. Sounded pretty fishy to me. Had it of been a crate engine, there would be no doubt who was at fault.

The problem with the Ultima engines is that some people have little to no issues and some have nothing but issues all the way up until the day they pull it back out of their bike and put something else in. It kinda feels like a crap shoot to me.

Mine is 160.... hahahaha

113,000 miles on my 2003 RKP88

That new Buell super cruiser is absolutely insane! That thing almost looks like a Dyna but I imagine it handles like no other too!

Thank you! Cheers!

Unbolt. Bolt it in. Real easy

If you abandon that Evo because it needs engine work wherever you are in the USA I will come and pick up that motorcycle and I will give it a good home and fix it. Evils are simple to work on and lasts forever. I don't know why every time I say Evo the phone translates that as evil. But I'd still rather have an evil motorcycles and a twin cam or Milwaukee. Evil is good.

@@frankmarkovcijr5459 right now it's in great shape with less than 27k on it. I've done the lifters, lifter blocks, the pushrods, compensator, clutch pack, primary chain, and carb kit on it. I was thinking once it got around 35k I would change the cam bearing, seal, cam, and oil pump to high flow pump. The base gaskets, head gaskets, rockers, springs, valves, pistons, and rings around 55k-60k. Then crack the cases and redo the crank at 75k. Maybe wait on some of the upper end till I tore down completely. I don't know yet. I really don't want to do the cylinders first but it may be necessary if the base gaskets start to leak on me. I built a 48 Pan back in 90-91 but I didn't get to ride it much because it got snatched by 3 guys in a national mc I won't mention. I'll just say they were surprised to see me afterwards but it was too late to save the Pan. I love the Evo but it's a slug compared to more modern stuff. Twin cams aren't my fave but I can fix one up if needed. Who knows I may let it go if I find the right deal.

@@mikaldene7146 I am surprised that at only 27,000 miles you have done so much work to that bike so far I would not wait to upgrade the cam bearing if the camp bearing fails it will be much more expensive that if you replace it. Cheap Ina bearing is the only problem with the Evo basically. The lifter should be replaced every 40,000 miles but you should have had no problems with the primary drive or clutch. I know guys with hundreds of thousands of miles on your evos and they've done very little to them other than lifters. The base gaskets B legal little bit but it's not really a big deal all real motorcycles leak a little bit of oil

@@frankmarkovcijr5459 I bought it used from a guy who wasn't really a rider and he burned up the clutch, compensator rattled and the chain had wear because he never adjusted it. The lifters, pushrods, and blocks were changed because a dealership left the lifters block screws un-torqued when they inspected the cam. They almost fell out. Fortunately they hadn't done any damage to the cam but it was a mess so I swapped them out to keep from losing the lifters bearings into the crankcase and eating the motor. Like I was saying before, mostly preventive steps to avoid a big headache later.

@@mikaldene7146 thank you for responding that clears up why so much stuff has to be done to the primary with so little mileage and I really don't understand that because it is really so easy to adjust the primary chain. Of course I have an evolution Sportster so it might be slightly different than a big twin but still a little bit of adjustment you know goes a long way. With the Evolution motor having pushrods motor clearances have to be much tighter. Cylinders can be too tall or Too Short there is not much clearance with pushrod so you have to have much greater quality control with a chain drive the chain takes up the slack so you can have cylinders with a chain drive that you could not have with a push rod. This enabled Harley-Davidson to pump out 30000 more motorcycles a year. It is a shame they did not continue the Evo in production because the twin cam and the milwaukee-eight have a shopping list of defects that come straight from the factory and all anything anybody says about the Evo is that the base gaskets sometimes leak. In my Ural owners manual when it talks about oil seepage on the outside of the engine they show you the production Machinery that takes from World War 1 with Indy cast-iron it would say USA 1916. They are not oil type in the way a BMW or Japanese bike is but they are no worse than a British motorcycle so you just have to take it to the carwash a little more often. People used to badmouth British motorcycles quite a bit about them being unreliable and vibrating too much and most of what would occur was because of owner negligence. If something fell off because they did not tighten the nuts and bolts they would pitch about the bike. If you do not keep the timing straight and the point properly adjusted and you like to run the bike at Full Throttle you end up holding a piston and then you blame the bright company instead of your own negligence. From your experience it shows that even an engine as reliable as Evolution Big twin if you neglect it it will suffer as any other mechanical device will. One thing I like about my Sportster is all I do is change the oil and filter and tires. It have four hundred thousand miles on it at his almost 25 years old. I do replace a little bearing in the clutch that goes out every 50 or 60 thousand miles and replace the alternator at 250,000 miles when the bike was 20 years old. I am on my third drive belt. Ironically I bought my Sportster so I would have a multitude of choices to take it to when I would need mechanical work but it has been phenomenally reliable and dependable more than even my BMWs or my Japanese motorcycles. With the Gear Drive in the engine like in my Sportster or my Triumph or my BSA Twins and singles I do not have to worry about the chain breaking and destroying the engine which happened to all of my Honda motorcycles. When my CX500 was 10 years old with 250,000 miles on her to cam chain broke and snapped the camshaft and two pieces. T o r e right through the water pump the more we opened up the engine the more damage we found. When a cam chain breaks your Pistons kiss the valves and your engine is toast. My Sportster may not have been as technically Advanced as my Honda CX500 but it has outlasted the high-tech Jap bike two-and-a-half times over. I have a weird collection of motorcycles just like my dogs both are Strays that come my way and I give them both a forever home. I believe you will have good luck with your Evo in the future I myself have had motorcycles damaged by so-called mechanics and then they have the nerve to charge you for damaging your motorcycle isn't that a crock of shit.

Registering and insuring a bike after a engine swap isn't too bad since in most cases you go with the vin number on the frame. But with a crate motor swap I highly suggest keeping all your receipts and documentation. I would even go as far as to keep a copy of the MSO that came with the engine on the bike just in the event you're stopped by the cops and they want to fish.

Harley reman program saves your cases and numbers. Another option.

I have 4 3/4 flywheels that need rebuilt that I am selling.

@@TS-iq2hv Thanks but I have them now but had a hard time getting them , S&S won’t make them anymore had to get the wheels only from truer & Osborne And have them built with Jim’s & S&S parts

Damn! Yeah a big inch Shovel is some big money!

Move? Insist on freedom?

no sound problems from here.

Yeah I've got to get different mic, I have a external one but I'll work on the sound some more!

They are made in Missouri and sold through distributor networks.

So you keep the MSO in your bags.... No big deal and should be zero reason to not go with a engine swap vs a rebuild.... Cooked my TC in my bagger and went S&S 124 crate, I just keep the MSO in the bags.

I agree but no way for that kind of money.

@@fearsomename4517 well you got to consider. Basically you'll have 10 grand in that motor by the time you fluid it up and use your labor to put it in. If your actually a custom bike builder or just an old motorhead with disposable income this engine is valid. Me personally I'd wait on the videos that will come with the pros and cons. The same way that Mecum or Barrett Jackson sales the shit out of overpriced investment cars Harley Davidson will and does attain money. Everyone on the bike world should be buying every Dayna they can get their hands on. Low mile stock bikes are gonna hit 75 % profit. They're the next muscle, cool assed car. Next 5 years. Buy wide glides first when you can and all others however.

@@scottfree8848 She has fairly low miles. I have a pacemaker. She will outlast me.

@@fearsomename4517 Best wishes to you and yours

Several factors here as it's not a direct bolt in, with the time and investment it would take to put a 103 from a newer bike in a 2000 model you'd be better off hopping up your 88. Couple routes to go here, you could bolt on an S&S 100 inch kit or rebuild your 88 from the bottom up with a stroker crank and a 95 inch bolt on kit. That would get you to a 103, but a 100 inch kit with a cam swap would leave a 103 in the dust.