Anybody seen these before?

[drifter]

My Sporty came with these 1/8 in thick aluminum plates between the head and rocker boxes.  They raise the rocker boxes too high to mount the top motor mounts.  This is a 1978 XLCR (before changes), the engine was used for drag racing from 1991 to 2013 +/-.  Trying to figure out if they are worth keeping and fabricating new top motor mounts.

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[Ohio HD]

I think this was done to allow for longer valves / taller springs for really high lift cams.

[rigidthumper]

Didn't Dan Baisley use those for rocker arm geometry when using huge cams? I'm betting theres a set of Red Shift or Sifton bump sticks installed.

[drifter]

Well, that sounds interesting.  Prowling around the garage when I bought it I found a couple of SE High compression piston kit for XR-1000 boxes, and a box that says 'stock XR-1000' with four used cams in it: 1QR, 2QR,3Q and 4Q, don't know what is in the bike.  This sporty stuff is new to me, don't even know yet what the used cams are.

[turboprop]

Hmmm, Sputhe cases, dual plugged heads, corrected valve train geometry, a steering dampener, you have something cool. I cant be sure, but I think I remember seeing a picture of Dick Hilferty (RIP), on a sportster with a similar paint job. Dick was a racer and the mastermind behind Sifton and RedShift cams. Having one of Dick's sportsters would be cool beyond measure.

[JW113]

Those cams are the later Ironhead "low performance" Q cams, used from '76 to '85. 222 deg duration, compared to the earlier P cams with 254 deg duration.

So I'm a little confused on that bike. Yes, the frame looks like the XLCR, but so does a '79 - '82 frame. None of the rest of it appears to be XLCR. Too bad you didn't get the XLCR bodywork with it, which was one of the slickest looking Sportsters ever made, IMO.

The engine sure looks intriguing. Somebody certainly put some effort into that mill. Am curious what the stroke is. Wonder what it does on the dyno?

-JW

[Hybredhog]

            I'm sure its out of publication now, but there was a Sportster "high Performance " book around years ago with lots of DIY speed tricks in it, and the rocker spacer plates was one of the "tricks". His theory was that even stock rocker geometry was off, so the spacers put things right. I tried them on my old '84 cast iron stroked sporty, but I had larger/ taller valve & big springs, eventually I just went back to stock when I got Baisley roller rockers for it. As I remember the book, the guy also grounded down the heels of the cams, needle outer cam bearings in the cover, drilled lifer bodies, and a bunch of other budget racing tricks. One funny/ quasi-relevant trick was to use a garden hose to check & flow the ports.

[Pirsch Fire Wagon]

If I'm not mistaken, that's the aluminum cylinders with cast-in sleeves up-grade from the late 70's. I forget who made them or, even if they're still in business. Let me have a look around the old inner-web. I do remember them though.

[JW113]

Not so sure about that. Unless a special alloy of aluminum that rusts.



-JW

[Hybredhog]

   The cylinders aren't stock, and the base bolts/ nuts are 12 point. I think they're Dyeche? big bores, which were a predecessor of Axtell.

[Ohio HD]

Not so sure about that. Unless a special alloy of aluminum that rusts.



-JW

Yep, I decided to wait for the report of these aluminum cylinders.     

[turboprop]

My Sporty came with these 1/8 in thick aluminum plates between the head and rocker boxes.  They raise the rocker boxes too high to mount the top motor mounts.  This is a 1978 XLCR (before changes), the engine was used for drag racing from 1991 to 2013 +/-.  Trying to figure out if they are worth keeping and fabricating new top motor mounts.

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So lets see some pics of the best of this smoke wagon.

[drifter]

There is another picture up one place in the "Lets see your iron heads".  I pulled a spark plug and measured 4.25 stroke, pistons and cylinders are almost new, maybe an hour or two run time, very clean inside.  When I got it I had the Harley shop check the frame number because I couldn't figure out what model it was.  They called back a couple of days later and told me that they had to go back into the old books to find it, no one there had run across an xlcr number before. 

[drifter]

Thanks everybody for the information.  I looked up Dan Baisley, he produces aluminum plates like the ones I have but just for Shovels and Twin Cams now.  I'll clean up the Q cams and put them in storage, I don't think I want to downgrade the performance of the bike.  I decided to blast and repaint the Pan cylinders, naturally the temp dropped too far to paint them until spring so they are in the house until it warms up again.  So I will put the rest of the bike together and get it off the lift and put the Sporty up and start on that.  I think I will start by pulling the cam cover and see what is hiding in there, then rewire it to get rid of a lot of extra wire.

[turboprop]

Thanks everybody for the information.  I looked up Dan Baisley, he produces aluminum plates like the ones I have but just for Shovels and Twin Cams now.  I'll clean up the Q cams and put them in storage, I don't think I want to downgrade the performance of the bike.  I decided to blast and repaint the Pan cylinders, naturally the temp dropped too far to paint them until spring so they are in the house until it warms up again.  So I will put the rest of the bike together and get it off the lift and put the Sporty up and start on that.  I think I will start by pulling the cam cover and see what is hiding in there, then rewire it to get rid of a lot of extra wire.

Not true at all. Dan produces lots of stuff, very little is on his website. Call him. Be prepared for him to talk your ear off.

[Hillside Motorcycle]

Didn't Dan Baisley use those for rocker arm geometry when using huge cams? I'm betting theres a set of Red Shift or Sifton bump sticks installed.

Bingo.