Panhead Cylinders

[Nick9900]

I have stock set .80 over cylinders. Thinking of get some twain ted 74 cylinders and piston kit. Would or should I have those machined? Or are they good to run normally as far as piston & cylinder clearance? 

[SP33DY]

They come bored, honed, and fitted to the pistons. I would check them with a mic and a bore guage before running them. Also check the ring gaps. If you don't have the measuring tools, do it old school with feeler guages. You're looking for .0025" to .003" clearance. Use a .001" on one side of the skirt and .0015" (one and one half thousandths) on the other skirt and slide it into the cylinder. If it goes real easy, try .001" and .002". Get the idea? Or take them to a machinist to get them checked.
This isn't a slam on V-T. I check fit on every cylinder kit I install here regardless of who it came from.

[Nick9900]

that makes sense and thank you for the description of measuring that, that sounds quite reasonable.

[nmainehunter]

Why not have your cylinders sleeved?

[CraigArizona85248]

Why not have your cylinders sleeved?

That's how I would do it as long as the cylinders are OEM. LA Sleeve in Santa Fe Springs, CA still does sleeving for old Harley cylinders.

https://www.lasleeve.com/tech/re-sleeve-your-cylinder