Miles between Rebuild

[joepenoso]

How many many miles between rebuilds on your twin cams?
What broke 1st?
Do forged pistons have considerable less life than stock?
Thanks
joepenoso

[Paniolo]

How many many miles between rebuilds on your twin cams?
What broke 1st?
Do forged pistons have considerable less life than stock?
Thanks
joepenoso

I got 83K out of the factory build on my 2006 SE 103 CVO Ultra. Just had the crank balanced, trued, pinned and welded, S&S 583 cams and lifters, HD Pistons and fresh SE Heads.

[Prostock]

I got 2200 miles out of my 16 road glide.  Base gaskets were leaking, pulled cylinders and rear was shot.  Since I was there measured crank and .0065"

[Matt C]

I got 2200 miles out of my 16 road glide.  Base gaskets were leaking, pulled cylinders and rear was shot.  Since I was there measured crank and .0065"

That's about average runout for new bikes. No warranty?

[bigfoot5x]

My wife and I have now put more than 50,000 miles on 3 Twin Cams (07 Low Rider, 11 Super Glide Custom and a 13 Street Glide) plus I also rode 75,000 miles on a 2000 Super Glide and 95,000 miles on a 07 Street Glide. The last 2 mentioned Super Glide and Street Glide both had big bore kits installed so the total miles were not stock from the factory. I've never had a problem with the bottom end or transmission. As the miles start to pile up, it is little things like an oil leak from a seal that pops up. Nothing ever major. Some of the issues have been related to service work done at a dealer that was not as good as it should have been. I now do my own work on the Harley's.

Forged pistons are stronger than the stock cast pistons and are really over kill for strength on a street bike. They are popular however because they can be manufactured in smaller batches. The stock cast pistons require a lot of set up (read capital investment for the company) equipment wise so are only cost effective for a manufacturer to build.

[motorhogman]

01 FLHT just turned 100,000 mi.. Running good, minimum oil usage. Other than the usual stuff like lifters, engine mounts, cam bearings, tensioners, and rocker housing weep haven't had any issues.

[smoserx1]

I'd be more inclined to use the term "repair."  My history (99 flht):  Cam bearing failure 34000, fixed under warranty.  New  cams & tensioners 104000.  Breathers 140000 or so.  Conversion cams and 07 setup 150000.  Cylinder base oil leak 179000 (fix was new 95 in cylinders, pistons and eBay take off heads).  192000 clutch hub replaced.  While doing this last repair I replaced IP bearing, clutch basket bearing, starter clutch (new all balls one) and mainshaft race (with new S&S tapered one).  Things that have never been replaced or repaired: clutch plates, gearset, primary chain or compensator.  Transmission and primary seals replaced several times (any time primary comes apart all get replaced).  I do ride easy.  Other than the warranty repair mentioned I fixed all this stuff myself

[Hossamania]

Over 100,000 miles on my '01, stock bottom end, top end had big bore kit and heads modified at about 25,000 miles. Beat hell out of it, no excessive oil consumption, still runs strong. A stock motor serviced regularly should easily go 100,000 miles plus.

[fbn ent]

My '02 ate an inner cam bearing around 60K miles....didn't trust the Sturgis repair (Luckily! The bearing hole was pooched  ) and rebuilt when I got home. Rode hard all the time...

[ViseGrips]

 I actually had an outer bearing fail on my new 99flhtc with 97 thou kms back in 2000...the mothership went good...total tear down..replaced everything out of norm...lifters, oil pump, oil pan... etc..etc.....they even threw a new primary chain,  tensioner and clutch unit in under some kind of good will policy  ...The area rep just happened to be there when I trucked it in...( small dealership/small riding community and I was out and about quite a bit if that enters the equation on potentially selling more units in the area/..a happy camper eh...)...I put another 145 thou trouble free kms before trade in /2006.....I insisted on a 148 for the inner at that time...no problem.....I guess they wanted to really see/inspect what went on after the failure..I guess they could have just as easily put a whole new engine in eh...down time was about 5 days....Hopefully they get some of the bugs out of the new M8s ..it could prove to be a great machine

[PoorUB]

I had 60,000 miles on a 2010 TC before I started messing with it. It was in great shape when I opened it up. It still had the original cam chain tensioners at 82,000 miles when my mods failed and I traded it in. I don't know why the 2007+ TC would not run well over 100,000 with out any major work. Granted there is exceptions to the rule, something that fails early for no obvious reason.

[sfmichael]

with a little luck and a lot of regular, scheduled maintenance 100K miles is easily attainable - they'll be a few repairs (maybe more than a few) along the way but that's the case with any motorized vehicle with those miles

[smoserx1]

 
I used to think a motorcycle wore out faster than a car, but I believe it is how it is ridden.  have a buddy who bought a brand new camaro in the 70s and trashed it in about 30K.  He also trashed a celica in about 70 and tore up a differential in a plymouth he had.  So the operator had allot to do with imo.

[prodrag1320]

its all about how its ridden

[HD/Wrench]

I think that you just roll the dice . I do not feel it has to do with much of anything other than pure luck.. Look at the 16 that had 1771 miles on it bad crank coating falling off pistons.  NOW if the engine had not been taken apart the real question is how long would it have run ??  So I would also add that I feel those that stated what it had on it before they had to repair do not know .. What they do know is that at given mileage. It was broken but for how long is a better question

[Hossamania]

A combo of luck, how it is ridden, how it is serviced, how it is broken in. And luck.

[fbn ent]

Oh yeah................and OIL. 

[bigfoot5x]

There are a lot of factors but I wonder about some people. They just seem to always have a car or motorcycle that breaks and I have often wondered what they do that causes so many problems. Got a guy in our HOG chapter that always has problems. I don't know what he does but his bikes are always in the shop

[PoorUB]

With my 2010 the more I improved it the worse it got! It was very frustrating. My Yamaha R1 was slapped together with used parts, no measuring, if the part looked good it went it.  I have 5,000 miles on it and it runs like a champ. I have not had to touch it other than change the oil. reliable as a brick. My 2010 I was careful putting it together and it would have had the engine a part four times in 18 months if i had not traded it in with a bad engine.

[1workinman]

The only Harley I ever has so far that has been stone reliably has been a 96 inch road king , it was noisy and a turd , polished lol. I had a not had a reliably engine since lol. But Steve is going to Fix that . One of those things where you can say well I can tell you what not to do lol or use

[joepenoso]

I was kind of hoping to hear from more high mileage guys. Still wondering how much life you get out of soft forged piston compared to stock brittle cast ones......Thanks
joepenoso

[locker55]

How I see it,
The build is the factor, I know in the days of 95"s, if the cam wasn't a high lift and compression was kept low the crank would hold up. But for more power, the high lift cam and more compression destroyed the crank for a early break down. Then the crank was addressed with high lift cam and high compression making for a more reliable build.
Now days we see stock big displacement motors still have normal lift cams & compression being sold with warranty, because they are for the most part reliable.
It's when the need for power out of whatever size motor is changed with compression that's when the reliability is questioned. This is not to say that all builds risk reliability when changed from stock. But like back surgery there is a percentage that could go wrong.
For the rider there is a factor also, I have never seen anyone that took time and money to build up a motor not ever see and feel what it could do. But again for the most part the easy rider I believe gets more life out of a pumped up motor then the hard rider does. That's just how machinery works.
I cant answer about the pistons.

I do know that if a build is done mechanically and engineered correctly it can give a long reliable life.
There is a lot of builders on here that have proven that as a fact. (But hey, what do I know).

[Hossamania]

A member here, Calgary56, got about 175,000 miles out of his stock motor I believe. He did a rebuild and is coming on 300,000, and may have passed it by now.
I just looked at his profile, and he has passed 300,000.

[fbn ent]

How I see it,
The build is the factor, I know in the days of 95"s, if the cam wasn't a high lift and compression was kept low the crank would hold up. But for more power, the high lift cam and more compression destroyed the crank for a early break down. Then the crank was addressed with high lift cam and high compression making for a more reliable build.
Now days we see stock big displacement motors still have normal lift cams & compression being sold with warranty, because they are for the most part reliable.
It's when the need for power out of whatever size motor is changed with compression that's when the reliability is questioned. This is not to say that all builds risk reliability when changed from stock. But like back surgery there is a percentage that could go wrong.
For the rider there is a factor also, I have never seen anyone that took time and money to build up a motor not ever see and feel what it could do. But again for the most part the easy rider I believe gets more life out of a pumped up motor then the hard rider does. That's just how machinery works.
I cant answer about the pistons.

I do know that if a build is done mechanically and engineered correctly it can give a long reliable life.
There is a lot of builders on here that have proven that as a fact. (But hey, what do I know).

Unless Murphy raises his head, then all bets are off. I also believe that the Mothership is offering long warranties because they know they will break and the warranty keeps everyone coming back for either repair or another bike. Just like the automotive industry. This introduces a hardship on aftermarket and speed shops. 

[jmorton10]

It's funny, everybody says what a POS all the AMF Harleys where & that's generally correct.

I bought two brand new AMF bikes, a 1979 74" SuperGlide & a 1981 80" Electraglide.  The two bikes where as different as night & day.  The 79 was without a doubt the biggest POS ever built.  It vibrated & shaked so badly that parts started falling off the first day I owned it LOL.  The air cleaner to carb bolts fell off two days later.

I finally hated it so much I tore down the motor & totally rebuilt it with an S&S 98" Sidewinder kit & rebuilt the tranny with Andrews gears while I was at it.  After that, it was a real nice bike.

The 81 Electraglide on the other hand was awesome. I changed the air cleaner & pipes, reworked the carb, installed a Karata primary belt & rode it 30,000 miles without a single problem.  Then the guy I sold it to rode it from upstate NY to Alaska & back.  The only problem he had was 3 flat tires.

~John