HarleyTechTalk

My son has decided to go with an Ultima 120" as a replacement in his bike. We wanted to do some comparisons against their 124" motor but can't find any real info. The Ultima site says they increased the stroke by .125", lowered the compression, and changed the cam (as compared to the 120") to a more suitable touring cam. Thing is we can't seem to locate any info on the cam profile, compression ratio, or overall height. The owners manuals don't even list the 124 from what we could find. My son would likely be willing to spend the extra few hundred if the 124" really had anything of value to offer but it's tough to make a decision without any hard facts.

 On the Ultima products site they do list all their engine outside dimensions. 124 is same height as 120. Cant find anything else.
98fxd

Well at least I'm not the only one. I think if you're going to make it a point to indicate that you've lowered the compression and changed the cam you should say what it's been changed to.

stick with the 120"

I wish I could see some head to head comparisons between them. Ultima has never been one to provide any more info than necessary. And often they will provide less than you actually need. Prices are good though. It's just hard to find out what you're getting.

speed limit,
   Are you familiar with the 124's. Just wondering why you would recommend the 120 over the 124. Ultima is claiming 100lbs of torque at 2000rpm on the 124. I haven't seen any proof of this but then I haven't seen any dyno results on the 120 either. I'm really beginning to wonder if many guys are actually running these Ultima's. They've been out for a while now and I would have thought that there would be a lot more info from riders who actually had one in their bike. After all this time the vast majority of feedback I'm getting in my searches ( with a couple of notable exceptions) is from someone who heard from somebody that they read somewhere that somebody had said, well you know how it goes. I've been off the board for a while so I haven't kept up on Ultima. Have they turned out to be a disappointment. I've tried doing some forum searches but my skill at it must suck because i'm not really pulling up anything providing the info I'm looking for.

All I found was Stroke 4.375", Bore 4.250"

I say stick with the 120" because its going in a fxr, I think the 124 is more of a heavy bike set up tons of ft lbs down low.

You're right. Fxr's like to wind up.

a 100 ft lbs of torque on 124 ci? my 80 has 93...

That was 100ft pounds at 2000 rpm. I would be impressed if your 80 was doing that.

i usually call the people direct that sell something i want to buy for more info.

Kristian,
   And that would work fine for anyone other than Ultima. In the past I have tried to contact them multiple times regarding their products but never was able to actually get a call back from anyone. I have heard this same complaint from a lot of people. If Ultima has changed their customer service policy and they are now answering calls then that would be great. Has anyone here got a number for their CS that actually works?

midwest should be able to steer to a dealer/person with info.  if im correct and memory serves me? they are the exclusive distributor.  i personaly do not know anyone running a ultima, ive seen them in bikes but never got into it with anyone cause i never really cared.  im not saying there that there good, bad engines, if you think your having troubles now, what would you expect later after they have your cash.  this last statement i just said applies to anyone not just them.  buy what you like, obviously your buying through a retailer, they should be able to tell you also. 

finaly got through to someone at Jireh Cycles (Ultima's retail outlet) but they did not have that information available. I was put on hold while they tried to find out and after just over 6 minutes the call was disconnected. Ultima has been making the El Bruto motors for at least 8 or 10 years that I know of and I guess I just figured somebody on the forum would have one by now. Not sure who they're selling them to but apparently nobody here.

Yeah. I've given thought to a lot of their stuff but haven't seen any real reviews on any of it. 

They had turned me off in the past simply because I was never able to actually find any customer service. The one time that I did have a number it was actually disconnected after a short time. My son is anxious to get one of their motors and I figured that by now there would be a lot of credible street info on them. Apparently not however. I'm probably going to end up recommending to my son that he pay the extra bucks for an S&S. At least there you know what your getting.

     Their Customer Service is second to none in my experience.   

Got no specs on them but....theres only a few here in my neck of the woods. The early ones had the known gasket problems, the mid ones had known valve spring problems, the later ones(newer than 3 or 4 years) appear to be good. I do know the 124 will snap yer head back and send a long, fat tire Softail sideways if you aint paying attention!! One I built for a buddy got less than 4k mi before it got smashed!! Customer service  ....about 4 year ago I tried to become a dealer for them....too many headaches and they where slow responding.....

There are plenty of Ultimas out here there is three in my riding circle two 127s and a 120 all problem free my 127 has over 60,000 miles  the parts that I've replaced ( cam and lifters ) I replaced with S&S or stock Harley

speed limit,
    Since you have some experience with them let me ask you this. Would you see a preference between the 120 or the 127 for cruising. I mean serious cruising/touring. Is there an obvious difference in power between the two that you're aware of? And also, your inbox is full.

Because of the 120s lower compression and shorter stroke I would think it better suited for serious touring,  I think the most noticeable difference between them will be a 120 will run on 89 octane and the 127 needs 92 or higher trust me a 120 in a fxr will have power a plenty

If the 124" does have 4.250" bore I hope it was purpose built. Cases with more meat at the cylinder base and heads/gaskets that will seal.

Quote from: Deye76 on January 25, 2014, 05:16:15 AM
If the 124" does have 4.250" bore I hope it was purpose built. Cases with more meat at the cylinder base and heads/gaskets that will seal.

Yes thread is about purpose built Ultima Crate motors

A new twist here. My son started telling me last night that what he would really like is the motor that's in my bike. It's a 4" bore S&S motor with a short 3 7/8" stroke giving it 97 inches. This motor does not have a lot of gut wrenching lower end torque but it is amazingly smooth and can pull it's rpm's very quickly. We have always said that it would be an excellent motor in his FXR. If we did that then I would probably put an Ultima in my own bike. It is a 4 speed style frame (shovelhead style) that's stretched here and there to accept a softail tranny and an EVO motor. Because of my final drive ratio of 3.00 I seldom exceed about 3600 to 3800rpm. So, a motor that develops it's max torque in that range would be best. Given the new set of parameters how does that 120 look now. I would likely re-cam it before even installing it in the bike. Something like an S&S 585 or a V-Thunder 5010 to help optimize lower end torque.