increasing performance on a flathead

[hotroadking]

Short of sticking in an SNS motor , guy on another forum was asking about increasing performance, anyone make cams, etc.

So I thought I'd ask about it, gave him a link to this forum so who knows might show up...

[Pzokes]

T&O makes Flathead stroker flywheels.  They'll even assemble your stroker lower end for you.  www.truettandosborn.com

There is a book that is about to be released that gives tested modifications to Flathead oil pumps and shows how to install piston squirters.  This should cure the short lifespan of Flathead top ends.  www.flatheadworks.com

For someone who has done Flathead oil pump mods and has the modification pictures on his website try: www.freewebs.com/dicky_linn/index.htm

One of my friends who recently built a Flathead told me that he never spent so much money to go so slow.

[hotroadking]

Kinda what I was saying to him, you want to go fast on a flathead, put an evo in the frame.... LOL

45 isn't exactly a ton of motor to start with.

He was being told to cut down the back of the cams so that you could put in a longer pushrod and trick the   motor into more lift. 

[PC_Hater]

www.victorylibrary.com
Lots of 45 go-faster stuff.

[Pzokes]

Jeffrey Diamond of Victory Library does publish a lot of pamplets containing information that he has found in old articles, and magazines, but Jeffrey/Victory does no high performance machining or motor assembly.  It might be best to consult with someone that builds high performance Flatheads, to see what parts are currently available, and what machining is being done today to increase performance in Flatheads. 

I think that 45 Parts Depot is reproducing the WR cylinders and heads.  ICE Engineering, in Merrit Island, FL makes a kit to replace all the cam bushings with roller bearings.  You could go to a bearing supply and go through the bearing sizing charts in the catalogs and find the roller bearing sizes to replace the bushings, but the kit isn't that expensive.  Sorry I don't know the bearing part numbers.

I owned a 45" Flathead with an early K/Sportster front end, and the larger 2-wheeler Linkert carb and intake manifold. It would easily pull a wheelie in first gear, and was a good around town bike, but even after I changed to a different front sprocket, to gear it higher, it was never a good highway bike. 

The 45" Flahead is the easeist Harley to start.  In the 80's there was a M/C magazine that held a contest for two years at Daytona Bike Week called "Just For Kicks".  No one could come close to the number of starts that the 45's could do in the allotted time.  The winning 45's were rigged with kill switches, so the owners could kickstart-kill, kickstart-kill......







 

[stroker800]

You can always stroke it with a sportster flywheels,,regrind sporty cams ,raise the comp.
Dave

[Pzokes]

You could "junkyard turbo" it too.

[4DWUDS]

Short of making a 45 "magnum" there's not a lot of cheap bolt on high performance mods that can be done to them. Them ol flatheads were made for reliability, ease of maintenance and endurance , Not Bonneville.

[telricks]

Why are we talking about a 45, poster never said 750 cc

[4DWUDS]

I see the mention of 45" starting in post #2 from Hotroadking, the originator of this thread.

[Scooter]

I have a small, blue manual, I think form the '60s, devoted to tuning and modifications you can do pretty easily in your garage.
It's called The Essence of Speed.  The focus is mostly on the Flathead 45, with a little Indian stuff thrown in.
It's pretty cool.

[Frankenstein]

Greetings, Just found this site from a link at Hydra-glide.  At any rate, I see my site linked in an earlier post on this topic re adding a sporty oil pump to flatheads for better oiling/cooling. 
I've updated the information on how to do this and have it at another website: http://www.dicklinn.webs.com/
It's best to use firefox to view, looks cleaner.
As for hotrodding flatheads, lots of talk about it here: http://www.flatheadpower.com/tech/viewforum.php?f=24

Dick, Aka Frankenstein

[ohio-rider]

I just have to say that I personally don’t like the idea of performance enhancements or upgrades of any kind on the 45 flatheads. Any changes from original only makes the machine less dependable and they are the hallmark of dependability just as they where built.

Anyone looking to ride a rocket ship should just buy themselves a rocket ship instead of trying to reinvent the flathead into one. Oh….. And yes I have ridden and also raced against the so called performance enhanced 45’s with my stock out of the box 45 and yes they are quicker but not terribly quicker.  Not worth the money or effort to build them any bigger in my opinion. -Steve

P.S...... Welcome to the site Frankenstein, your vast knowledge about these flatheads has helped me countless times over the years while working with mine.

[Frankenstein]

Thanks O-R, for the hat tip.  As for hot rodding 45's, Well, to each their own, I guess. I've certainly done it. But these days, I'm just trying to improve reliability on the Big Twin flathead. And that's what the pump article really refers to. I've got a stock 45 in the tractor, and it's never given a bit of trouble. Well, it does like it's sniff of either when the temp heads to zero :-)
DD

[ohio-rider]

Oh Man..... Don't even get me started talking about tractors!