More power from my softail. Engine swap or not?
More power from my softail. Engine swap or not?
So I’ve got a 2007 softail fxst I’m looking at upgrading this year but would rather keep it and get the most power I can from it. Would an engine swap be best? If so what engine/price would people recommend
-
Spanners39
- Member
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Nov 2022
- Location: Coromandel Peninsula
- Bike: 1984 Shovelhead
- Likes: 149
Re: My softail
My experience is that none of the aftermarket big-inch motors are as long-lasting as the genuine Harley motor, having said that, the SE 120R can also be suspect as you never know what it will have inside it. I got 130HP/130TQ out of one with very little effort.
I may be an old fart with conservative ideas, but I have always been that way and as a mechanic of 46 years' experience my opinion is this.
There is no point in getting caught up in numbers because you can spend a lot of money getting 130HP and then you only actually use 90 of them because you don't want to die. The guy I built the 130HP bike for rode it twice after I had run it in for him (I saw 224km/h up Highway 1 one evening and got sickening ground-rush as the cars 2 kms away ended up getting very close, VERY quickly...you can't keep that intensity up for long) and then sold it because it was just plain dangerous, as soon as the slack was out of the throttle cable you were going waaaaay too fast and it wanted to kill you.
I always tune for low and mid-range grunt because you don't need all your HP to be above 3,500 RPM.
I put SE 203 Cams (these are a fairly mild cam) and a V&H Tuner in a 2003 Road King once and after the owner traded it in, Auckland Harley rang him and asked him who had tuned the motor because they had never ridden anything so fast.....well it was me and it was in a mild state of tune but the low-down grunt belied its actual output (circa 83HP). I put Andrews Bagger Cams in my Fat Bob and sold it eventually because me and the Po-Po didn't see eye-to eye on how fast one should be going after overtaking a truck (apparently 160km/h up Highway 16 is considered excessive...who knew?)
What I am trying to say is, save your money, don't go for the MOST HP you can get out of a motor because the cost per HP doubles, triples and then doubles again for every 5HP over 85.
Build a motor that gives you a hard-on from the lights, overtaking and generally riding it. This will be a quarter of the cost of MOST and you will not be able to stop riding the thing.
If you really NEED 130HP because you have some perverse desire to die or lose your license then yes, go for a 131 or some other very expensive hand-grenade but I promise you that on a 96-inch TC a V&H FP3 and a set of Bagger or mid-level cams will give you a bike that gives you a shit-eating grin, all day, every day and you won't have to do 160+ before it lights your fires.
Just my pov, I respect your right to be wrong ;-)
I may be an old fart with conservative ideas, but I have always been that way and as a mechanic of 46 years' experience my opinion is this.
There is no point in getting caught up in numbers because you can spend a lot of money getting 130HP and then you only actually use 90 of them because you don't want to die. The guy I built the 130HP bike for rode it twice after I had run it in for him (I saw 224km/h up Highway 1 one evening and got sickening ground-rush as the cars 2 kms away ended up getting very close, VERY quickly...you can't keep that intensity up for long) and then sold it because it was just plain dangerous, as soon as the slack was out of the throttle cable you were going waaaaay too fast and it wanted to kill you.
I always tune for low and mid-range grunt because you don't need all your HP to be above 3,500 RPM.
I put SE 203 Cams (these are a fairly mild cam) and a V&H Tuner in a 2003 Road King once and after the owner traded it in, Auckland Harley rang him and asked him who had tuned the motor because they had never ridden anything so fast.....well it was me and it was in a mild state of tune but the low-down grunt belied its actual output (circa 83HP). I put Andrews Bagger Cams in my Fat Bob and sold it eventually because me and the Po-Po didn't see eye-to eye on how fast one should be going after overtaking a truck (apparently 160km/h up Highway 16 is considered excessive...who knew?)
What I am trying to say is, save your money, don't go for the MOST HP you can get out of a motor because the cost per HP doubles, triples and then doubles again for every 5HP over 85.
Build a motor that gives you a hard-on from the lights, overtaking and generally riding it. This will be a quarter of the cost of MOST and you will not be able to stop riding the thing.
If you really NEED 130HP because you have some perverse desire to die or lose your license then yes, go for a 131 or some other very expensive hand-grenade but I promise you that on a 96-inch TC a V&H FP3 and a set of Bagger or mid-level cams will give you a bike that gives you a shit-eating grin, all day, every day and you won't have to do 160+ before it lights your fires.
Just my pov, I respect your right to be wrong ;-)
Re: My softail
Cheers for the response, what you are talking about is pretty much what I’d be wanting by the sounds of it. Also a lot simpler and cheaper I’d imagine
-
Spanners39
- Member
- Posts: 117
- Joined: Nov 2022
- Location: Coromandel Peninsula
- Bike: 1984 Shovelhead
- Likes: 149
Re: My softail
Go for the gear drive conversion if you have the money, you won't regret it, peace of mind forever. Also, if you really want it to be special, send the heads off to Harley Speed and Custom in Wellington and get a head job. I did a 1550 Conversion, SE203 Cams and an HSC head job on a RoadKing once and it is the best Harley Motor I ever built....didn't want to give it back to the customer! You can do a 103 Conversion on yours too, they just bore out your existing barrels.