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SE hydraulic cam tensioners

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HOLY DIVER

Junior Member
i'm going with the SE upgrade $465 for the kit $170 for SE adjustable push rods now $70 an hour labor dealer said it will take 3 hours to do the task now that brings us 2 $845 oh yea i'm gonna take new torrington inner bearings for them to install i was figuring on spending $1100 so that leaves me some spare cash thinking of getting SE cams installed i don't ride hard but alittle more mid-range would be nice witch SE cam would u guys recommend?think i should just use the stock cams?
 
Not sure what year your bike is. But I'm guessing you have 88" since you are doing the hydraulic upgrade.

I put Andrews 26 cams in my 88" RoadKing. Big difference gave me about 20 extra hP and tourque. Made the bike run cooler. No down falls. Well one. You are going to have the added expense of a tuner(if you do not have one). I went with TTS MasterTune. There is a great Tuner in Charlotte, NC(Mark Harrington he works for Bens's V-Twin). He was a instructor at MMI. I got my bike Dyno tuned by him. Very happy.
 
When I got rid of then tensioners I went with Andrews 21 cams. I couldn't be happier with my choice. They are the cams that Joe Minton recommends in the article that Steve posted a link to. They have more power across the whole range above the stock cams. My understanding is that if Harley didn't have the EPA breathing down their necks these would be the cams they would like to put in stock.
If you are set on SE cams go for the SE 204 cams. The come on about 500 rpm later than the Andrews 21 do, but still have a nice mid-range to them. If you go with them and decide you would like the torque to come on a little sooner you can always put a 4* advance gear later.

Randall
 
R.Bingham said:
When I got rid of then tensioners I went with Andrews 21 cams. I couldn't be happier with my choice. They are the cams that Joe Minton recommends in the article that Steve posted a link to. They have more power across the whole range above the stock cams. My understanding is that if Harley didn't have the EPA breathing down their necks these would be the cams they would like to put in stock.
If you are set on SE cams go for the SE 204 cams. The come on about 500 rpm later than the Andrews 21 do, but still have a nice mid-range to them. If you go with them and decide you would like the torque to come on a little sooner you can always put a 4* advance gear later.

Randall
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very good input thank you very much ....past few days i've been asking myself do i need more power...on trips with the bike LOADED wife on the back i don't seem to lack power at all ...i have pipes and a tfi no AC upgrade yet...think i'll upgrade to a SE Airfilter kit (been meaning to do that anyway) see where i'm at after that....if i get alittle more felt torque outta it then might just use that extra $300 for an oil cooler lol the only thing set in stone right now is the stock spring loaded cam tensioners are going to be upgraded
 
HOLY DIVER said:
very good input thank you very much ....past few days i've been asking myself do i need more power...on trips with the bike LOADED wife on the back i don't seem to lack power at all ...i have pipes and a tfi no AC upgrade yet...think i'll upgrade to a SE Airfilter kit (been meaning to do that anyway) see where i'm at after that....if i get alittle more felt torque outta it then might just use that extra $300 for an oil cooler lol the only thing set in stone right now is the stock spring loaded cam tensioners are going to be upgraded
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Although the SE air is a good upgrade, dyno test have shown that it doesn't really make much difference below 4000 rpm. If you are wanting to feel more torque then a cam upgrade is the way to go. With the Andrews 21 cam I have more torque and power across the board and it makes passing trucks a breeze. You might want to reconsider the cam upgrade at this time as there won't be any extra labor cost.
 
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Ive run many of the hydraulic upgrade kits and on my personal bike too. After 35k miles on my dyna i noticed a whirling sound from the cam area. After pulling it apart the read cam chain had failed (links kinked and stiff) and wore the rear tensioner about 50%. I never changed the rear chain when i installed the kit as the instructions dont tell you to. As some insurance i would replace the rear chain when installing this kit. 25607-99 $85.00.
I always wondered how the old silent chain would last on the new tensioner. seems to hold up well. A lot longer than the old spring loaded tensioners.
 
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