88 CI to 98 CI UPGRADE

Getting both jugs on was the stopping point for Day 1. Before I left the garage, rags were place over the jugs to help keep condensation out. Not a bad first huh boys and girls???

yes it is easy to get the pistons in the bore in that way but i find it more of a pain in the but to get the pin clip in that way , i end up poping the lower ring back out trying to get the pin clip in . some find it harder to do it the other way . many ways to skin a cat i guess

I install rings sitting by the beer fridge(or bench if fridge is empty),then piston onto the rod,install wrist pin, Jesus clip then ring compressor...and gently with the palm of my hand tap the jug down over the piston....YMMV

Great write up & pics, Johnny. I went back several pages to see it all.

Day 2 of assembly started nice and early in the morning. The first thing that was on the agenda was to get the heads on. Now one thing that was pointed out to me is that when using Cometic Head Gaskets, there is no need to use those two o-rings that go on the alignment dowels on the jugs. From what I understand that if you do use them, you are going to have some oiling issues. Sorry guys, no pictures with heads on at this stage. Heads were torqued to spec using a little bit of oil on the underside of the caps as it was suggested.

The next thing that was in order was to get the lower rocker boxes on.

Here are some pictures of the gaskets. These are HD gaskets as I have been told that they are by far the best for that area.





If you look at the gasket Harley decided to stamp the gasket that is for what head, front and rear. However, that is a picture of the exact same gasket, you can never screw that up because all you have to do is flip it over and it you have the right gasket. Interchangeable, can't go wrong with that.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures.



Next it was time to get the lower rocker boxes on. Torqued them down to 144 inch pounds. (12 ft/lbs.) Here is a picture with the rear lower box on..

Good job JB, I like the play by play pictures.

Next thing in order was to get the support plates and breather assemblies in. This was not an issue at all. Actually, I was amazed how easy that they went in. I didn't have to fight with the breathers at all since that I had them already installed. Some of the pre-assembly that I did. Here is where the first small little problem came. The problem that was encountered is that JIMS uses allen bolts to fasten down the support plates, Harley uses as standard shoulder nut bolts. Harley's bolts were fine to use on the right side of the bike, but when I was tightening down the left side, the shoulder was interfering and would not go down all the way. :rant: Not a big deal though, made a quick trip to Fastenal and picked up the appropriate bolts and washers. A little bit of clearance work with a Dremal and sanding wheel and all was good. After that then I washed the support plates to clean the metal dust off.

Here are some pictures.




This picture shows the allen bolts the best. Pictures are being taken from the right side of the bike.

After the installation of the support plates, I put the battery charger on to let if gets some charge. After that, then it was time to get the push rods in. Of course you can't forget to get the o-rings installed. 2 in the head and 2 for the lifter block.

TIP... Use the top part of the push rod tube to square up the o-rings inside the head. That way you can be pretty confident that things will fit right.

Here are some pictures with the o-rings installed in the head and in the lifter block(s).

Front cylinder...

Rear cylinder..


Front lifter block...

Rear lifter block...


Next was to get the pushrods installed and set. I don't think that it matters which cylinder you do first or which valve you start with, but you MUST MAKE SURE that you are on the heel of the cam or at BDC in order for proper adjustment to be possible. Once the tubes were reassembled, they were held up with a rubber band and paper clip and then the adjusting began.

NOTE. Different lifters require different adjustments so please check what the recommended adjustment is and also varies depending on Threads Per Inch or (TPI). I have the Gatormans so I adjusted them to what is recommended by them.


Adjusting the pushrods was actually pretty easy.

1.) Lengthen the pushrod until you find 0 lash. You will know that you hae found 0 lash when you there is just a little bit of resistance when you are turning the rod up the thread. Once you feel that resistance, STOP!
2.) Now you will have to lengthen the pushrod by turning it an X amount of flats. I don't remember how many "flats" mine required, but I do know that they were adjusted to 3 turns.

The SE pushrods are nice because they have a whited dot on the beginning flat and each time that comes around, that is 1 turn. Simple. Repeat for the remaining valves.

Good idea about using the top of the pushrod cover to seat the upper washers properly. You will get an oil leak if not careful - happened to me the first time I replaced the front head gasket. I use the cork ones on my shovel and have never had a problem with them. They came with my complete Cometic gasket set.

Those Cometic gaskets are just really nice that is for sure. When you have good friends like the people on this forum giving pointers it sure does make things a heck of a lot easier that is for sure.

Looks like great weather for riding in your neck of the woods

Oh yes!! Yesterday it was 75* with just a little bit of wind. When go 80 mph on the freeway it was a tad chilly. I am glad that I had my light coat with. It was really cold when we would pass a lake as the the wind coming off of the ice covered lake was really cold. This bike is running solid that is for sure.

After the pushrods were installed it was time to have a little bit of fun and watch the valve train operate. I then put oil in it and let that find its way into the case for a bit. From the time that I put the charger on the battery to the time that the valves were set, about 1.5 had elapsed. At first try there wasn't enough there to even engage the the bendix. Waited about 10 minutes and gave it another try. Looking at everything there looked really good, the rocker rollers were centered on the stem things were moving freely and man was there a lot of compression coming out of those spark plug holes. Another thing that was desired was to turn the engine until the you could see oil coming out of the cam chest. That took about 1 minute as the oil was thick and everything was pretty bone dry. Once that was verified, then off to putting the cam cover back on took place.

After the cam cover was put on, it was time to move on to the rocker box covers. This is a straight forward reverse order install. Here is a look at the progress with the Rocker covers on....




After the boxes were put on then it was time to move to the exhaust. That was kind of a PITA as I couldn't remember exactly how it came off, meaning how the clamp attached to the frame. It was difficult and it was discovered that there was a different clamp that had been turned and it was hitting the cam cover. Once that clamp was turned, install was instant. Putting on this exhaust system requires two people, they are heavy.!!

After putting on the exhaust, it was time to get the intake manifold put on. This was pretty simple using the SE Intake wrench that I bought. That tool works really well. Here is a picture of the intake manifold installed.

NOTE! TIP! Before install of the manifold, take some white lithium grease and smear it on the head around the intake ports and also on the manifold where the gaskets go. This will make it easier to get the gaskets on and help ensure that the gaskets do not bind. Putting the grease around the intake port will also aid in the gaskets not binding as you will have to jostle the manifold around a bit. That worked really well.

Now I had the head port matched to the intake. I did not want any restriction there. As the manifold was installed, I looked inside the manifold and I tell you that my indy did an outstanding job, there was now metal from the head showing around the port. PERFECT TRANSITION!!

The carb was place on the manifold just for picture purposes but there was work that needed to be done there first before final install. That task was to get it converted to cruise control. Basic steps that were followed were thos given by Harleyslr in a previous thread. Swapped choke, a device similar to the EZ Just and the Chrome carb cover. Converting that carb was kind of a PITA. :witsend:

Here is a pic of the manifold and the carb.....

After the carb was converted and installed, the gas tank was put on so there was fuel available for start up. This is when there was a problem discovered. It was discovered that there wasn't any compression when the bike was turning over!!!:gah: Guess what it was???:gah: JohnnyBiker didn't clearance the rocker box covers and it was holding the valve open..:gah::gah: Don't ask me why I didn't get them done, I sure had long enough to get it done, but I dropped the ball. So, the only thing that could be done was to take them (rocker covers) off and start to grind. All that I have is a dremal. This was tedious. I didn't take any pictures of this process but here is a link to HTT from a thread that I started asking about rocker box clearancing. the link is to a company called TMan and his instructions of where and how to do the job..

http://tmanperformance.com/PDF/rocker.pdf

The modification was successful!!

NOTE!!! If for some reason you have to do this, make sure that you wash the rocker covers before reinstall and that is for obvious reasons. No, I didn't forget to do this, but I just thought it was important to mention.

Other than the small stuff that needed to be put back on the bike, the carb was the last major thing that needed to be done before start up. I did have to get new battery as the one that was in was bad, and I mean bad, I would hit the starter and the voltage dropped to 5 volts...:roflmao: My indy had one on hand and that was taken care of. New fuel line, new exhaust gaskets, new cross over line, and a new gravity fed pet **** were added.

Here is a start up video.........

Before I post this video, I wanted to say to Cardboard that you made a suggestion that I thought was totally stupid, until I sat down and really thought about it. Your suggestion was to fly my bike to a mechanic and let him put it back together, well, I kind of followed that advise, but I flew the mechanic to me.

CARDBOARD, thank you for being a friend and on making the suggestion that you did as it gave me an opportunity to meet someone that I have wanted to meet for a very long time. I also want to thank you for the encouragement that you have given through the process of this build. You have a heart of GOLD my friend. don't lose it!!

Here is the video. I hope that you all enjoy it. This concludes the major work that needed to be done. After this, it was taking it out and test riding it a little bit and then putting the MAP into the ignition. Please enjoy.


266_zps56a104d3.mp4 Video by WhipLash96 | Photobucket

Awesome JB:cheers:....sounds nasty...gonna give BP some of that snow to take home...:roflmao:

That was a fun project. To help out with tooooo fn cold . But i would do it again . You forget how easy you have it in a shop envoirment when you purchase every shop tool you need . And now you put yourself back to basics out in the home garage . It test your skills . Johnny boy was a kick ass student and knows his way around a bike well . When he would get stuck on something i would let him fight at it till he got it and it was very little stuff that he got hung up on . Awesome people and awesome family . The upper boxes was my oversight we were moving so fast at that point never even thought to check i had forgotten they were roller rockers . They were holding the exhaust valves ever so slight open we got it done . Glad i checked before the bike was all buttoned up that would have sucked! Thanks for letting me help bro . It was fun.

Watched this project for a while. Props to you Johnny for tearing into your bike like that, many don't. I'm not sure I would have a few years ago but a career change to an apprenticeship in millwrighting [at my age] has given me a new perspective handling tools so when the need arises I'll be better prepped. Your play by play was good as well, really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I thought it was pretty neat for BP to come up and give you a hand, can't beat that, it's what I like about this BB, lots of good folks here..cheers

Not sure that he wants it.:roflmao: On the first day our tornado alarms went off as there was an actual tornado warning in effect. The thing about this one is that it was snowing like a blizzard out. We got 10 inches that day. :gah::roflmao:

Having someone there to explain stuff to you goes a long ways. Thank you for agreeing to do it. You are a great person and a great friend to have. My family enjoyed your company and are looking forward to seeing you again in the near future. You are right, we did build this bike using hand tools.