Evo mods

the urgency on the oil leak is dependent on you!! keep enough oil in it and dont mind the mess........ride on
if your wondering why it is leaking it may be due to the fact that the engine was not warmed up before riding it....the major cause of base gaskets leaking is due to this. injected engines see it more, because they will run their ass off right out of the garage, a carbed engine has to warm up or it wont run correctly.
you will have to do a bit of work to the heads/pistons to get the compression up a bit....one way is by shaving, the other is changing pistons. as far as parts.....there are going to be as many different answers as there are responces. try to stay with quality parts, and deal with reputable vendors and you will not go wrong.....customer service is first in this area.
chuck

Depends if it's weeping a bit of oil it's not too bad, it needs to be attended to at some point and the longer you leave it the worse it will get.

James Gaskets makes good gaskets for HD's I think there is a metal base gasket set, CD here can set you up with the gaskets etc

As for performance you can only do so much with an evo before you have to start machine work. It's not like you can raise displacment easy like a TC with new cylinders and pistons.

I would look to drop in a new cam, Kuryakyn has the Wild Things cams which are getting pretty good reviews, or an ANdrews EV-27 would be a good mild street cam.

When you have the heads off you should consider taking them to a good reputable local shop and having them worked on, polish the exhaust and a little "street port" clean things up remove casting improve flow so the motor can take advange of the new cams. Plus better valve springs to handle the new lift of the cam as the old springs have some miles on them,

A set of adjustable pushrods, thinner head gaskets to raise compression a tic and you should be good to go,

If it is EFI you'll need a powercommander
if it is Carb you'll need to tune the carb and an ignition upgrade to handle the spark, a Crane Hi-4 for the nose cone is nice, it is adjustable for timing etc A bolt in replacement.

Pipes and air filter will make it all work,

That bike will feel brand new and run a lot better you'd be amazed what 15 or so HP increase at a min will do to a 45 HP motor, now you'll have loads more tq and 60 HP+ maybe closer to 70. Depends on where you baseline.

It should be very reliable with a cam change, some clean up, new gaskets and tuning. ANd safer, more power on a bike makes the bike safer JMO

Because my wife now believes it and it lets me by high power parts LOL

Actually if you have a bike that weighs in at 800 pounds like a dresser, drop on a normal 200+ pound rider and a 100 pound spouse, add some tools, luggage, etc we're pulling close to 1200 pounds.

Now here we have a stock 56 HP motor with 70 tq pulling 1200 pounds on the freeway, it runs good but you go to pass, and find in the middle of the pass you need more power to be past the point or you'll get into a curve, car, moose whatever.

With a 95 inch hop up, some cams head work maybe you'll be pulling 88HP and 100 tq, so where you're at full throttle and nothing more to help, the bigger motor is just at 60% of power capacity, it can accelerate faster better and pull more weight.

Sometimes the reason to get out of trouble requires throttle not brake and having extra at your disposal is a good thing.

So JMO having more power is a good thing. and IMHO stock HD's are underpowered, especially evos from the factory, they are not bad but again it's not my cup of tea to be stock. I like to know I have more in the wrist when passing than I need.

i agree with hrk statment.....more power is safer......and he stated good reasons to have the power. that said, you have to know when and when not to use it!!!
chuck