I've been having a bit of oil leaking on my motor (oil pump, rear rocker/base, starter and primary) so I picked up a complete gasket set on Ebay for little moneys. I plan to pretty much take the motor down enough to replace both base gaskets and rocker boxes, replace oil pump and gaskets and primary.
While I'm at it I hate to put back together a stock motor. First thing I want to do is an automatic primary chain tensioner (lazy) and I've been thinking about doing a cam or maybe a HC piston set.
I'll be doing most if not all of the work myself and am going to be on a budget with it.
Anyone have suggestions for any of the above? Any tensioners that work better than others. Cams, (what ones) vs HC piston? Its a daily ridden bike so nothing so wild that it takes race fuel.
High compression pistons? Isn't the motor all ready high compression? I don't think i'd up the compression ratio on an air cooled engine like this one.
I would replace the oil pump drive gear with the new and improved gear available from your Buell dealer. I would make sure that the oil was not leaking from your cam cover "that's where mine was leaking" If you change the cams mentioned you will need that gasket anyway. I have the 567 cam set from Zippers Performance.com and I run 93 octane. The guys there are awesome!! Adjustable pushrods are also a plus!!! I guess I don't have to mention a service manual right??? Good Luck!!!
Vortec- First, make sure you're using Cometic (or equivalent) gaskets. No matter how good a deal you got on ebay, you don't want to install them if they're gonna be leaking again in a year or two. Second- I don't think there is a decent auto primary chain tensioner available. IIRC, the only one produced (Hayden M6) was universally declared to be a POS by those that tried it, at least according to posts here.
Thanks guys. The gasket set is genuine HD set so I'm not too worried about quality. I've got my service manual, and i work with a bunch of certified HD master techs, so no worries there. Bama, any specs on them zipper cams? Right now with my pipe setup the bike really comes alive at 4500rpm, i wouldnt mind if it hit a little earlier even.
Actually the motor is quite low on compression. I think a stock Buell motor is only around 10:1 compression. When you compare that to a Japanese in-line which is usually around 13:1 or better, you see the difference. A slight bump in compression on an XB isn't a bad thing.
When it's time to tear down my bike (60K miles, so maybe next year) I was thinking of getting a 1050 kit. Send the heads down to Cycle Rama for a re-work. Nothing fancy, just "freshen" the up a bit, Stage 2 at the most. Oil pump drive gear is a no brainer. Get it all together, and get the ECM tuned. Definitely get a nice rear shock. Fork cartridges. Tires. Track. Tires. Track. Tires...
If you are going to have the motor apart, SERIOUSLY consider putting the 2008 flywheels and bottom end into it. A bit pricier but more abuse-tolerant: Much more beef... but whoever does the machining, ask them to put the static timing mark on the flywheel (trust me, if not, you're going to have to set TDC with a degree wheel or a stick down the plug hole - a pain either way) The 2008 crank doesn't need static timing any longer so doesn't have the mark.
Having an 08 flywheel/crank lightened and balanced, lighter pistons - will give you a surprising amount of throttle response where you really need it.
(Message edited by slaughter on November 18, 2008)