Harley Power, Edelbrock Style
Edelbrock’s EFI package has the go-fast goodies needed to turn your EFI-equipped Twin Cam motor into a 95-inch fire-breather. You supply the bike (in this pic, an ’02 Softail Deuce), and the motor gurus at Edelbrock have done the rest. Included are heads, cams, pistons, manifold, pushrods, an air cleaner, gaskets, and an EFI calibration CD-ROM.
As with any high-performance motor setup, the cylinder heads are the heart (or the lungs, in this case) of the powerplant. The volume of air the motor can get in and out dictates how much power can be made. But, the speed of the incoming air is just as important. High-velocity airflow through the ports in the heads leads to better acceleration, improved midrange, and great throttle response. These Edelbrock CNC-ported aluminum heads, which come in black, gray, polished, or natural finish, have NASCAR-racing-inspired rectangular-shaped intake ports and ‘D’-shaped exhaust ports. The purpose of the rectangular port is to create a smooth, laminar flow for the incoming air/fuel mixture, leading to a more evenly atomized mixture. The intake manifold has matching rectangular ports to maximize airflow. The interior of the heads uses a compact, diagonal quench combustion chamber which provides better squish and increased chamber turbulence, leading to highly efficient combustion, while preventing motor-killing detonation/pinging. All of this together yields a motor that produces a flat torque curve from idle all the way to redline. The best part as a rider is you can actually feel the technology — power where you want it, when you want it.
Included in the package is a set of forged Edelbrock/JE pistons, rings, wristpins, and circlips. The pistons are designed to match the unique combustion chamber of the heads. The pistons, static compression ratio is 10.25:1.
Edelbrock designed a pair of cams (available in chain- or gear-drive) to take advantage of the airflow and power capabilities of the cylinder head/piston combination. With 0.619-inch lift, short duration, and only 44 degrees of camshaft overlap, these cams deliver power across the whole rev-band. The motor pulls strong from off-idle all the way to the 6K redline. In designing this package, Edelbrock wanted to emphasize a flat torque curve combined with high horsepower — the riding fun-factor as opposed to just high horsepower bragging numbers. This translates to better acceleration with less downshifting. In addition, adjustable steel pushrods come with the package along with all the necessary gaskets for the upgrade.
Here is the 8-inch high flow, washable air cleaner along with the CD-ROM that includes specific fuel calibrations for the most popular aftermarket exhaust systems. This is where the Edelbrock crew has really set itself apart from the rest of the industry. Using the Screamin’ Eagle EFI Race Tuner (not included) and a Superflow Load Dyno, the crew (including NHRA funny car driver and builder Dale Pulde and Jason Hooker) mapped the air/fuel requirements for the motor across the entire rpm range with each set of pipes on the bike. They used exhaust gas analysis (measured close to the head) in both the front and rear cylinder to calculate what the optimum fuel requirements were. This yielded the highest possible combustion efficiency for each cylinder of the motor that’s easy to start, gets good gas mileage, doesn’t ping, has no flat spots or hesitation, and no popping from the exhaust on deceleration. Future exhaust mappings will be available for download from the Edelbrock website.
Edelbrock provided dyno sheets for an assortment of pipes tested but we wanted to see for ourselves firsthand how well the package performed. So, Pomona Valley Harley-Davidson/Buell ran the Edelbrock EFI-equipped Softail Deuce on its dyno. This dyno chart is of the bike with Cycle Shack 2-inch, 2-into-2 pipes (240SS, with baffles). We were happy to see that the power came in at 106.6 hp with maximum torque of 101.6 lb-ft, with the curve being nice and flat. These numbers were actually better than the dyno chart Edelbrock provided us. Results will depend on which exhaust system you use.
We were excited when Edelbrock’s Carol Yohe and Design Engineer Rod Sokoloski contacted us to try out the company’s new 95-inch Twin Cam EFI package. The Power Package kits are designed for ’01-and-later Softails, ’04 Dynas, and ’02-to-present touring Harleys which came stock with EFI. It uses the stock throttle body, injectors, and Delphi ECU.
The goal of Edelbrock was to build a motor that was fun to ride at any rpm with tons of acceleration. They achieved this with a matched component package that emphasizes a flat torque curve — not just big horsepower numbers high in the rev band where many of us never ride. This isn’t as easy as it sounds due to the inherent complexities of tuning a fuel-injected motor. A computer within the bike controls air and fuel requirements that are dictated by what components are on the bike, such as the cams, pipes, and air cleaner used. Changing any of these will decrease the effectiveness of the factory-programmed fuel curves. This usually results in poor drivability due to the altered demands of the motor. Many spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on dynos trying to dial in their EFI bikes to get them to run right. Edelbrock has done the work for you with its motor package that includes maps for the most popular pipes (more than 10 varieties as of press time) in the industry. Edelbrock has painstakingly dyno’d each pipe on the different model platforms to come up with the best program to determine the air and fuel requirements of the motor. In the end, this saves you time, money, and lots of grief. After a couple thousand miles on its bike, it was still bringing smiles to our staff’s faces.
