S&S Cycle 106ci Hot Set Up Kit – From 88CI To 106CI With S&S Cycle
1. Here are most of the parts awaiting installation: S&S; true stroker flywheel, heads, gear drive cams set with 585 T cams, pushrods and tubes, lifters, pistons, rocker boxes, throttle body, VFI kit, and all the gaskets and seals.
2. By the time we got to the shop, Bob and Eric had already pulled the motor, tore it down and split the cases. Since the bike didn’t run we were unable to get a base- line dyno run, however the last time we had work done (exhaust tuning), the bike was pushing 72 hp and 82 lb-ft of torque.
3. Eric had the cases split and the stock flywheel removed and set aside. After cleaning and inspection Eric checked the S&S; stroker flywheel assembly for balance. All S&S; flywheel assemblies are dynamically balanced before leaving the factory and trued to a tolerance of .0005 inch. However Eric checks every shipped part before installing them. The good thing is the flywheels were within S&S; specs.
4. Next, Eric installed the Timken bearing onto the left side sprocket shaft using the S&S; bearing and seal installation tool.
5. After Bob thoroughly cleaned the engine cases, he passed them off to Eric where he took the left-hand side case and slipped it over the sprocket shaft and installed the bearing and seal.
6. Before moving on with the build, Eric placed one of the pistons onto the flywheel rods to check for piston skirt clearance. By rotating the flywheels, he could see that the piston had plenty of room and would not hit anything.
7. On the inside of the cam side case, Eric installed a set of S&S; piston oilers.
8. Here you can see the small oil port hole (arrow). As the oil is getting pumped through the motor it also gets sent up through the case and out the oilers to the bottom of the piston with every stroke helping lower the temp of the piston.
9. Next, Eric installed the inner cam bearings.
10. This job was made easy with the help of the JIMS cam bearing installation tool. This is the best way to insure that both bearings were installed properly.
11. Again, Eric checked for clearance. Here he checked the cam lobes to case clearance (arrow) before moving on.
12. Next, Eric cleaned the edge of the case then used Three-bond 1104 liquid gasket between the case halves to keep them sealed and prevent leaks.
13. After, Eric slid the right side case over the pinion shaft, then placed the case assembly in an engine vise before torqueing the case bolts to factory spec.
14. The oil pump was next. This kit does not include a new oil pump. Since we are building a hopped up motor we might as well hop-up the oil pump. We called the guys at Feuling, and told them what we were doing and the next day we had a Feuling High-Volume pump in hand, along with a new Feuling cam-plate. Here Eric placed the O-ring on the case to pump port with a bit of grease to slide into the case without damaging the O-ring (Arrow).
15. With the pump housing in place, Eric installed the back (first) O-ring followed by the scavenger rotor, the separator plate, the wave washer, one more separator plate, then the oil pump feed rotor. Then, by hand, Eric spun the pump to make sure that all the parts moved free and easy.
16. The next thing Eric needed to do was assemble the cam plate. First the bearings were pressed into the plate, then the bearing retainer plate was bolted to the cam plate.
17. Here is the S&S; Twin-Cam gear drive set and the new S&S; 585 T cams. According to S&S;, these cams are designed to get more airflow for more power. Also in this kit was a set of new S&S; hydraulic lifters and hardware.
18. The 585 T cams were lined up by their timing marks on the inside of the cam. Then with the help of the JIMS cam press plate tool, both cams were pressed into the cam support plate.
19. The cam plate was placed into the case, bolted up and torqued to 90 in-lb. Then the timing marks for the gears were aligned and the gears were bolted in place. Then Eric rotated the flywheels to make sure everything was right before he could move on to the next part.
20. Next, the hydraulic lifters were treated to an oil bath then installed into the case followed by the lifter blocks. Before using new lifters, it’s always a good idea to make sure they are filled with oil; this helps oil flow at start up and the adjustment of the pushrods.
21. As Eric was assembling the lower-end, Bob was boring the stock cylinders to fit the new .010 over S&S; pistons. First he needed to get a measurement of each piston, and then transfer that info to the cylinder using a micrometer and a bore gauge in order to see how much material needed to be removed from each cylinder.
22. Once Bob had the measurement, a torque plate was installed onto the cylinder, then placed in the boring machine.
23. Here Bob is setting the amount of material to be removed from the cylinder by measuring how deep to cut. What he is after is to only cut a small amount at a time, then use a set of honing stones to finish the job. Cut too much and we will have sloppy piston fit and weak compression.
24. Then the fresh cut cylinders were placed into the honing machine where Bob took down the last .002-inch
25. Here are the 3 7/8 S&S; .010 over flat top pistons, rings, and piston wrist pins.
26. Bob checked the ring end-gap before installing the rings onto to the pistons.
27. Eric took over and installed the rings to the pistons and slid the pistons into the cylinders. Next he placed the cylinder onto the studs, then installed the wrist pins and slid the cylinder the rest of the way down the cylinder studs.
28. At this time Eric temporarily bolted the cylinder down and checked the piston to head clearance. As he turned the motor over by hand he could see that there was no gap between the two: this is a good sign of getting the 9.8:1 compression.
29. This is where we will pick up the build next month. We plan to install the top-end, build the EFI Induction kit, and install the VFI module closed-loop system and exhaust.
It sucks getting old, but no matter how you look at it, we’re all getting older with every day that passes. The same goes for our bikes, with every mile we add to the odometer the older that motor may start to feel. Unlike us, an old motor, however, can get a new look on life with a rebuild.
In the case of this bike, an ’02 H-D Road King with about 22,000 miles, it was too late to be saved. The sad thing was the owner (Uncle Vic) knew he needed to check on the cam chain tensioners before a trip he had planned, but he ran out of time and headed out anyway thinking, “I can get a few more miles out of her, she’s been running so good.” About 1,100 miles into the trip, the bike started running hot and was getting real noisy so Vic pulled over and checked everything he could on the side of the road.
Vic got a tow into the next town to a H-D shop and asked to borrow a few tools. He found that the noise was coming from the cam area and the oil pump was not pushing good oil pressure. After further inspection Vic found a list of problems due to weak oil flow. He had to cut the trip short and get the bike back to Los Angeles.
Vic took the bike over to Bennett’s Performance in Signal Hill, California, to get some help from Bob and Eric Bennett, the guys who know and work on all things Harley, from the everyday rider to the fastest bikes on the salt. With the bike on the operating table the Bennetts tore into it and found small pieces of cam chain tensioner pad in the oil bag as well as the top end and filter. Then they pulled the heads and found piston and valve damage. It was at that time Vic started to ask himself what his options were. It just made sense to rebuild what he had and increase the displacement and bring new technology to the bike. What Vic found for the money was the S&S; 106ci Hot Set Up kit.
The S&S; 106ci Hot Set Up kit is available for 88ci and 96ci motors and allows you to build a 106ci TC motor. The 106ci Stroker Kit is a great upgrade because you save money by using your stock cylinders and you don’t have to pay for any crankcase modifications. The heart of the kit is the 4 1/2 inch stroke flywheels together with 3 7/8 inch bore, forged 9.8:1 pistons (purchased separately). The kit includes high flowing S&S; Super Stock heads, 585 T cams, rocker covers, S&S; electronic compression releases, chrome molly pushrods, and all the gaskets and seals.
The 106ci Hot Set Up Kit is offered in natural or black finish, Vic ordered the black kit ($4,080), as well as a set of .010 over pistons and rings ($299.95). S&S; offers pistons in standard and multiple oversize options to fit your build.
After getting off the phone with the tech team at S&S;, Vic decided to go with S&S;’ Single Bore EFI Induction kit with Teardrop air cleaner ($954.95) and the Variable Fuel Injection (VFI) module ($599.95) to get the most out of the hop up and bring the tuning of the bike more up to date with a closed loop system. We plan to cover this build over the next few issues so we can go into detail and explain how the VFI system works. Let’s get started on installing the S&S; 106ci Hot Set Up kit.
