camel back heads?

[Christian Nelson]

Well, the lopey idle sounds cool, ask any Harley rider why they chose Harley, it isn't because of the reliability, or the smooth ride, or even the crazy drag racing times..

That said, my whole point of this was how to do it without having adverse effect on drivability, ruining engine would not be in the plus column.

You ever hear guys idling harley bikes really low, and lopey? Well, as cool as it sounds, most are idling way too low to be providing adequate oil flow, but that doesn't stop them.

I have to actually be able to work on my truck and fix the body, and make it go long before any of this is even considered anyway.. We just got almost 2 feet of snow dumped on us yesterday, and more coming today, and a whole day with no power or phone and 2 feet of snow doesn't leave much for working on my poor old truck. Thing's been buried literally since soe time in October! Why do I live in this frozen tundra, with salt all over the roads rotting my poor cars and trucks to bits????

 

[woodsrider250]

Harleys don't sound that way due to the camshaft(s) profile. It's the crank timing.

 

[HotRodPC]

Well, the lopey idle sounds cool, ask any Harley rider why they chose Harley, it isn't because of the reliability, or the smooth ride, or even the crazy drag racing times..

That said, my whole point of this was how to do it without having adverse effect on drivability, ruining engine would not be in the plus column.

You ever hear guys idling harley bikes really low, and lopey? Well, as cool as it sounds, most are idling way too low to be providing adequate oil flow, but that doesn't stop them.

I have to actually be able to work on my truck and fix the body, and make it go long before any of this is even considered anyway.. We just got almost 2 feet of snow dumped on us yesterday, and more coming today, and a whole day with no power or phone and 2 feet of snow doesn't leave much for working on my poor old truck. Thing's been buried literally since soe time in October! Why do I live in this frozen tundra, with salt all over the roads rotting my poor cars and trucks to bits????

Ehhhh, I don't think Harley riders buy Harley for Lopey idle either. Nostalgia and Americana is why MOST will buy a Harley. And we all know it's for sure NOT reliability. The **** by far have Harley beat on reliability and so do the You'reAPeeins.

 

[Christian Nelson]

Ehhhh, I don't think Harley riders buy Harley for Lopey idle either. Nostalgia and Americana is why MOST will buy a Harley. And we all know it's for sure NOT reliability. The **** by far have Harley beat on reliability and so do the You'reAPeeins.

Well, Harley wouldn't have gone to all the trouble to try to patent the "sound" and sue Honda when they came out with a single crankpin Vtwin, and Polaris came out with their bike that had that distinctive potato potato potato sound. Very well documented large reason for people liking the Harley, and why for example the VROD sells so abysmally (it doesn't sound like a Harley) even though it is the highest horsepower engine Harley makes.

Not trying to pick a fight, but to deny the fact that a lot of people desire a certain sound is silly. I mean, we could all ditch our V8's and throw Turbo charged Vortec V6's in our trucks, get better gasmileage, with little to no horse power loss.. But, we would lose the nice sound of the V8..

Harleys get their sound from 45 dgree Vtwin sharing a single crankpin. You can get nicer lope from true dual exhaust on a V8, and camming it up. But it'd be nice to not loose the dirvability.

I'll admit, I like the sound of a rambunctious cam, I really do, but not enough to sacrifice gasmmileage, and drivability is all. To me, best of both worlds would be having that rambunctious idle, with no other ill effects.

I agree that one can get better drag racing times with smoother sounding stuff, and further that a sleeper would be more successful betting drag race setup. But, since I am not drag racing, I don't make wagers, and I just want my truck to drive, and get reasonable gasmileage, the sound would be last on my list, but something nice I would enjoy to have, just because.

If Harley guys didn't care about how their bikes sound, why to so many run straight pipes, so everyone can hear them miles away? I mean, I get it, I understand, I like certain sounds, and I even really like the sound of a harley too. I love the sound of totally modified mud trucks with blowers and nitro, with the straight headers. I like when they are idling, and when they crack her wide, and shower everyone with mud as they blast through the shot..

You simply cannot deny that the sound is part of the fun!

 

[Christian Nelson]

For example, as annoying as I find them personally, I even understand the silly fart can mufflers on the Hondas and Toyotas I see running around.

They don't perform any better, but to the kid driving the thing, it's the closest thing he can get to feeling like he's got a sports car.

For me, the closest thing I would ever get to being able to drive a rumbling monster of a drag racing car, would be if I could get my truck to idle like one..

UNless I upgrade to EFI, and run a chip with that idle program on it, I probably won't be able to anyways.

 

[HotRodPC]

For me the closest thing to happiness is nice quiet, water glass smooth idle and some loud ass idiot at a light reving his motor like he's got some bad ass machine trying to taunt me into a race, Then when I see the cross traffic yellow light, I stall my motor to 2000 rpm waiting for my green and blow his fuggin doors by several car lengths. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT. Then at the next light, I get accused of having NOS. That's when I say NOS Is for *******.

Another good example, listen to a Mustang GT or a Cobra Mustang. They SOUND badass as hell and loud. Put it up against a Vette. I'll admit, I think Mustang GT's are about the best sounding production car on the market. Nice deep throaty sound.

 

[crazy4offroad]

Wasn't there a certain year vette cam you could buy and put in your SBC, like a '74 or something, that has a nice rough idle and improved top end? I think they called it a 3/4 cam or something. A buddy of mine had what he called a "3/4 vette cam" in his El Camino and that thing sounded great, and ran like a scalded dog. I figure you could take a stock engine with good compression, put a pair of vortecs that had a 1 degree deck job to cut the chambers closer to 60cc to really bump the CR and have the Z-28 valve springs installed, put that cam in it and have a real head turner. If a stock engine has around 8:1 the 1 degree decked vortecs would probably push it up there around 9.5:1 or 10:1 going from a what, 72 or 74cc stock head to around 60cc?

 

[HotRodPC]

3/4 Cam Term is actually a term used in the 60's, probably early to mid 60's. You didn't hear much of it by the mid to late 70's. Usually a term someone might use to sound impressive now days but isn't. It was indeed a Chevy SBC cam and usually used in the 325-350hp 327's and 350's.

The problem with today is the advancement in technology. Even current cam grinders don't grind cams like they did in the 60's and 70's because they've found different grinds work better. Things like Lobe Center Angles, valve timing efficiency, multi spec cams like where the intake valve lift and duration is different than the exhaust valve spec where as used to, it was more common to see the intake and exhuast valve with the same spec which made sense. This much air in, this much air out. Just like everyone used to think bigger valves are better. Yes they are, but better for what??? Better for top end ONLY, but then you suck ass on the bottom end. And what good does a big valve do you if you don't have big enough ports to move the air and fuel? You come to a point where you're just changing the bottle neck is all you're doing, but the bottle neck is still there if that makes sense. You can do things like use small valve heads, higher lift cams, lower duration, and/or higher ratio rockers arms to gain more lift out of a cam, and compensate for that smaller valve by holding the valve open a hair longer but keep all your bottom end. You can also dial your cam in, which is not even necessary today since cam grinders just grind the cam to do what you want in the first place so it makes setting the cam in timed straight up dot to dot so simple and get the performance you're looking for. The sky is the limit on cam grinds these days. Hardest thing about going fast today in an old school motor is the pump gas we get. Todays cars go fast on pump gas too, but it's compensated for by using electronics and technology, like weight reduction on the rotating assembly, less friction like roller cams and roller valve trains.