I have a 96 883 that I've got big plans for in the coming months.

What I'm wondering is which cams will fit in my cases? I've heard of "W" cams, "D" cams (which I guess my bike has), but will any other stock cams fit? Like from the tube frame Buells? I'm a college student and I'm trying to save a little money by going used. Any help is appreciated.

My first question is where are you going and how big are your plans?

"student?" Ouch. Guess you better do it right the first time.

Don't worry about cams until the heads get cleaned up.
A good port and polish will pay off big time later.

I agree with Sam, you need to really tell us your big plans before we can recommend a cam to fit your needs.

There are so many cam sets that fit Sportsters. But which one is right for you will depend on what the rest of your combination includes.

The Buell Cams you are talking about are the same as the Screamin Eagle .497" lift bolt in cams.

I had some Andrews V-4. Told they was the same as Buell.
But that's back when bikes had chains and 4 speeds..

where are you @ school just asking Im a student as well any ways How do you ride rpm wise what type of riding etc and what r woud mod plans

Well: NRHS 883-1200 kit, some kind of exhaust, Ram-Flo intake w/ rejet, clean up head (maybe stage 1, but I doubt it), and a 29T sprocket for starters.

I want bottom end and midrange power, not a screamer. I grew out of reving the piss out of engines when I got rid of all the rice rockets I used to have.

I'm a mechanical engineering student at UW Platteville. If I'm lucky, I can be done next spring.

The reason I'm wondering about cams is I have a line on some used S3 and X1 cams for a decent price and was wondering if I should jump on em'.

Do you know what compression ratio that Nallin's set up has? If it is 10:1 or more, you are going to want to go with a set of cams like the SE bolt in .497 (I think the S3's are teh ones that are the same as those, maybe Stevo or Nallins will confirm) I think the X1's are the 551" lift and that would be too large for what you are trying to do.

Why the 29t pulley? If you want low end and mid power, keep your 27t front pulley.

If that Nallin's kit is more like 9.5:1 or 9:1 compression, then I would highly recommend sticking with the stock D grind cams and at most the W grind ones or better yet a set of Andrews N2's.

For the way you described your riding style, I think you would be very happy with either of these combinations.

If you go with the 10:1 and 497 cams (S3), then you should consider a good pipe because of the liklihood of reversion. I found the Thunderheader was the trick with mine (that combination). A set of cycle shacks on the stock head pipes works fairly well too.

Our 883-1200 conversion kit is 10:1.

X1/S3 cams are SE bolt-ins, literally the same part number. .497 lift. The best bolt-ins you can get, IMO.

The XB's use the "E" grind, .551 lift, although the XB motor uses a slightly different version of them than the SE version.

.497's are a good match for Stage 1 on the heads.

Good luck and let us know if we can help.

I knew Nallins would come to my rescue:)

Ooooopppps I read X1 and was thinking XB, sorry.

I cant do anything serious until this school work quits kicking my ass six ways from Sunday, which'll be over easter. Then I'm planning on ripping the top end off the bike and taking care of business. It's way too cold to be riding here anyway, so I got lots of time.

For now tho, should I swoop up on those cams? I dont want to go over stage 1 on the heads, at least now anyway.

I want the 29T sprocket because I want to spread out that low end power over a slightly wider RPM range. I also want lower crusing RPM's as well, and that's a cheap way to do it.

About the pipes, I was gonna go cycleshacks, and remove the crossover. I'm a decent welder, so I can patch the holes, then wrap the works in headerwrap.


Edit: So those Buell cams will bolt right in? What about this pinion gear I've heard about? Are we cool there as well?

You are kinda fighting your own goal of increasing the low and mid range power by wanting to go to the 1200 gearing and by taking that crossoever out of the pipes.

Cams? Well I would pick up the cams S3 or X1 like you mentioned. I really like how they work in my 10:1 compression engine with stock 883 heads. Granted, I could get more power out of it if I were to have Nallins do the stage 2 porting on the heads, but that just isn't an option right now.

I mainly want the 29T cause I'm heading out west this summer and want to keep the revs as low as possible and still pull a comfy 75mph. I'll keep the 27, in fact, probally change it right back after the trip.

Why would the crossover removal be a bad idea? Most, if not all the 2 into 2 exhausts have no crossover. I just want to get it out of the way.

The crossover, placed correctly, actually balances the exhaust and helps in scavenging.

If that's the case, then why do most aftermarket systems not have the crossover?

:shhhh I'm going to let you in on a little secret.:shhhh

Not all Exhaust Manufacturers build exhaust systems for performance only. Some even build them to just look cool or unique and could care less how they perform. Some just bend some pipe into different configurations, put some fancy end cut on them, chrome em, box em and sell em:wonderlan

Now get this.....people buy them:doh

:roflblack :roflblack :roflblack

So those Buell cams will bolt right in? What about this pinion gear I've heard about? Are we cool there as well?

In 2000, HD made a change to the pinion gear and the matching gear on the #2 cam. This change applied to all Sportsters and Buells. They went to a new tooth cut and finer pitch to eliminate the fitting of this connection.

In 2001, they propogated this change to all the other cam gear teeth as well.

The bottom line is that you can put 91-99 cams into an 00-up motor so long as you use a 91-99 pinion gear. Likewise you can put 00-up cams into a 91-99 motor so long as you use an 00-up pinion gear.

SE bolt-ins are available in either style. Part number 25648-91 for the 91-99's, and part number 25648-01 for the 00-up style.

They were stock in Buell S1, S3, and X1 models. Buell S2's and M2's came with regular "D" cams.

I have it on good authority that they literally are the same grind as the Andrews N4.

A big part of your result is going to be your exhaust system, especially with the additional overlap of these cams. Overlap connects the exhaust system to the intake tract and as such gives the exhaust system a huge amount of influence over intake flow.

That can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on whether the pipe is pulling or pushing as the motor passes through overlap. A pipe that's pulling during overlap will help cylinder fill and thus create more torque. A pipe that's pushing back during overlap will hurt cylinder fill, cause a fog out the mouth of the carb, cause the air/fuel to go rich, and cause a drop in torque.

Whether the pipe is pushing or pulling during overlap is largely a function of the pressure waves travelling up and down the pipe and how they're timed. What you want to do is time a negative pressure wave to arrive at the chamber during overlap, thus pulling on the carb and getting the intake flow moving before the piston even starts going down.

But the pressure waves in the pipe travel at a pretty constant speed regardless of the rpm of the engine. So a wave timed correctly for one rpm is timed wrong for another rpm. That's why torque curves are rarely flat.

A good street exhaust diffuses the negative wave, thus allowing it to arrive at the chamber during overlap over a much wider rpm range. The holy grail is a wide, parabolic torque curve.

A good race exhaust concentrates the wave at the rpm of interest, generally up high. You get a lot of cylinder fill over a narrow range and give it up everywhere else.

Bottom line, look at torque curves generated by various exhaust systems. The torque curve is a picture of the cylinder fill. Pick the exhaust that fills the cylinder at the rpm you care about.

If your pipe is fighting you at the rpm you care about, you're much better off with the stock cams. They have very little overlap and thus mitigate the effects of a reverting exhaust system.

Now THAT is the answer I was looking for.

Am I to assume the "W" cams in the 1200 Sport have the same style of overlap as the "D" cams on account of them being a stock cam? I've read that they are similiar to the N2's, but the N2's have more overlap.

This is really good info. Thanks a bunch.

Try these links:

http://www.nrhsperformance.com/tech.shtml

http://www.nrhsperformance.com/tech_camshafts.shtml

http://www.nrhsperformance.com/tech_xlcaminstall.shtml