What is the Best Cam for M8 114, 107, and 117?

Welcome back, everybody, I'm Mike Roen of Fix My Hog. In this video today, we're gonna be upgrading this Milwaukee-Eight with an S&S 475 cam. We've had a good relationship with S&S. As usual, another quality product. This cam really responds really well in the Milwaukee-Eight. The other nice thing about this video today is with the Milwaukee-Eight, it really doesn't matter on your configuration. This bike's actually a 114 cubic-inch. This same procedure's gonna apply to the 107, 114, 117, touring model, Softail, so it's pretty much gonna cover all the bases on whatever model you have for a Milwaukee-Eight. Along with the cam upgrade, there's a lot of other things we're gonna be doing with the motorcycle. Like I always say, get a notepad, get a paper. There's gonna be special tools, parts you're gonna want, so when you start your project, you can go from head to toe without any interruptions. Let's go over some of the stuff we're gonna be doing with the motorcycle today. Like I mentioned, 475 cam works really well. We got a lot of dyno time with this cam. If you were to look at the factory cam, here's what Harley's tied to. They gotta pass emissions. Basically, the motorcycle runs, everybody's happy. If you look at these lobes, you can just see, they'll get a close-up of that for you. I'll just point it out. You just look at the profile of that lobe, and now look at the stock profile here. You can see on each lobe, it's pretty dramatic difference. And of course the lift; this 475 lift, stock lift, very anemic. Along with that, the hard-facing quality on an S&S cam, much better for longevity on your motorcycle. The hard-facing on the OEM cam, typically on a high-mileage bike, it gets to be an issue. Another nice little bonus if you're going in there. Also on the M8s, they came up with this Teflon or plastic little lifter guide. Really, what it does is it keeps the lifter from rotating. It sits in a motorcycle like this and it's going up and down in there. What S&S did, they saw that was gonna be an issue, so they come up with this billet aluminum guides. So now it's not gonna wear out. It's just a nice little upgrade that we're recommending you do when you're in there. Basically, free labor at that point. Of course, if you've done any research at all, the quality of the factory lifter is not very desirable. Every manufacturer out in this world is trying to chase nickels, and this is probably one place they shouldn't do it. But if we can get a close-up of this, you'll see the hard-facing's coming off this lifter. This lifter's only got 20,000 miles on it and that's really not acceptable. There again, S&S makes a good-quality lifter with good hard-facing. Free labor; when you're in there, if your motorcycle, I don't care if it's brand-new. Just go ahead and ditch the factory lifters and put in a quality lifter. The other thing we'll be doing, and S&S sells this also. It's part of the cam kit. The inner cam bearing, same as the twin cam. If you've had a twin cam or you've looked back at our other videos, we always update the inner cam bearing. If you look at this bearing, I'll just hold that so you can get a shot of that, it's a caged bearing. Typically, on high-mileage motorcycles, we can see this deteriorate. What we've updated it to is a full roller bearing. It's costs two bucks more than the stock bearing. It's kind of a no-brainer. Needs a special tool to do it, so we're gonna go over that as well. Adjustable push-rods; on this motorcycle, we're gonna cut the stock push-rods. That way, we don't gotta take the rocker box or the gas tank off. Just makes it a lot nicer and quicker, especially if you have a touring model that's liquid-cooled. Even this model's kind of a pain in the butt 'cause it's got these oil lines running across the rocker box, and it's not very easy. Adjustable quickie push-rods from S&S. They go in quick. That's the whole idea. I don't know if you're aware of this, but Harley's got a superseded part number on the oil pump. What we're gonna do for the cost of 150 bucks, we're gonna put the new latest and greatest oil pump in from Harley. If you choose so, S&S offers a high-volume oil pump. Promotes more scavenging, more oil pressure. It's a good option if you got the money. Here's that cam tool I was talking about. When you do the inner cam bearing, you're gonna need a special tool. I've got the one from JIMS; works really well. There's a whole procedure on how to put the cam bearing into the right depth. If you got the JIMS tool, you don't gotta worry about the spec. This tool, when you install it with it, sets it to spec, so that's a nice thing. The Kent-Moore tool is probably more expensive and probably harder to get. You would have to probably buy it through a Harley dealer, I'm assuming. Anyway, that's something; like I said, get your notepad, start writing down the tools you're gonna need. In reality, this bearing, if you wanted to maybe not do this process, you could probably milk it out 40,000 miles on your bike and not put the cam bearing in. But if you're in there, suck it up. Maybe take it to a dealership, have them put the cam bearing in, something like that. Or all your buddies pool together, buy the tool. If you're in a club, everybody shares it. Kinda helps it. When you're done, you sell it. Let's take a look here. The other nice thing about this kit; comes with pretty detailed instructions from S&S. It holds your hand the whole way through. You get a nice instruction for the cam, the push-rods, and then lifter cups. We're gonna be doing that all today. Manual; it's always nice to have a manual, to refer to that for your torque specs, and just to help you walk through it. Take a peek at my notes here, see if we're going everything. Obviously, you're gonna need something to cut push-rods. Bolt cutters the way to go. You don't wanna use a hacksaw or cut-off wheel, make a big mess. Does a good clean job. One other little special tool you're gonna be needing. This is actually from Harley, Kent-Moore. It's a locking tool. What that's gonna do is when we have the cam cover off, that's gonna lock the crank-shaft and the cam shaft so we can de-torque and torque the cam and crank-shaft bolts. Put that on your notepad. That's gonna be something you're gonna wanna have also. There again, obviously, give yourself plenty of time before you start a project like this. Let's go ahead and dive in.