What is the Best Cam for M8 114, 107, and 117?
Mike RoenWhat’s the best cam for M8 114, 107, and 117?
Our friend Mike Roen is getting prepared to take us, step by step, through the process of a S&S performance cam upgrade on this M8 Softail. Whether your bike has a 107, 114, or 117 cui motor, this procedure pertains to all M8 Harley Davidson motors—Touring and Softail.
Why try and find the best cam for M8 114, 107, 117? The main purpose for a cam upgrade is to gain more horsepower and torque but there are a number of other advantages. The hard facing on S&S 475 cam gear lobes and lifter roller surfaces is far superior to Harley Davidsons. The S&S lifter guide is a cast aluminum piece, as opposed to Harley Davidson’s stock plastic guide. Also, the S&S inner cam bearing is a full roller bearing, which is far more durable than the factory caged bearing.
The stock, solid pushrods will be cut out with bolt cutters in order to avoid the need removing the fuel tank and dismantling the rocker box assemblies. The stock pushrods will be replaced with the S&S Quickee adjustable pushrods. A high volume S&S oil pump is also available, but in this video we will be using the latest oil pump from Harley Davidson.
Service manual instructions give a number of measurements needed to set the correct depth of the cam bearing. We will be using a cam bearing installation tool from Jim’s Tools that sets the correct bearing depth without the need for measurements. Mike will also be using a specialty tool for locking the crank and cam gears together for loosening and tightening retaining hardware.
Follow along with Mike as he takes us through the procedures for a cam upgrade on the Milwaukee Eight. You decide if it’s the best cam for M8 114, 107, or 117.
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3 Responses to “What is the Best Cam for M8 114, 107, and 117?”
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An S&S 475 cam is not a good choice for a M8 107. The power does not come on until about 3,000 rpm. This means about 135km/h or 84m/h in 6th gear. This means you have to drop 2 gears to overtake a vehicle, resulting in losing cruise control settings everytime you overtake. The highway speed limit in Australia is 100km/h in most places and 110 in others, which equates to 2,390 rpm in 6th gear on a M8 107.
Bit of a mis titled video, no? While very informative and I got a lot of info from it, nowhere does it really state what the best cam for a M8 is, it mentions the difference between an S&S 475 and stock in terms of profile and that is the one being fitted, but is that the best? What about other profile options? How do they differ. Clearly application is a big component of Cam selection so one persons best is another persons less desired option, Would like to have seen more coverage of actual Cam options and how they differ.
Looks good