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Motor heat

3121 Views 31 Replies 19 Participants Last post by  MotoJockey
I hear that my 2003 Harley Davidson 88B twin cam motor produces unbearable heat especially from the rear cylinder head. Is that true? Does anyone here have a product or solution that reduces the heat hitting the driver‘s thigh to make it more bearable?
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I don't know...we ride motorcycles.....heat is par for the course...deal with it or by a moped. Or put on thick jeans like Levi's.
U R Right....or ride faster, been riding for over 60 years and haven't fried my nuts yet.....
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There are air deflectors from Harley and other aftermarket manufacturers for just that purpose. I think they are model specific, not motor specific so I guess it depends on what your 88B is set in.
88B (balance) will be in Soft tails. The A motors ( no balancer) are in Dynas and touring bikes. I remember when people stared complaining about heat. When Harley brought out the 96". Bigger engine, more heat. My old Evo, never a heat issue. My M8 runs cool.
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I installed love jug fans (the small ones) on my 103 and they help a lot.
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I hear that my 2003 Harley Davidson 88B twin cam motor produces unbearable heat especially from the rear cylinder head. Is that true? Does anyone here have a product or solution that reduces the heat hitting the driver‘s thigh to make it more bearable?
When I rebuilt my engine I ceramic coated the headers, pistons, exhaust ports, valves and cylinder heads. Went from 88” to 95” with a 10 to 1 compression. It does not get as hot as it used to.
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I hear that my 2003 Harley Davidson 88B twin cam motor produces unbearable heat especially from the rear cylinder head. Is that true? Does anyone here have a product or solution that reduces the heat hitting the driver‘s thigh to make it more bearable?
I have had several TC (oldest was 2009) and never felt it was something I needed to fix. If you do a lot of 2-up it will be very noticeable for the passenger. Of course, if you ride in shorts, it will be a major problem. If memory serves me the primary heat source is the rear header.
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My wife was complaining about the heat from her 2014 H-D Heritage. I tried two things: 1) A Crotch Cooler from Captain Itch, a quality piece and super easy to install/remove. 2) From DK Customs, one of their FL-VIED enricheners. Easy to install. The VIED version is adjustable. Based on what the spark plugs looked like, I set the front enrichener at 50 and the rear at 75. For the record, the bike has Bassani slash cut slip-ons and a K&N filter.

My wife is very pleased with the result. Kevin Baxter has a great YouTube channel with an explanation of plug reading, if you're interested. I'm sure that a Power Commander/what have you would achieve similar results, but this was pretty cost-effective. Best of luck.
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When I removed the catted headpipe, installed the SE stage 1 air filter kit and ran an autotune for a few hours with my fp3, it does run a helluva lot cooler.
Like I said, most of my riding is moving forward because it's an air cooled engine so airflow is important.

95% of all the bikes I have owned were air cooled 2 stroke and 4 stroke engines. Got my endorsement when I was 18 in los angeles kommiefornia and rode everywhere.
Never had a heat related breakdown or failure.
If it works, don't fix it.
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Crotch cooler from Captain Itch on my wife's 2017 FLRT. She says it make a big difference in slower traffic in the summer.

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I hear that my 2003 Harley Davidson 88B twin cam motor produces unbearable heat especially from the rear cylinder head. Is that true? Does anyone here have a product or solution that reduces the heat hitting the driver‘s thigh to make it more bearable?
Apparently yours is not set up with the computer shutting down the rear cylinder when it gets hot sitting at a light. With that in mind i would be sure to run pure 100% synthetic oil. You can do that because your engine oil is separate from clutch so you don't have to run a para-synthetic oil. Pure offers a bit more cooler running. My suggestion would be Amsoil.
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:rolleyes:
It's a cult I tell you.
A frigging cult.
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Apparently yours is not set up with the computer shutting down the rear cylinder when it gets hot sitting at a light. With that in mind i would be sure to run pure 100% synthetic oil. You can do that because your engine oil is separate from clutch so you don't have to run a para-synthetic oil. Pure offers a bit more cooler running. My suggestion would be Amsoil.
The 2003 engine doesn't have the EITMS available onboard.
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