Blown Shovelhead Blew Up

Monday November 07th 2005, 12:23 pm
Filed under: Harley-Davidson

These pictures are from a Shovelhead of unknown year. It’s a custom bike with a blower on it. We suspect the bearing supporting the end of the pinion shaft extension had too much clearance, and the bottom end starved for oil due to the excessive clearance.

shovel piston picture number 1

This was a fresh motor with around 100 miles on the rebuild. The next rebuild is going to be really expensive.

shovel piston picture number 2



2 Comments so far

forged pistons with less than .006″ clearance is my guess.

Comment by Tony 06.09.08 @ 7:27 pm

Hi Tony. Thanks for the comment. I think this one is going to be a mystery for a long time. I wish I actually knew what caused this one to blow up.

Comment by Administrator 06.09.08 @ 7:30 pm



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