SHOVELHEAD CHOPPER

by biker1

SHOVELHEAD CHOPPER

Built from a burned engine and frame and ridden around 12k miles since.

SHOVELHEAD CHOPPER

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

The Shovelhead engine is a motorcycle engine that was produced by Harley-Davidson from 1966 to 1984, built as a successor to the previous Panhead engine. When the engine was first produced, the Shovelhead had a shallower combustion chamber, larger valve drop for both intake and exhaust, better porting, and stronger valves and pistons. This gave the new engine an extra 10 horsepower, along with a different appearance. The engine gained the nickname “Shovelhead” due to the look of the rocker heads having the appearance of an old coal shovel that was flipped upside down, giving the appearance of a shovel. While the engine did have problems earlier in its timeline, the new and improved motor gave Harley-Davidson a 26% sales increase.

The Shovelhead engine was created as the previous Panhead engine was becoming obsolete, with many Harley-Davidson owners demanding more power to compete with the more modern motorcycles. Throughout the Shovelhead’s run, the engine had many different changes made to it to improve power, cooling and oil consumption. The engines had only 10 fins for cooling, which caused them to run hot. Another problem was that oil would pool in the cylinder heads, causing it to leak into the valves and burn oil. Another problem was that oil would pool in the crankcase rather than being pumped, causing the engine to overheat and seriously harm performance. Oil leakage and consumption became such a problem with the bikes, many owners reported losing as much as a quart of oil every 500 miles. The excessive overheating in the motors also caused serious problems, which frequently led to failure. With a lack of oil and excessive heat, the valves were prone to sticking and destroying the top end. Numerous Harley technicians even stated that without necessary top-end modifications, the motors would often last only between 500 and 5,000 miles. With Harley-Davidson trying to fix the engine rather than research and develop, they fell far behind the competition of the cheaper and more reliable Japanese bikes taking control over the market.

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