Reply With QuoteI assumed they were more durable and would last longer.Originally Posted by BuellyBagger
y use the blue ones anyway? I used the James' black ones and they seemed to have sealed fine
I assumed they were more durable and would last longer.
Meh. It's a 'problem' with V-twins, but easy to fix with OEM stuff, simply and cheaply.
IMO, not worth the huge effort or expense to go overboard. Stick with factory gaskets.
If you decide to get a set of James, pick up a set of Harley ones as well. When you get the manifold off and see how the sealing works, you’ll see that the stockers fill be fine.
If you’re not going to rotate the engine, good luck getting the James gaskets in. I’m sure some people have, but it was very tricky for me due to space constraints. I didn’t want to do it twice, so I used a set of stock Harley seals.
On my Sportster, sure why not... or if I had some damage to the sealing surfaces, then yeah James may be the way to go.
Best in mind that the James seals i’m referring to are the blue one with the “flange”. I think they make a stock style one as well, which is probably fine, and is probably what the shop will have instead of stock Harley seals. I don’t think the indy shops can get parts from Harley.
https://goo.gl/images/KSJ12q
Last edited by 34nineteen; 03-15-2018 at 05:13 AM.
that i can see as a good reason. I'm guessing it would take a bit of common sense (i know there's no class for that right now so its really a pointless phrase). Installing them by tightening them snuggly enough to seal but not over doing it so to bend anything. I do throw torque specs out the window on those kind of things... i torque my axles and suspesion part fasteners and what not but somethings just require the " feel"or if I had some damage to the sealing surfaces, then yeah James may be the way to go.
That's what she keeps on telling me !
I bought the OEM style black gaskets and won't be rotating the engine. Hopefully it works out, or check Craigslist in a few days for a cheap XB12R...
Get some of the u shaped offset wrenches or buy some inexpensive ones to cut down and make stubby to make this job easier. I had cut down an old 1/2 wrench to nothing more than the end and maybe about 1” of shaft.
This job will likely take about 2-3 hours your first time. Takes about 15-20 minutes on a Sportster, if you’re taking your time.
I hope your exaggerating, getting rid of your Buell just because end up having to rotate your engine. While I haven't done it first hand, everyone here that has,, has said it's actually not that difficult.
Good luck.
It's not difficult, but it takes a lot of time. And there is no big difference in difficulty if you change intake gaskets with or without rotated engine. Without rotated engine there is slightly more difficult to reach one screw on left side of intake manifold, the rest is the same, but if you will rotate engine changing the intake gaskets will take you much more time. And remember that you have to perform leakage test after replacing gaskets and there is 80% chance that they will leak and you will do this work again and again. So do not rotate the engine.
Last edited by TPEHAK; 03-17-2018 at 02:55 PM.
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