| Author | Message | ||
     Dickc |
Does Buell make their own motors or does Harley make the motors to Buell specs? Dickc | ||
| Bomber |
the latter -- Buell mills are manufactured on the same line as Sporty engines | ||
| Not_purple_s2 |
I thought that, with the XB line, they started manufacturing the Buell engines separately. They seem to be significantly different from the sportsters now. | ||
| Bomber |
there are differences, but they are built on the same line | ||
| Davegess |
They are built on the same line. The spec is Buell's. Buell purchases the completed engine and tracks quality just like they would with any other supplier. In fact Buell developed the engine design with the constraint being that it had to be built on the same assembly line as the Sportster and it had to use a lot of the tooling used by the Sporty. While this limited what Buell could do it did keep the capital cost down. By doing this there was more money to tool the cycle parts. Even with the limits the XB is a very nicely done engine with lots of improvements over the Sporty. Many of these changes are now incorporated in the Sporty engine. | ||
| Xl1200r |
They seem to be significantly different from the sportsters now. Actually, they are probably more similar now than ever (with the exception of the stock XL motors used back in the day). | ||
| Buellshyter |
Is hp and torque the same? | ||
| Ezblast |
Hell no!  GT - JBOTDS! EZ  | ||
| Thepup |
"Is hp and torque the same?" It could easily be made to have it. | ||
| Court |
Remind me to tell you the story someday . . .  | ||
| M2nc |
Cycleworld rear wheel HP for the '07-1/2 Nightster - 62rwhp. Cycleworld rear wheel HP for the '07 Ulysses - 80rwhp | ||
| S2pengy |
Back in 96-97 I toured the Capital Drive HD engine assembly plant when the Buell engines were assembled their. I was told that they would do Buell engines on weekends, but keep in mind numbers were alot smaller then.. | ||
| Spiderman |
Remind me to tell you the story someday . . . I think this one can take the back burner for a while  | ||
| Xl1200r |
Horsepower is not the same, but that is due to some fairly minimal reasons. The Sportster is limited by style to have a specific air cleaner and a specific exhaust. Other than that, the only internal differences is the compression is .3 lower, and the cams are the 'W' grind as opposed to the Buell XB grind (SE .551's???) My 2004 XL1200R was making 76rwhp after just a pipe change and a new air cleaner. With the additional 800rpms the Buell makes, I have no doubt I'd be able to hit 80hp with it. Those new XLs pack quite a punch. | ||
| Swordsman |
My father in law has an 80-something Sportster with the Buell White Lightning heads. When he first did the swap, he was amazed at the size difference of the intake/valves. Supposedly the Buells were nearly twice the size... but that's been a day or two (or 20 years) ago. ~SM | ||
| Xl1200r |
SM - exactly right. The Buells have typically had much better heads than the XLs, but 1200s since 2004 are running the exact same head. | ||
| Buellinachinashop |
As was stated, Harley makes Buell motors to their specs. They're built at the Capital Drive plant and dyno'd at PDC. | ||
| Terribletim |
You'd be surprised how much the stock Harley air cleaner setup and exhaust choke those things. Just that factor is a major player in the HP difference. The cams being the other player. |
