From:	Chris Gans	e-mail:	nagamon@execpc.com
Subject:	RE: New cylinders and heads on Cannonball	Date:	Sat Nov 10 11:13:58 2012
Response to:	4353

To Dale, Byrne, Mark and any others who had a part in the development of the new parts: I wanted to be a part of all this in the worst way. Unfortunately circumstances arose right after Oley 2011 that put me in a situation where all my attention had to be focused elsewhere. Life has a funny way of playing tricks on you. After 22 years of pattern making I was forced to return to a job shop. Why? I won't get into that here. But suffice it to say I had no income for a number of months. I was somewhat prepared for that but not for being replaced upon my recovery. When I did find new employment it was at a 33% reduction in wage and many more hours. During my time off if it hadn't been for the friendship of people like Dave and Gail Molnar who insisted that I spend a few days with them messing around with his Deluxe, going to the races and testing out his fishing boat I would have gone stir crazy. Thank God for good friends! I did drive down to the Harley museum to watch the Cannonballers arrive but by the time I was able to reach the riders all the Henderson guys were already up in the food area and the security guard at the door wouldn't let me in "without credentials". Having to get up at 3 AM the next morning I said screw it and went home. I left a note on Dale's seat. This year I will have a little vacation time so I hope to see you all again. Probably won't make Oley but I will be at Wauseon and Davenport. Yes, I want a set of cylinders! My name should be on the list at least once. ----- ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS ----- New cylinders and heads on Cannonball: New high performance cylinders and heads were used on the following motorcycles: Byrne Bramwell’s #32 Mike Fockler’s #65 Dale Stoner’s #99 New high performance cylinders only were used on: Clyde Crouch’s #31 Motors in each motorcycle were set up differently to test parts. Coast 4’s built all motors. My motor was 100% stock except for the cylinders and heads. I used a Schebler DLX 84 carburetor with .937” venture. This carburetor is believed to be the original KL carburetor by some people. All new cylinders and heads on all of the bikes performed flawlessly. There were other issues with some of the motorcycles but no issues with cylinders or heads. These new cylinders are identical to originals on the outside. The inside has been changed to raise the compression from 4.7 to 5.7. The cylinders use a domed piston similar to a KL design. The exhaust valve and port are smaller. This increase velocity in the port and scavenges the exhaust out of the cylinders more efficiently. The more efficient removal of exhaust also makes the engine run cooler. We decided to develop a new head because the original head flow tested so poorly. In the original design the air has to flow around push rod and bolt columns. The air is directed up and down to get to the end cylinders. End cylinders receive 40% less flow than the center cylinder. The new head we designed all cylinders flow within 2% of each other. When using new cylinders and heads together all cylinders flow 30% better than the original center cylinders. Obviously, flow bench tests and real world differ. But these bikes out performed stock KJ’s by a large amount. At first glance the new head looks stock. The right side is nearly identical to an original. The left side is where the differences can be seen. The only way a person can see that a Henderson KJ has the “Cannonball Special” head is to knell down close to the motorcycle and look under the gas tank on the left side and look for the log style manifold. The carburetor mounts in its original location except it protrudes 5/16” out further. The cylinders and heads have been designed using professionals SA Racing and New Class Iron, worked together developing the combustion chamber and port design. SA Racing did all the flow bench testing and directed New Classic Iron in revisions to develop a casting with better air flow. New Classic Iron made the patterns to cast all the heads and cylinders. The tooling and machining of castings was also performed by New Classic Iron. Professional laboratories were used to select proper chemistry of the cast iron and were also used to select aging and annealing processes. High performance and stock KJ cylinders will be available in January, 2013. Cannonball special heads will be available hopefully in February, 2013. Pricing has not been established, but will be posted in a few weeks.