Thank you very much for making these videos. I think your shovelhead series has been my most valuable tool throughout my rebuild process.

Man I Love the old Harley's... thanks Mike for getting them back in the Wind.. thank you...

Man, I could listen to you all day 😂 something real therapeutic about listening to a guy wrenching on a bike without losing his shit every 5 minutes. Rebuilding my 76 shovel at the moment and this really helped. I’ve been having an issue getting the rear head bolts tight enough.

Just ran across this channel, lovin the build. Love workin on bikes and can always learn somthin new. Thank you and God bless you brother.

I had the same issue with those multi-layer gaskets. Was watching your video to see what I was doing wrong. 😊 Now I know it wasn’t me. Thanks Mike.

Your like the Bob Ross of Harley video's. 👍🏻

Hello Mike, if I go once to the US I will visit you. I watched a lot of your videos and it helped me a lot with my early shovel, built 68. Even I had problems to find the screw for draining the gear box oil. THANKS! from EAST Germany ;)

I just bought a 75 for my son and i to build together and finding these videos are awesome thank you for posting these looking forward to building ours hopefully incan be as calm as you are haha

@6:45 I actually reached toward the screen , to hold you gasket in place for ya ! love your work mike👍

Hello Mike, Thank you for all your videos. I am currently building a 67 FLH and find your videos very helpful. I can't help but notice the picture of, looks like a 348 Indian on the wall in the background. I have a 346 Chief that I have had since 1976. Keep all these videos coming, Thanks!

Great videos - thank you.

Great video, thanks !

Just as important to clock the gasket properly. Wondered why my rebuilt stroker shovel was burning oil. Tore the top end apart and noticed the head gaskets had no oil drain holes / were blocking the oil from draining to the crank. Not that it wasn't clocked right, the gasket just had no hole in it. Strange... Oil was forced down lifter tubes, metal oil line and valve seals. Some shops really just don't know what they are doing or just don't care. As for that gasket, thanks for the warning. Looks like its over engineered. Thanks Mike!

Great vid as usual........... sure wish you had made the vid of installing the pistons and jugs with the motor in the frame.... would have been great to see your method of getting that together.

God bless ya Mike. Love watching the videos. Lowers my heart rate at the end of the day when I finally get some down time. Movies and TV has Morgan Freeman with the popular voice. KZfaq motorcycle videos has #pacificmike Love to buy ya a coffee if I get back that way. Your videos keep me motivated to keep working on mine. Thanks for what you do. This is valuable knowledge. I very much appreciate your videos. Thank you sincerely Mike. Keep doing what you do brother.

Well I learnt something again today because I didn't think there would be enough clearance to do a top end in the bike so I really enjoy learning more from people who have experience, unfortunately in Australia there are not a great deal of Harley mechanics and most people don't want to do shovels because they fear comebacks and here h.d parts are super expensive a decent set of lifters are around 800 bucks.

Just found the site You and it are Very good!!!! I have an old 69 flh it has the old after market std cases I have had this for about 12 years and hardly take it out. so yesterday we here in ohio hit a warm 50 deg. and figured id take the wife out for a spin well the shit gas has gummed up the s&s i guess last year or 2 years ago i forgot to run stuff thru and drain it. Guess what i did today? Be good stay safe Happy Holidays to You and Yours, bob

Hey Mike thanks so much for taking the time to make these videos, They have helped me out a ton. I was wondering where you get your new hardware from when you put your motors back together?

Cometic are great gaskets but I’ve had the same issue glad to see I’m not alone. Lol

@Pacific Mike. Thanks for your videos. They are a great education. I was curious if you ever did a video on what to look for in getting a shovelhead. Or, if your subscribers and or you could point me in the right direction, I would be most grateful.

Mike! I wanted to see your method for installing the pistons into the cylinders. I have seen a few ways to do it and I’m curious as to how you do it.

Spectacular

Maybe line up the gasket to the bottom of head,..set it gently down and use one hand to hold it in place and the other two start head bolts.

Good advice

Great vid as always! Do you put cylinder head gaskets on dry? I have a stock 77 shovel I’m putting together

Hi Mike, Thank YOU for the ShovelHead Cylinder Head video What are your opinions on these "STD" Cylinder Heads over stock H-D OEM Cylinder Heads ? (any obvious advantage or improvement ? ) COOP ........................................

Great videos Mike. Can a head gasket be changed with the engine in the chassis. Thank you

Yes, Torque Adapter for the head bolts. Snap On has them...gotta get the correct size. They aint Cheap either.

Hello Mike...I really like your videos. Very detail oriented. I have a 1981 80" Shovel in a rigid frame. I'm running a open BDL primary. The crankcase vent hose no longer has anywhere to go as it used to go back into the primary. I had the vent hose zip tied above the rear chain for a while to oil it, but it just slings oil all over the rear of the bike. Can I attach that hose to a catch can with a filter, or should I leave it alone and run it down under the bike away from the tire. I know that the more I use the bike the less it drips, but I'm pretty OCD about oil all over my garage floor and driveway. Thanks Mike

Hey, question for you. I just purchased a brand new set of cylinders for my first shovelhead build. Do I need to have them honed or anything or can I just do a cylinder to piston fit measurement and install. Thanks for your time

Hi Mike, I was hoping you could give me some advice on piston compression ratio. I have just converted my 80 model fxwg to belt drive kick only and I want to run hydraulic lifters have a Andrews AB cam in it plus Super E carb with points ignition. I am a light weight guy and looking for a low compression ratio. Would 8-1 be OK to kick or even going as far as 8.5-1 also the bore is 040 over .as that's what the previous guy did . Any advice you could share would really help.

Was looking at some head gaskets for my shovelhead and saw some .032 thick copper ones, why would you need them that and do you use them ?

Mike, curious to know if you used any lube on the head bolt threads, or do you install them dry? Wouldn't a light film of oil help with an accurate torque process? Thanks, as always for your expertise.

I enjoy your vids and the teaching. Question: 82 FXR 20,000 miles. Been sitting awhile. I had the normal leaking at the rocker shaft nuts/seals. If I remove the heads and re-seal top end, will that cause lower end issues like oil ring blow by?? Would (or should) I have to do bottom end work, at the same time?

I was in the process of replacing all seals and gaskets but you know how that goes. One cylinder coming off also brought broken rings with it. So now I'm getting my jugs bored then ordering pistons after I see what it came out to. Either .020 or .030 depending on how they spec. my question to you since you've rebuilt Harley's all your life is what would you recommend for Pistons. As far as I can tell I think it's stock. The cam on the big gear end has either a w or m stamped on it and then the Lobe on the other end has an H. So it's basically stock but I'm just curious as to what you would recommend for Pistons. Motor looked to be standard ore u got 3.438 on the bore with my caliper. Somebody's been in the heads as the one guide has + .001 on one of them. Rowe USA Bellflower C.A. stamped. All the other three are STD. Anyway as I said curious about which pistons you recommend. I'm pretty much just going to leave the same cam in it as it's good enough for me. Thanks brother for your advice I appreciate it...oh yeah I did get an extra set of rocker arm spacers I'm going to try to see if I can't maybe drill them? One is at .008 already but the others are around .020... I don't like slop... ✌🏻

Mr Mike 1st I appreciate ur vids they really help me 2nd where the world can I find them wrenchs u put on the torque wrench I just can't find them and wat r they called

I was wondering where I would get those 12point bolts from and the bottom 4 bolts

Would have been nice to see the bottom end come together. Did you do the machining work and bottom end assembly or did you farm that out to a shop?

Hey Mike have you ever had one of your jugs bigger then the other? My front is .030 bigger then the rear on my 73 FLH, can I just get rings and set them both to gap between 10-20 like the book calls for?

Sorry to keep bugging you. But can you tell me where I can get a good set of aftermarket cylinders for a 1963 panhead. . have ordered 2 sets. Each time there is something wrong with them. Last night installed a new set. 2 out of the 5 holes were off by almost 3/16. I first thought it was gaskets.

I never saw head gaskets like that before. What kind are they?

Hi Mike, Love your videos! took apart my 79 shovel and the numbers on the connecting rods are say they are from a 1000 sportster , does that sound right? Thanks John

Hi Mike, I have a problem I have not encountered before...As per previous message,I have to replace a head gasket on my 1981 80ci FLHS. I usually just use the blue teflon type of gasket..I just go on line and order them and when they arrive they fit easily with a millimeter or so of play.. Anyway,so this time I decide to go a different type of head gasket,I bought a .045 with firering..So they arrive and I put it on the cylinder and low and behold it seems to be tight on the lip,and not sitting flat,it has a warp due to the tight fit.. Have I always been lucky in the past,getting the right size gasket? Are there different size inner circumference for oversized bores and pistons,with head gaskets? I have never had to replace pistons in this bike,so I'm not sure of the bore size,where is the std/oversized stamp on a shovelhead piston please.. How many,and what oversized are the common shovel head re-bores..And do I have to get a certain size head gasket specific to my bore size? Or should I just go ahead and torque this sucker down and stop fussing? Thanks Mike, Regards dazed and confused...

Mike great video and you are helping me out alot! My question is about my Shovelhead 12 point head bolts and torquing them. I bought a 2 inch torque adapter and alot of people are telling me that even if I have it 90 degrees to the wrench it will still throw off the math. But from watching your video I am taking it that it does not effect the math as long as it is a 90 degree to the handle. Can you confirm this? Thank you and keep up the great videos.

Thanks mike

Gotta do my leaky shovel head gaskets soon before Myrtle

Mike why not put the heads the eng. on the bench, before installing in the bike?

Why not put grease on both sides of the head gasket? Would this be a bad thing?

hello mike, congratulations for your very informative videos, I have been following you for a long time. I cannot find any information regarding the mounting direction of the pistons of the 1979 1200 shovel. my repair manual tells me "under the piston skirt there is a repair and put this repair on the right side of the engine". my question, how to identify the right side of the engine? Is this the camshaft side? where on the stator side? .thank you mike for your help. Stéphane

what head gasket did you use in that rebuild...seems there are three pieces...??

Had 3 5/8 big bore cylinders and Keith black pistons installed on my 66 shovelhead. Less then 100 miles on them and noticed front plug was fowling.took front head off and sure enough oil is onto my piston.do I just get ne rings or what do I do?thanks

Why they made it to tight head bolts into aluminium?

where can i get one of them fog bone wrenches?

I love you Pacific Mike

So your from SOCAL do you ever come up the west coast to canada say vanvouver island long beach I'm in comox valley vancouver island gonna try and find a shovel head maybe down there.The west is the best.

bob ross of gas and oil

Where can I find that wrench. Need one

Where can I get one of those dog bone wrenches?

why would you add grease on the gasket bird

Where are you at Mike ?

What's name this purple grease 8:23 ?

When putting this back together I haven't heard anything about degreeing the camshaft or even setting anything to tdc there is a tdc isn't there? Maybe a quick little tutorial explaining the relationship between liaton, valves, and cam? Also would this be a interfering or non interfering motor? Thanks Mike , your the best!

This joint is really stubborn;;

The video I most wanted to see is you putting cylinders on...WTF????????

put many heads on hahahahahaha