Be sure to watch Thursday Night and Friday night at 6pm easter to see part 2 and 3! Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Owner: "Look at these metal chips from inside my engine." H-D Service Technician: "Normal wear."

A mechanic that actually cares and listens to the customer. Kudos to the mechanic for being honest and knowing how to troubleshoot by process of elimination.

Good thing he brought it to a real mechanic

Harley-Davidsons' mission statement. No matter what the problem....That's normal, they all do that.

These appear to be drill chips. Like the cases weren't blown out good before assembly, or someone, maybe a disgruntled Harley employee, dumped a hand full of drill chips into the case. These are not chips from something rubbing. They are entirely too big for that.

I am amazed how this made it though so many services and repeated questions about the engine at dealers, the gross incompetency of his dealer mechanics is astounding. I have never had this level of defect on my motorcycle but I would hope my mechanics are not this incompetent to tell me a loud banging is normal.

This is an excellent example of what happens when a legend is no more..and the difference when dealers have no control of anything anymore....sad

The guy is super talented. These put me over the edge after 35 years and 11 Harleys I now own a Challenger? Time will tell, M8 should be covered under a lemon law

Drinking Budwiesers and eating Pringles watching your vid. Better than cable my friend, better than cable.

With every video, I'm rapidly giving up on Harley dealership mechanics.

As an owner of a Twin cam 88 and all that came with that engine, it doesn't surprise me that Harley is still making the same mistakes. They make a beautiful engine for a beautiful bike then pinch pennies in a critical area of the engine.

I sold both my twin cams and bought a 98 FLSTF Evo they are bullet proof..I have it and my 72 FLH police special. These two bikes are in excellent condition and are the newest bikes I plan to own.

Kevin, GREAT JOB on the video series! I have seen this exact failure in three M8's so far, and about all the same mileage 20-30k. Sad that the motor company let that through production. Again, GREAT VIDEO's!

I just want to say I was so nervous when I saw the impact, then you took the bit off and broke the bolts loose by hand. THANK YOU!! I get so pissed when I see "mechanics" break bolts loose and tighten bolts into dissimilar metals (e.g. SS bolts into/out of cast aluminum blocks) with an impact. So much respect for your attention to detail and treating it as your own. Awesome videos!!

Just want to thank you for all your videos, I learn so much from them and I really appreciate all the work you put into them. Thank you!!

What a cliff hanger :) !! Can't wait till part deux! - Thanks Kevin!

Great video on a fantastic channel. Probably not very surprising to folks that tear these engines down all the time but was surprising to me. I wonder how often a lack of quality control during build is responsible for customer complaints. Shame on the previous dealers that have looked at this bike and wrote it off as "normal". Keep up the good work.

I’m very intrigued to find out the results of the problem. I’ll be watching

This feels like a very intense cliff hanger movie 😂 looking forward to parts 2 and 3!!

Tks Kevin for this Vid .... uR search & its dilemma ..cant wait till the final breakdown & diagnosis to see the culprit

My buddy has a m8 bottom up at Darkhorse getting done right now... got a call and the lifter ports were machined from harley oval-shaped/out of round.. they are going to have to machine it and he need to re think his build plans... great video!

I don't currently own a Harley (have had three in the past so like em BTW) but this is a great channel to watch and learn from.

I liked seeing how well your tools are organized. Very little off-task time looking for a tool.

I'm going to jump the gun here guys, and speculate that the Swarf that Kev's pulling out of there came out of the heads. Too large to go through the oil-galleries and get caught by the filter, ... they went down the lifter-tubes and got stuck at the lifters.... every so often they would get thrown around by the cams and that's what was causing the banging. My thoughts here are: 1] improper procedures for removing swarf during CNC machining. 2] improper filtering of the machining coolant and there might have been back wash of swarf back into the head during tooling, and 3] improper QC during assembly . And now like the rest of You all.... We wait for Kevin's analysis ... Stay Safe !!

Great prep, good scripting, good delivery, likeable persona, interesting subject, very few ads. What's not to like, thumbs up.

Thanks for this (and the other) informative and valuable videos. This is good info to know.

I don't think I have ever been so absorbed by a video. Absolutely fascinating in an autopsy kind of way. Make's me regret - once again - that I took up electrical/ electronics instead of mechanical engineering.

My 2008 gold wing has 215,000 miles and has had NO PROBLEMS.

This is so interesting and fun for the viewer (me)!!! One thought is something is inside the oil pump which is causing the gerotors to seize up and could cause that sporadic banging sound. It would also explain the massive amount of shavings due to the thickness of the pump and also the lack of oil in the cam chest. You already looked down the tappet holes so if it was a cam defacing, you would have already told us and the rollers on the tappets would have shown more wear.

Just finished watching part 1 and commenting as I go. I'd have paid money to be able to hang out over your shoulder in this adventure. The first thing I notice is that you're the real deal wrench bending mechanic. You can always tell by the confident dexterity of a guy using tools in a KZfaq vid - some guys just look awkward and its a sure sign that they haven't invested their life in doin this stuff. Hello brother. This vid is better than a new Star Wars movie. So eager to see the plot unfold and I don't even own a harley anymore. How the hell is there not any metal in the filter? With as much aluminum as I've seen coming out, you could probably cast an entire set of lower cases for a small two stroke dirt bike. Subscribed and goin on to Pt 2.

Hey we saw you looking back to see if you were blocking the camera. Your getting very professional. And you have always been the most enthusiastic person on KZfaq.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to you too. First, you are a top notch mechanic. Second, your establishment appears to be run in a similar fashion. Very impressive. New subscriber here by the way. I owned, and enjoyed, a twin cam 88 Road King Classic for nearly 16 years. Reluctantly took out the extended warranty at the time of purchase, in 2004. Never needed it. Never any issues. Traded it in last September on my factory ordered Dodge Challenger R/T Scat Pack. Got the itch several weeks ago to "downsize" from the touring class and return to the cruiser class. Fell in love with, and purchased, one of the last of the 2020 Fat Bob's in Performance Orange. Did NOT take the factory extended warranty this time! I hope there's not another reason why they pushed this heavily. I love the bike but will be absolutely pi**ed off if, after a good 2 to 3 years on the market, that Harley didn't address such a defect in the M8, should one exist, as your title reads...

Great three part series- just subscribed to channel. Looking forward to seeing content.

I rigged up a small clear fuel line hose onto the shop vac. I put a t-shirt filter between sections to catch all the bits for inspection and you can get down into some pretty tight spots. Dealer bullshit.... this is why we all need to be our own mechanics when we can. Solid guys like you are hard to come by

Mechanic School has a 1-day class on how to genuinely say, "They all do that."

Dude, that is a pile of metal. In my world, automotive, thats borderline catastrophic.

I bought an eco sportster new in 1993 and put 108,000 miles on it. Only engine gaskets and a clutch replaced. Still runs great.

I’m still perplexed at this point. Great video. Happy thanksgiving

No visible wear , shavings & bits everywhere - too heavy to travel through the oil stream - my guess ; it wasn’t completely washed out after being machined during manufacturing 🤔

Best video I watched all month. Can't wait to find out what the odd noise in my evo is. Happy Thanksgiving!

Just subbed! Have a brand new FXLRS, got me on my toes watching this! Great work!

Well you have me hooked. Need to hook up a big screen in my garage so I can do my own work while watching your vids.

Good video Kevin. Tuning in tomorrow for more.

Fascinating. I'm a Brit mechanic/machinist, worked on bikes all my adult life, mainly into anything old with pushrods. Brit bikes, Guzzis, Airhead Beemers and... Harleys. Worked on all Sportys pre rubber mount inc Ironheads, and Shovels and Evos. HD lost me when accountants held sway over engineers, chains replacing gears in a cam case? Doing away with the trapdoor on Sportsters was a criminal offence. To save a $1.50. Etc etc. Subscribed, regards from NE Thailand.

boltster is cool. I'm gonna stick with squares of soft cardboard which I can use after putting a bunch of razor knife slits into it. Push through the bolts and they never fall out regardless of a drop or carry. It works great and I can label it off with a marker. Even stands up around the parts cleaner and oil and grease, no problem. easy to come by and I can separate squares sectioning off bolt groups and hardware. Take my word, it works great. Thank You for all your work and great content. P.S Kevin, if nobody told ya, there's a white spot on the back of your head. A guy could go his whole life and never see that one..... great work madman.

This video is an ASMR for bikers! Hehehe I love your videos , thank you for sharing

I was considering a 2023 Heritage Classic, but after watching this video, that's just right out. I thought that surely by now they'd finally fixed all the defects in these engines - wrong! Putting band-aids on a turd doesn't work. Thanks for keeping me from making a seriously expensive mistake!

Just like when fonzi jumped the shark. To be continued 🤘⚡️🤘

I bought a 2018 Breakout 114 M8 and have had no problems. I'm a first time Harley buyer with no allegiance to the brand. I bought the bike because of the simple look and 240MM back tire. My only issue was the price tag. LOL. Finding out what's going on with this bike really interest me.

Watching with interest as I have 3 bikes with 107 m8 motors and 1 with a 114 m8

This was beyond enough to make me subscribe! Thanks!!!

Looking forward to part 2&3. Happy 🦃 day! 👍👍

Seeing all those shavings gave me anxiety. Great video. Thank you.

Friend of mine had that exact problem on extended warranty. HD told him they didn't have coverage for exploratory on it so drive it until it blows. He managed to trade it in at another dealer between noises.

Enjoyed video. Can't wait to see why all the shavings are in there. Hope you and your family has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Outstanding vid thank you sir

Damn good video, you always keep it interesting 👍

This is a lot like my 17. Plus I had a bent cam plate. Tech said I needed a new motor, corporate said it was all normal and here’s some parts, rebuild. 4 times that bike left me stranded.

You make the best videos Kevin !!

On my 2020 RKS, the shop discovered a large piece of flashing, just barely attached to the case right at the oil filler. One two finger twist and it fell off. Good shops look for this stuff with our M8's

I have a 2017-18 M8 Street Bob with about 18000kms on it and I ride it hard. Long open country roads mean average is about 130kms per hour and its been over 200kms. I love this bike. Handles like a sportster with corners and goes like the wind. Not all M8s have issues.

Sounds like you will need to split the cases to get that debris

I will just keep rebuilding my 05 t.c. it went from stock to big bore with ported heads. Now it's a 103 geared cams with ported heads balanced crank.

Do you know that my eyes were bulging out and my mouth was like 😲 when the video suddenly shut off??? I had to pop a couple Alka-Seltzer! 😆 Happy Thanksgiving 🦃 Can't wait for part 2 & 3

I think the Twin Cam 103 is the last and best sounding Harley.

I believe the problem is up in the rocker boxes ,because of how much shavings were at the bottom of the push rod tubes. Nice job Thanks for all the help with your videos. Rick D.

You can only expect so much from a $30,000 motorcycle, you get what you pay for. ...wait, something doesn’t sound right with that.

That's why I waited till 2022 to get my M8. I worked for Harley Davidson dealership for 19 years and watched all the b/s the TC went through to finally have a good engine. Didn't get one. Seems they got the M8 GTG after what, three issues. Been ragging on mine since October and haven't had any issues or broke anything...

Great video Kevin, after watching a few times I noticed the back of your shirt looks ventilated. I bet that comes in handy with the Georgia heat. I'll have to check your merch for a staff shirt from Baxter's Garage

Hmm never had a Harley motor apart.... Gota say when u were checking crankshaft runout sounded a bit like to a dull tool trying to cut.... Maybe a little extra created by the flywheel... I an staying tuned in.... Great info....

I just replaced the cylinder base gaskets and lifter guide block gaskets on my 93' Dyne Evo 80" and I can tell you that plastic cuff is no substitute for a guide block !

Great video Kev, this one must be a leftover from the AMF days! Ha Ha!!

Kevin been watching your videos for a few months now. could the pistons be hitting each other at the bottom of the stroke?

Looking forward to when you pull the cam chest and oil pump. I didn't trust the Harley pump on my 114, so I replaced it with a Fueling race series pump when I replaced my cam

Good video! Thanks

Incroyable, merci de nous expliquer....

Watched less than a minute and put the thumbs up. Go dude go!

Never done anything but oil changes, tires and brakes in the 150000 miles I've had my fjr.and it hits 9000 rpms every day.I learned my Harley lesson at an early age about 30 years ago and never again! two of my happiest moments was the day I got it and the day I got rid of it.

Great videos man

I may be in the process of buying a used 2018 114” Ultra Limited with 30K miles on the clock here in the U.K. I pray that after so many miles, the motor would have coughed up any manufacturing faults during that time.

I am at 21:00. I am pretty sure it is in the rocker box. My guess in the rocker arm has been chewing away at the rocker arm support and has been sliding back and forth . My guess on why nothing was in the filter is that the particles were to large to travel via oil to the filter.

Hello Kevin... Just wanted to get a "Happy Thanksgiving," shout out to you and everyone! Peace, friendship, and safe riding to all!

That's why I loved my Victory Freedom 106. Still has weaknesses, but this M8 is scary.

Great video - what I do not understand is how Harley Davidson claims to test ride new builds before production for a million miles and never saw the oil sump issue

thanks KB

Damn, Harley makes a great bike for a t-shirt company.

Great stuff Kevin!! I have a 2020 M8, I'm anxious to see what you find.

Can't wait to see the problem. Seems it could be anything from poor quality control from HD to the lifters boring a bigger hole for themselves creating all the shavings. odd that its on both front and rear lifters, thoughts will change after the next video im sure. Cheers from Australia

Can’t wait for the rest of the tear down. I just had my 2017 rebuild from the case up because of a blown head gasket at 38K miles. Had so much carbon buildup on the pistons and combustion chamber that it raised the compression ratio. Cam was also very worn. My mechanic says that there were many signs of inadequate oiling and that failure was a sure thing sooner or later. Wish I could attach pics of my pistons. They are like burnt marshmallows. Anyways, awesome series! Thanks.

Since there is a history of this complaint, what are the chances that the MoCo will cover this repair?

Man I hate cliffhangers! What an interesting video 👍🏻

That Boltster is nifty. Having so many holes over a large area allows you to insert the bolts to match the pattern of the cam cover, so you can 'map out' the order of the bolts (in case they are different lengths). Sure beats using cardboard.

looking at the shavings, it looks like they didn't flush the chips after machining

I can't wait to see actual problem...

My 2006 vtx1800 is a beast! 50,000 miles no problems whatsoever!

6:30.. "cut this out"... love it :)

If it's Aluminum, it's not from the moving part (gear, bearing, linkage, cam, ....). Aluminum is a soft metal, should not be used for parts that exposed to cyclic loading. That would be troubling to hear that Harley engineer allow that to happen. Send the metal to the lab for qualitative analysis to determine what part is it coming from.

**Off topic question ** I've got a 2018 m8 124" roadglide that I'm running a solid 30 tooth compensator. I just picked up a baker grudgebox. What are your thoughts on this combination? Most worried about 1st gear being to tall. I could go 32 or back to a stock 34 compensator.

If you don’t do your own work, and know what your doing, a knowledgeable honest mechanic if hard to find.