Hotcam installation

[Natnewt]

what happens to the decompressor when you put the hot cam in? Will I need a stronger battery to crank the engine or??? It doesn't look like there is a place on the new cam for the decompressor

[Ryanthegreat1]

With stock compression you will be fine.

[martinfan30]

+1. The extra overlap of the hotcam allows a slight drop in cranking compression. No problems with stock battery.

[Natnewt]

its a je 10.5:1

[Ryanthegreat1]

My JE 10.5:1 and Hotcam stage 1 is a real bear to start.

If it does not fire off in the first 2 or 3 cranks the battery will be flat.

But I have been told I may have a weak starter or poor ground from the battery to the starter. Have not looked into it after getting my XRR back together. Kickstart bikes are far superior.

[martinfan30]

My JE 10.5:1 and Hotcam stage 1 is a real bear to start.

If it does not fire off in the first 2 or 3 cranks the battery will be flat.

But I have been told I may have a weak starter or poor ground from the battery to the starter. Have not looked into it after getting my XRR back together. Kickstart bikes are far superior.

Which battery? OEM?

When I went to a CRF battery, it cranks the engine better than the stocker ever did.

I am falling in line with you on the kick start thing...

?

[Ryanthegreat1]

Brand spanking new and fully charged OEM replacement.

It will not start the bike if the motor is cold. I jump start off my car in the mornings. Then hope I don't stop for a long enough period for it to get cold again.

Dropping the bike on the trails and flooding it is a death sentence. I know not to even try starting it in that situation. Just hold the throttle wide open and wait about 15 minutes for all the gas to evaporate.

[Natnewt]

ok well how about 10.5:1 je with hotcam and fcr 41mm....do i still need to change the battery?

[absynth01]

I have the same problem-went to big for the bike. I have a hotcam, 11-1 piston, hotrod, xr's only done carb, head work, and big gun. I went with a Moose gel battery rated more. It will recharge itself somewhat in a 1/2 hour it states. It does well holding a charge as the battery tender is always green. But as said, if it doesn't fire within 6 sec, you check to make sure everything is on and ready to start. It looses it's fire after about 10 sec. Forget about a flooded motor try bumpstarting. I even go as far as parking or stopping somewhere I can bump it and that can be tricky!!

[Ryanthegreat1]

Yeah no chance of bump starting my bike.

Hot day with super sticky 17" race slicks and the bike would not bump start. Get a good run going, put her into 3rd, jump on the seat, dump the clutch, skid to a stop.

Never mind a balding DOT knob on wet clay with no hill and no straight stretch.

Stupid no kick start bikes. Why would Honda do this to us!?!?!

[Research Rat]

The hotcam loses the "lobe" that activates the automatic decompresser.

If your bike is difficult to start, it could be a jetting issue, or starter, or weak battery.

I have the same piston, hotcam, carb setup, and my bike starts fine. I'm looking into the odyssey battery since I now have HIDs that require a large jolt to ignite.

-Scott

ok well how about 10.5:1 je with hotcam and fcr 41mm....do i still need to change the battery?

[Ryanthegreat1]

I bet the auto decompressr could be used if the cam were drilled to accept the roll pin that makes the auto decompressor work.

I might have to look into this. It would be cheaper than finding an XR600 valve cover with the manual decompressor and would be about $700 cheaper than adding kick start.

[Natnewt]

report back with the news soldier:|

[absynth01]

Someone else makes a cam for our bikes, but are more expensive. They still use the stock cam(I think your core), and regrind/weld to their specs. I don't remember what company, but the decomp is unaffected. Maybe the company is in the UK. Anybody??

[Research Rat]

The question is why one would desire to retain the automatic decompressor. This device drops compression and vis a vis power each pass at tdc.

Natnewts L is electric start, so there is no worry about needing to kick it over.

If you're having problems with the starter turning the bike over there's some other issue present.

-Scott

I bet the auto decompressr could be used if the cam were drilled to accept the roll pin that makes the auto decompressor work.

I might have to look into this. It would be cheaper than finding an XR600 valve cover with the manual decompressor and would be about $700 cheaper than adding kick start.

[Natnewt]

and that is all i need to know as long as i won't have a problem starting it because of the lack of decompression relief. I'm not saying I have any problem I just put the engine back together and realized the decomp doesn't go back in

[Johnnnn_h]

Someone else makes a cam for our bikes, but are more expensive. They still use the stock cam(I think your core), and regrind/weld to their specs. I don't remember what company, but the decomp is unaffected. Maybe the company is in the UK. Anybody??

Try Megacycle

I sent them my core and they removed the decompression contraption, weld it up, re grind it, and put the decompression contraption back on

The down side is they recommend (demand) welding and grinding the rocker arm (hard faced) where it contacts the cam,,, and that gets sort of expensive. 62x4= OUCH

I had the rockers on the XRL welded and ground to be on the safe side, but

I put one of there cams in a motor and used the stock barely used, unmodified rockers and nothing bad happened.

This motor was on a diet of Moble 1 and changed often, so that might make a difference.

But I think they have a good product

http://www.megacyclecams.com/catalog/pages/page%2031.pdf

[Ryanthegreat1]

The question is why one would desire to retain the automatic decompressor. This device drops compression and vis a vis power each pass at tdc.

Natnewts L is electric start, so there is no worry about needing to kick it over.

If you're having problems with the starter turning the bike over there's some other issue present.

-Scott

It only drops compression when below 300rpms when functioning properly.

This is to ease the load on the starter.

I too am running the L(adies) bike with only electric start.

The starting issues are 683cc of 10.5:1 CR and a stage 1 cam with 2% leak down.