Kendall Johnson built motors?

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dirt

Member
It's probably a little too late now but has anyone had any dealings with Kendall Johnson Customs in Winston Salem, NC? I called and talked to Kendall and has tuner Zac and they put together a top end combination for me, they were talking about some pretty good numbers! It just arrived today and I'm pretty excited to get it put back together. They seemed like really good people and knew I had a dead line, they got the heads ported and back to me in 3 days! I thought that was pretty good. Has anyone elar had any dealings with them. I looked around a little and they seem to be known for making big power, I sure hope so!
Dave
 
E

Eric

Banned
dirt said:
It's probably a little too late now but has anyone had any dealings with Kendall Johnson Customs in Winston Salem, NC? I called and talked to Kendall and has tuner Zac and they put together a top end combination for me, they were talking about some pretty good numbers! It just arrived today and I'm pretty excited to get it put back together. They seemed like really good people and knew I had a dead line, they got the heads ported and back to me in 3 days! I thought that was pretty good. Has anyone elar had any dealings with them. I looked around a little and they seem to be known for making big power, I sure hope so!
Dave
Click to expand...
he is known for lots of power,, I've never had anything done by them , but keep us posted on how it turns out...
 
sh8kr

sh8kr

Member
They built a 124 back in 2002 for me and and the motor was a beast. KJ had worked his magic on the heads and used 1 of his proprietary cams. The only problem was the headquarters ignition he was using at that time. The bike always pulled hard until you chopped the throttle, never had it on a dyno except for tuning at his old shop next to Kens chicken shack.
The Tuner you referenced as Zac is his son a helluva racer himself.I have to agree about the customer service he does what he says, has the parts ready when he says they will be ready and the most important to me is that he is approachable, he will take time to speak with you at events just the same at he does at the Shop.
 
Shane

Shane

Active Member
I grew up in the same small town as Kendall in NC....he is a good ole boy and his work is top notch in my opinion. He made some pretty cool and radical machines and if you want HP he will deliver....they are all good folks. They helped me alot when I was "restoring" my 84 Softail...parts...advice etc.

Keep us posted please...
 
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Tim

Tim

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I can't wait to hear how your mods perform now. :2thumbs:
 
D

dirt

Member
It's alive!

Well, I had a few minor setbacks but got it started up tonight. It sounds NASTY and very responsive.
The combination is a 117 stock bottom end, kendall Johnson ported heads, headworks 650 cam, 11.3 compression, and XXX carb. In talking with those guys over the last few days, he said to try a short velocity stack over the spike air cleaner, so that will be the next purchase and then get it up there for them to tune probably next weekend. Any guesses on what kind of power it will put down? He threw out some numbers on what he averages out of these motors and they were very impressive. Also, they have been very good people to deal with and would not hesitate to get them to do another motor for me!
Dave
 
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bruceb

New Member
Kendall is very well known in the area for making great horsepower. He's also a great person to deal with. We also have another top notch engine builder in Kernersville, NC by the name of T.R. Reiser at T-Man Performance. TR just set a new land speed record at Bonneville for baggers at 157 mph plus with a blown 95 inch twin cam. Ckeck out his website.
 
D

dirt

Member
Bruce,
I talked to T-man before I started this build but he had a couple week turnaround and I had a deadline to meet for this weekend. He was recommended to me by the guys at Iron thunder in Raleigh. I decided to go with the Johnson crew after talking to Zac and he said he could get a set he had on the shelf ported and to me by last weekend. He told me he averages in the mid 130's with this combination and that sounded really good to me. I still need to get the Daytona twin tec installed, I'm waiting on a new cam cover. He said the adjustable ignition really wakes these motors up.

Marv,
If this motor puts down 127, I'll be pissed! I have had several street/race cars and had some bad experiences with engine builders promising to get me the power I wanted and then not delivering after setting up everything the way they recomended. That's very frustrating! I'm hoping that these Johnson boys will deliver. The mechanic took it for a quick ride today and he was all smiles when I picked it up! LOL! I think he used the term animal and beast quite a bit! I'll get to take it out this weekend and try it out, can't wait!
Dave
 
MARV

MARV

Well-Known Member
sounds real good dirt.

i'm pretty happy with my approx 127/127 budget build

what pipe, carb and intake did they recommend to get in the mid 130"s
 
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twowheel99

Active Member
My buddy had a 124 Kendall Johnson engine in his Redneck Eng. bike and I had trouble keeping up with him when we would be out cruising around. I would have to say it was the only thing on the bike he didn't have trouble with. I had talked to KJ about doing his magic on my BD but I just couldn't justifiy putting 3K in my motor at that time......
 
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bigdogtech01

Well-Known Member
twowheel99 said:
My buddy had a 124 Kendall Johnson engine in his Redneck Eng. bike and I had trouble keeping up with him when we would be out cruising around. I would have to say it was the only thing on the bike he didn't have trouble with. I had talked to KJ about doing his magic on my BD but I just couldn't justifiy putting 3K in my motor at that time......
Click to expand...
They are a bit on the pricey side but have seen or heard of no problems with anything they build. When I was working for the BDM dealership we sent out a 124" S&S out of an American I-H. The customer wanted us to install the twin Mikuni carbs, so we did. Due to the high compression of the motor he has to run 100 octane fuel, but the thing runs awesome. On a hot summer day the intake runners actually form ice build up, crazy stuff:eek: It runs and starts so good you don't even need to pull the enrichener cable out. Not sure on the numbers but I want to say he was in the high 140's @ rear wheel. A lot for a chopper style bike.
 
D

dirt

Member
Test Ride

Well,
I got to take it out this evening for a quick run around the neighborhood. I am a little disappointed in the bottom end until about 2500-3000 then it gets pretty nasty! I haven't put the daytona ignition on it yet so maybe that will help. Right now it's still the stock timing and advance curve.

Marv,
I was in no way putting down what anyone one's power numbers at all, just wanted to make that clear. He promised big power so that's why I sent him the heads. They recomended modifying a S&S G carb ( went with a XXX taz), and a short velocity stack. They said to leave the intake manifold alone since it was a street motor. He said if this was going on a race motor then they would port it and pick up a few numbers at the top but loose velocity (torque) on the bottom end. Made sense to me, same theory as race car stuff and I'm pretty familiar with that. Also, He recomended a 2 into 1 system, I said they are gay! LOL! He thought the V&H BR pipes with either a short baffle or BCT baffle worked really well. I was surprised that he said that as the V&H aren't really known as performance pipes.

The port job, including springs was 1200. They sold me a cam for another 150. I thought that was very reasonable for the HP numbers they have been getting.
Dave
 
MARV

MARV

Well-Known Member
no sweat dirt.

most of the builds here are floating around the 127/127 area.

some higher, some lower.

:2thumbs:
 
D

dirt

Member
update on motor build

Well,
The motor has been fun to ride with the new power. The Adjustable ignition made it feel a lot better on the bottom end. I put about 500 miles on it and took it to Raleigh for a dyno tune. I dropped it off at Iron Thunder in Raleigh and they said they could tune it, no problem, take a couple hours. I went and messed around for a couple hours and came back. They said sorry, your bike will not fit on our dyno, too long! I was mad! After a a 2 1/2 hour drive and wasting a day off from work you tell me that it won't fit! So I took it back home. The next day, some buddies went went for a ride and it starts smoking out of the tailpipes and pouring oil out of both front cylinders and the cam cover, I towed it to the local mechanic who put the motor together and he does a couple checks and can't find anything. He calls a couple days later and said that the gasket between the motor and cam cover had failed and that was the problem. He fixed that and fires it back up and after a couple minutes it starts smoking like hell again. The compression and leakdown test were good so now he has no idea what the problem is! The motor sounds fine, no knocking and no pinging, so he is realy lost on what it might be. Does anyone here have any ideas? I really just want to get my bike back on the road at this point!
If it turns out that I need to go into the motor to fix something, Kendall makes a 131 big bore kit that I might be putting in instead of fixing the 117. The big bore kit comes with new jugs and pistons and they have been averaging in the mid 150s to low 160s with this kit. That would be FUN!!!!!
 
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