Just when you thought we’d seen Harley-Davidson’s largest motor, The Motor Company surprises us yet again with this brute; The Screamin’ Eagle® Milwaukee-Eight® 131 Crate Engine.
But it doesn’t come in a bike. It’s what’s called a ‘crate motor’ and as the name suggests, it comes in a box. A big box.
In a departure from normal H-D specification, we are seeing both horsepower and torque figures cited, and they are impressive by anyone’s measure. The monstrous 131 cubic-inch (2147cc) V-Twin pumps out a claimed 90kW and 177Nm to the rear wheel, which will deliver the kind of instant overtaking grunt you need to kiss those road-hogging B-Doubles goodbye.
It’s Screamin’ Eagle heaven with such enhancements as high-lift cams, 10.7:1 high-compression forged pistons, uprated cam bearings and tappets in an extreme ported 4-valve cylinder head with a 64mm throttle body and cast manifold fed by a 5.5 grams/sec high-flow fuel injector system.
And what can you do with this powerhouse? The engine is designed exclusively for the 2017-and-later Touring models such as Road King, Electra Glide Standard, Road Glide Special, Ultra Limited, Street Glide Special and Road King Special. It is offered in Oil-Cooled and Twin-Cooled™ configurations and in chrome or gloss-black finishes.
It’s designed for seamless installation and bolts straight in without any metalwork modification, welding or expensive tomfoolery.
If you own a big Softail, this motor will not fit. Instead, open the Screamin’ Eagle catalogue for 128/131 Stage IV performance kits which will utilise your existing M-8 crankcase and give you darn-near same performance figures.
Available for Australian and New Zealand customers from March 2020, the Screamin’ Eagle Milwaukee-Eight 131 Crate Engine is priced at excluding fitment: $9,610 AUD /$11,299 NZD RRP. For oil-cooled, RRP is $9,920 AUD and $11,665 NZD Twin-Cooled and fits 2017-later model Harley-Davidson Touring motorcycles originally equipped with either a Milwaukee-Eight Oil-Cooled or Twin-Cooled engine. It does not fit Trike models. Note that installation may require the separate purchase of additional components, depending on motorcycle model. All models will require the additional purchase of ECM recalibration with Screamin’ Eagle Pro Street Tuner.
