LIFE TIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

In 2001 Doug Coffey received the Life Time Achievement Award. The ceremony and presentation took place at the Indianapolis Motorcycle Trade Show. The following article will tell why.

The company was started in 1969. Over the years much has changed. From 1969 to 1980 the company operated as retailer. In 1981 it closed it’s doors to the public and functioned as a warehouse distributor supplying after market parts to HD dealers and independant shops.

The owner, Doug Coffey missed the motor building part and started offering his cylinder head service to dealers in 1987.

For several years following he was on the Hot Bike masthead as contributing editor and wrote many technical articles for the magazine until lack of time stopped him.

Many of the parts we see today were first designed and marketed by Doug through the Head Quarters label.

VALVE SHIMS: The first thing Doug designed was proper sized valve spring shims. Up to that point engine builders were forced to use automotive adaptations which were sloppy to say the least.

VALVE GUIDES: The next thing Doug did was design valve guides for Evolution heads. All that was available in 1988 were stock shaped guides from HD or Rowe. Those guides had small tops measuring .420” and were prone to breaking when installed. Doug’s design used a more popular .530” top. He also redesigned the shapes of the guides for better flow. This took many hours on the flow bench and at least four companies have copied his shapes. Almost every valve guide you see on the market for Evo or TC performance use has Doug’s shape design.. Doug was also first to use Manganese Bronze and first to make the guides have ribbed tops for a better seal fit in the Harley world.

VALVES: The high tuliped head design popular today and the 1.9” intake size was first introduced by Head Quarters. At least 3 companies have copied his design. Two of those companies actually agreed to manufacture valves exclusively for Doug and then double crossed him. Head Quarters now competes with it’s own design for market share. It’s a cruel world.

CAMS: When Head Quarters started doing Evolution heads, there were no cams for ported heads. Andrews had a 3 and 5 grind, Sifton had a small grind and SE had a .500” lift cam. That was it! Doug wanted something that would take advantage of the port work so he contacted Crane Cams and developed the HQ-0023 cam. At the time it was considered radical but quickly became the industry bench mark. Most of Head Quarter’s competitors were once their customers. The list is long and includes some current cam marketers and engine manufacturers. If you study the grind numbers it will become apparent that many of today’s popular cam grinds “borrowed” from Head Quarters designs.

Doug even did a cam with Jerry Branch in mind. Doug and Jerry had a mutual respect. Jerry was real fond of HQ cams and particularly the HQ-0023 cam. He sent many customers to Head Quarters for cams and Doug WOULD NOT discuss head work with Jerry’s customers. That would have been unprofessional. Doug was so pleased with the amount of business Jerry sent to Head Quarters that he designed the HQ-0029 grind because he believed it would work better in Jerry’s heads. It did.

IGNITION: One of the first things Doug realized when building performance engines was that stock and after market ignitions were not cutting it. They had too much total advance timing and needed to be retarded to combat detonation. The problem with retarding ignitions was that it retarded the whole thing, from start up through idle and the whole advance curve. Why not have an ignition that didn’t advance so far? So....Doug contacted Engine Electronics and the first ignition for high compression Harley engines was born. It was so successful that the largest after market performance engine manufacturer sent many customers our way. They sold in the thousands and are still popular today.

VALVE SEALS: Another Head Quarters first in the Harley world. For many years Head Quarters used the popular white Teflon seals but found they were a little less than perfect. Every spring Doug would get a three or four phone calls about oil coming from the exhaust ports. 70% of the time the bikes were jetted too rich and the gasoline was thinning the oil and getting past the valve seals. The other ones had defective seals. Doug found it frustrating to do an expensive high quality job and then have a failure with a thirty cent part. After searching the automotive world he found what he needed. A rubber jacketed teflon seal that would not leak. Ever. Only problem was, it wasn’t made in the right size for HQ valves and guides. Oh well, nothing that couldn’t be corrected with a 10,000 piece order to have them manufactured. Of course the copy cats were quick to follow.

SPIN DROP: Now everybody does it, but it started at Head Quarters and got it’s name from Doug Coffey. Doug laughs about it now because he coined the term “spin drop” because he didn’t know the proper term. He started doing the spin drop back in 1988 when the thinnest head gasket available was .048” thick and he wanted the piston closer to the head for better quench. Shortening the cylinders was out because HQ was only sent the heads. Doug said he needed to machine the heads on the lathe so the combustion chamber could drop down though the gasket and get closer to the piston. Hmmmmmm, what would you call a thing like that Doug mused. It was the opposite of a counter bore. Did it have a name? Doug, the self taught machinist couldn’t think of one so he called it a “spin drop” because the work was done on a lathe. He laughs about it today because he has learned the proper term should have been “compound deck”. He says “In my ignorance, I coined the term spin drop, now everybody is using it, goes to show how much influence we have with our competitors”. Funny how things get around.