lt250dave

As luck would have it, I ordered a new steering servo for my Baja on wednesday off ebay to replace my stripped stock servo, and a Reed kit from DDM also on wednesday. Friday afternoon the mailman drops one package at the door and sure enough its not the one to make it steer, its the one that will make it keep the steering wheels off the ground. So I proceeded with the Reed kit install and everything went OK, however for installation on the Baja there is several things you will need

1. A number 21 drill bit and a 10-32 tap to install the fitting in the bottom of the carb, and also some red Loc-tite for the fitting

2. A light piece of cardboard/manilla folder material to make a gasket to go between the heat spacer and the carb. I'm not sure if they forgot to include it or if it just didnt come with it.

3. An aftermarket "short" airfilter since the reedcage moves the carb about 1.5 inches away from the cylinder. This causes the stock filter to lay directly onto the fuel lines coming out of the gas tank and will not let you replace the filter cap.

4. A Dremel grinder with a good deburring bit to Port match the reed cage to the intake port. I bolted the reed mounting plate to the cylinder and took a fine point Sharpie marker and traced around the intake port so i could see where material needed to be removed.

5. A Dremel grinder with a cut-off wheel to shorten the bolts about 7 threads that secure the stock filter and carb to the reed cage

6. A few minutes of tweaking the throttle linkage since the reedcage moves the carb from horizontal to about 20 degrees off center

7. A few minutes with a round and flat file to deburr the bolt holes that are machined into the reed cage

8. A good can of carb or brake cleaner to hose out the cylinder after your done grinding on it

I think that was it, if anyone has any questions please let me know and i will try to answer them. As i said before I still dont have a good steering servo so i cant say for sure yet how much of an improvement its gonna make. Hopefully i will have the servo by monday.

Does anyone have a recommendation and installation explanation for a new air filter and/or velocity stack? will i have to remove the stock airfilter base and replace it with a V stack then get a clamp on type air filter? or is there airfilters that mount directly to the carb?

thanks in advance.

I took some photos of the finished results, they should be in my gallery.

IMADMAN

My Feedback: (16)

Dave,
Are you using the kit with the stock or unmodified engine? Was this the $299 kit on E-bay? Can't wait for your reveiw on it next week.

lt250dave

My motor is stock 23cc with a Jetpro version 2 pipe and now the DDM reed kit. I purchased both the pipe and the reed kit from DDM, www.davesmotors.com
they are very helpful and have very fast shipping. the pipe was $179 and the reed kit was $125. Dont forget the RCU coupon code and free shipping when you make a purchase from them. [sm=thumbup.gif]

IMADMAN

My Feedback: (16)

Ok. Thanks for the info.

Earth Surfer

Does that reed also come with porting instructions? The reed allows you to put a very effective transfer port up the back side of the cylinder. Then, the real gains of the reed can be seen. Without the porting, you will probably gain more low end power with the reed, but peak will be pretty close. With the porting, the entire power curve will be imporved.

lt250dave

The only porting that is really occurring is to match the stock port to the opening of the reed cage, port matching, and it MUST be done for the reeds to function properly. As for the instructions, i pretty much explained it above

4. A Dremel grinder with a good deburring bit to Port match the reed cage to the intake port. I bolted the reed mounting plate to the cylinder and took a fine point Sharpie marker and traced around the intake port so i could see where material needed to be removed.


If you have ever seen an aftermarket head for a real car engine that has been ported then you will know what i am talking about, what you want to accomplish is the smoothest transition from the front of the port to the back side of the port without any steps or jumps.

TurtleRacing

If you are adding a reed valve there is more then just match porting to be done, you will need a transfer port. Eart Surfer is a very reputable porter for these motors, he knows what he's talking about.

lt250dave

this absolutely stinks having my Baja sitting here with the pipe and reed kit installed and ready for some bashing but still no steering servo [:@]. hopefully the mailman will drop it off monday [sm=cool.gif]

Earth Surfer

Here is how I put in the transfer port on reed case engines. TS gives these instructions when you buy his reed cases. The cylinder reed could be done the same way. First, on a reed case engine, we fill the cylinder intake with epoxy (because the cases have their own intake), but you don't do that with a cylinder reed--of course. I think it is a good idea to fill the area of the two cooling fins right above the intake (out side of casting, on top of the intake tract) with epoxy, because the fifth transfer can get pretty close to breaking through the cylinder wall. It should not break through, but if the casting is porus, you might get an air leak. The epoxy (I use slow setting JB weld) above the intake assures that a air leak there won't happen. Next, cut a 10mm wide channel up the back of the cylinder. The roof angle of this port should point toward the spark plug (most say a 60 deg angle). Now some people port a cylinder reed fifth port from the top of the intake, to the same height of the other transfers. That is OK, and takes advantage of the inertia of the fuel air still comeing in through the reeds, but you can also cut that fifth port channel all the way through the cylinder skirt and into the cases so the crank case pressure can also feed the port like the rest of the ports. Make sure you don't cut the port so deep that there is no gasket width left to seal the cylinder. You should have about 2mm of gasket width left if you run the fifth transfer down to the cases. I cut the tunnel in with my mill at a 6 deg angle (on a G260) to just about 2mm above the intake port, the I put the rest of the roof angle (the part pointing to the plug) in by hand to about the same height as the other transfers. This one part that is a bit tricky. The ring end gap is not suppose to traverse a port (but we seem to get away with murder with these small bore engines), so you want to make sure you do a clean job , and may be even put a small radious on the edges of the ring with 400 grit sand paper to help it not snag a port. Put a slight arc on the top edge (where the plating starts from your cut) of the port, so the ring can ease back into the piston ring groove. I have only had two cylinders snag a ring there that I know of. And it was the same customer both times (who is going to start racing on my team---I hope). Some people are working with two 5mm wide rear transfers, so the ring gap is in between them, but I have not played with that yet.

Then, a window 10mm wide can be cut into the intake side of the piston (under the ring), and on a cylinder reed, you can cut a half moon shape the width of the intake port. This makes the intake effectively open for 360 deg of crank case rotation. If the inertia of the fuel air comeing in is still keeping the reeds open (at any RPM it works at), this half moon shape can help fill the lower end better than a piston port closing off the intake. The window in the piston also feeds the fifth transfer (from the cases also), helps lube the top rod bearing, and helps keep the piston crown a bit cooler.

outlawti

earth surfer knows i bought one of his engines from daves discount motors and my st is a new vehicle before it wouldnt wheelie now it pulls a wheelie so hard when it shifts into second it flips if i dont let off of the gas. I may try the reed kit on my mt just to have two diffrent setups and compare the 2.

lt250dave

I have added another pic to my gallery to better explain what i had to do to make the reed kit work, like i said, i took a Sharpie and outlined the reed mounting block then removed the block and ground out just enough material to make a smooth transition.

lt250dave

My Baja is finally back in action and ready to run, i got the reed cage done, the new filter and velocity stack from DDM on and my new Hitec 5745MG servo installed . The digital servo is the way to go, it has a ton more holding power than the stock plastic gear piece of junk. As for how it runs , i cant say yet. I just got it finished up tonight so my buddy and i are gonna take our Baja's out tomorrow and run em.

Timmahh

im into dirt busting most of the day on the track here. hopefully by tomorrow, it will be most the way done. but i ll be giveing the track some dirt squirting test this afternoon for sure. let us know how you came out LT. Vid would be cool!
Timmahh

lt250dave

i told my buddy to get his vid cam all ready to go. I'm on my way out the door right now to go get two stroke oil from Cycle Specialties then down to his house. i just took mine out back and ran it for about 2 min but i can see its gonna need some tuning. with any luck I should have some pics or vid on here by tonight. [sm=biggrin.gif]