Bless him, jhoff is doing what he can, but he bit down on granite by trying to do so much at once. Gotta admire his enthusiasm, though. Good attitude from what I can see.

Jhoff's travails have brought out a lot of good observations/advice from more advanced KLX'ers (certainly not me in that category) but I would discount for him concerning any negative experiences with respect to Marcelino's cam mod. Simply too much happening on his bike at once to really nail down root causes at this point.

Someone else with a 351 is trying a Marcelino mod: David R, Raytard, maybe?

I can't remember with so much activity in such a short time...

 

I will be installing the BB kit this fall probably in September when I get back from my Idaho trip, I may do the valve timing mod first to see what kind of difference it makes and then install the big bore and return the valve timing to stock and see how it goes, then try the timing mod with the big bore and see what that does.
I was expecting Jhoffs motor to calve. It was a matter of time. I think it probably has saved him from injuring himself. Perhaps by the time he saves up enough cash to fix it he will have reflected a bit on his misdeeds and slows the **** down a bit. Especially after he talked about speed shifting it.

 

What TNC said - I am running an FCR35 carb. To be honest I'm pretty sure the pilot jet is too big - I plan on dropping it a size and playing with the a/f again. I'm actually hoping that the combo of the pumper carb and the cam mod will REALLY liven the bike up

Also, the Aus bikes have more aggressive ignition timing than the US models (if I understand WestOzKLX properly anyway).

Remember, with the 250 and a bigger carb bore there is less vacuum to suck fuel through the jets, so you need to compendate for that with larger jets. Sounds counter-intuitive to need larger jets I know, but it seems to be the way it is. You can read about the process I went through getting the carb to work here if you like (https://www.kawasakiforums.com/forum...roblems-34559/).

 

I learned my lesson...trust me. I've already got everything lined up and going to order tomorrow. Just not sure about whether I should go new or used for the head

 

Glad to hear that. It is nice to see someone that is not afraid to dig in, but as said already you need to temper the enthusiasm a bit. Let others learn the hard way and you learn from them. I would not buy a used head unless you plan on having it thoroughly checked out by a machine shop that is familiar with head service. Too many things to go wrong. Do you still have your stock barrel and piston? If so you could use them again and save yourself some cash for a while.

 

The FCR 35 and the CVK 34 ar two completly different carbs , they cannot be directly compared in so far as the jetting is concerned . they have different diameter , different jet holder ( and orifices in the jet holder ) , needle jet , needle , air jets , slides etc .
Yes running that size jets in a CVK34 would make it very rich .

 

Itīs so wanderfull to live in a free world , you can choose to do une mod or another , you wonīt get punished . Me and a few others have chose to do the mod ( the mod wasnīt published only in english and only in KawasakiForums ) .
I hope you choose not to .
Your post helps exactly how ?

 

I think you asked this elswhere : Yes my bike is a brand new ( 3 month old ) KLX250EFI . I have now 2000 Km on it and 1000 with the cam mod .
The power and torque gains ( from 19 to 25 and from a curvy 2.0 to a flat 2.4 ) are a combination of cam mod , air filter lid removed and a mod to the factory exhaust ( butt plug ) .
Letīs not forget my bike is EFI , so itīs allways "jetted right" .
On the case of different pistons , never mind if they are original Kawasaki ones or the JE pistons the BB 351 kit uses : they can only come up to the edge of the cylinder , not higher . The head is the same , so thatīs a non-issue also .
The only variable that remains are the valve receses and , at least from the photos , they seem bigger on the JE than the original . If Jhoffy would have had some valve "kising" there should not be dirt in the receses of his piston .
They are dirty , wich indicates that the 1 valve he got slapped was open all the way ( sticky valve ) , as it hit more in the middle of the piston . That " pinging " he was hearing , a few hours right before the valveīs demise was extra clearance in his sticky valve as it was not able to follow the contour of the cam .

 

As far as Jhoffy bike, I have seen a piece of stuff, like head gasket, or dirt or carbon, or a screw from the carb etc. get in a cylinder and allow the valve to hit like that. One bend and its all over but the crying. As far as the timing. Look at the other thread at the webams valve timing. The 10.5* we are using is right on the border line or even more than posted there.
Even if cut in half because its a total of 10.5*.

Look Here http://klx250s.suncup.net/Cams/index.htm


Too much stuff going on right now to work on my bike for a few more days. I do not have a bore scope and will not pull the head to check clearance. I am a 30 year mechanic. Bike runs great, so I am NOT going to stick my fingers in where they don't belong. I have 4,000 smiles on the 351. 8,000 miles on the bike. It runs perfect. I may rejet when I have a spare hour so I can run with the lid on. I do not like the air cleaner bellering in my helmet. Its WAY too loud with the lid off.

David

 

You are right for sure , there is a lot of silence on the 350 street , it seems everybody is sitting on their bench waiting for someone else to make a move . Hmm ... the big dogs are quiet ...
Well , you could have the answer you are looking for in about one hour or two :
Take the valve cover off , put the engine at TDC , take the tensioner and the chain off .
Then , put a straight edge so you can clearly see the number of teeth you are moving , take a straight wrench ( or a big screwdriver ) , put it in between the 2 bolts of the camshaft and turn the camshaft in the direction of the mod ( intake to the right , exhaust to the left ) ,
You donīt need to spend a penny on parts and you will have your answer right there . Just count how manny teeth you can go , ah , do not apply excesive force , once itīs stopped , stop pulling / pushing .