240 Big-Bore Kit for the KDX200
Problems
Complaints about the KDX 240 kits are
that they will not rev out as much, that they will not idle, that they
use too much fuel, that they run hot and tend to seize.
My Thoughts
It
seems to me that several of these problems could be at least partially
attributable to incorrect jetting. If my bike was typical, it showed that
the 240 jetting requires considerable leaning at the bottom and richening
at the top. My bike would not idle reliably nor pull cleanly off idle, but several things I did helped: I reduced the pilot jet to a number 40 size,
I ground away the slide cutaway by at least 1.5 mm, and I thickened
up the straight section of the needle temporarily with silver bearing
solder (intending to either find the right needle or replace the carby with
a bigger one, but I never got around to either solution).
The
needle does indeed affect the just-off-idle and even, to a small extent,
the idle mix itself. If it's way rich, as mine was, no amount of fiddling
will yield a setting that will allow the bike to both idle steadily
and roll-on cleanly.
With
these mods (and my small 28mm carby), the fuel economy was amazingly
good (better than my mate's 407 four-stroke), with responsiveness to
match. At its best it idled semi-faithfully (but, infuriatingly, never with true reliability and often hopelessly) but it always rolled on crisply. The mid-range grunt was superb, producing controllable power that was ideal
for tight trail-riding. However, the just-off-idle response was insipid, thanks to a head that was not machined to retain the squish effect, and possibly the inherently poor design of the 240 kit. This made certain greasy steep uphill challenges almost impossible, because to get any pulling power I had to venture beyond low-down chugging territory, inevitably spinning the rear wheel. Thankfully this sort of steep, super-slippery walking-speed situation was rare—so rare in fact that it took me a long time to cotton onto what was happening.
The KDX240 had a distinct powerband, but it didn't
hit savagely. Even with the tallish gearing, wider-ratio SR box, heavier
flywheel, and small carby, it will still lift the front wheel in the
first four gears.
I
don't know how important grinding the slide cutaway is as I ground mine
at the same time as performing the other mods. You might be able to
produce satisfactory results without this step, though it costs nothing
and is worthwhile in my opinion.
I
was also running a 180 main jet, which came with the bike. It seemed only
slightly rich, but a more strongly-tapered needle is what the bike really
wanted, with a somewhat smaller main jet (my 1/2 throttle range seems
to be slightly on the lean side).
I
imagine that many 240-kitted bikes have been run with near-standard
jetting that worked well in their previous 200cc incarnation, and have
suffered from not only poor economy and richness at the low end, but
also poor power and overheating caused by leanness at the top.
This
is not to say that the thin iron bore does not run hotter by nature.
Of course it does. Ask for a good 3 thou' clearance if you have the
job done, and check your ring gap carefully. I seized mine because of
a lapse in concentration when I held the throttle wide open with only a few
hours on the rebore. Wiseco pistons require a longer run-in time because
they are forged and expand more than the stock cast pistons. I also
recommend using more oil during run-in with these sleeves - say 25:1
for a few tanks.
As
for the lack of top end zap, this is to be expected
with any big bore kit especially if the ports are not reworked to
compensate. See "Port-Time Area" on this
page. The head should definitely be re-machined too. Also, high-end
breathing is affected by carby size, already a limiting factor with
the stock 200 let alone a 240. Having the carby bored out to 36mm, as
done by RB Designs in the US, would be very beneficial to the 240 I
would think. Until I buy a bigger carby, I can't really comment on this
issue as mine will inevitably sign off early. Even so, it pulls so hard
and furiously before the power quits that I can't help wondering if
the right jetting in a good 36mm PWK wouldn't almost give it a top end
to match.
I
recommend running Shell
Optimax with the 240 kit. As I write I've just switched over from
BP premium, and the difference is quite noticeable. I had to screw my
throttle stop in a couple of turns as soon as I fired it up on the new
fuel to prevent it revving so hard. It idles better, pulls better, pings
less (pinging is another consequence of my cylinder head not being re-machined), and seems to be more economical
too. Its (presumably) faster burn speed is ideal for the wide bore and
extended combustion chamber formed by the 240 kit. Note that if you're
already running rich, Optimax will make the richness worse. I switched
over in mid-winter when the air is denser, so some of the power improvement
I felt would be simply a result of Optimax compensating for
this.
While
on the subject of economy, my bike, with its 28mm carby, always was
excellent and is now probably even better on Optimax. For example, my
last ride was 90km (56 miles) of quite fast, steep, tight and often
very rough terrain, with no attempt to spare the horses, and I used
only 7 litres (1.85 US galls) of fuel. Not bad.
These kits use an LA
Sleeve liner and Wiseco piston. You might not see the pistons listed in the Wiseco catalogue,
but performance shops would be your best bet for sourcing replacement parts. In Australia, Serco traditionally handled the 240 kits. The poor design of these kits has seen them dropped from being actively sold, so you'll be discouraged from going this route and parts could well be difficult if not impossible to find by now.
Eric Gorr says that FMF's Fatty pipe is
ideal for a bored engine (I had one).
Once again, you really do need to have your cylinder head machined to suit the 240 kit, otherwise there's not much hope of good idle and off-idle permformance as the squish band will be wrong.
See this
thread for a further discussion of the 240 kit. Search on "240"
for more.
Back to my main KDX page
My 240cc big bore sleeve as seen from below (bored
to first oversize)
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