We are stumped a little ??
 

OK here goes, I have a 08 300 EC with LTR jetting kit.It runs good ,has decent bottom and a strong mid range hit . My son just picked up a 06 300 DE that was a repo out of New Hampshire. It has a little time on it and appears to be stock but when we finally got it all checked over and fired it up we were very surprised at the power delivery . THIS BIKE IS AN ANIMAL!!!! The first thing that I thought was that it had the RB carb and head mod but we looked through the carburator and can't see any divider plate . It has the stock 06 pipe. The needle is bronz colored and the number has been ground off. We are stumped and would love to get the 08 to run this good. Did GG change the port timing from 06 to 08 ?? Could the 06 have a different CDI box ?? All we know is the 06 builds loads of arm stretching torque right off the bottom and keeps right on pullin through the mid range and upper end. Has anyone ever played with the governor spring on the power valve ?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Is the '08 a full "EC" with the 2K3 ignition? The DE has the 2K2.

Check to see what locations the wires leave the ignition cover. If at 10:00 then 2K2, if at 2:00 then 2K3.

The 08 and the 06 has the 2k2 ignition. The only obvious difference is the 08 has the FMF pipe and the 06 pipe has GasGas stamped on the side of it.

3 things that may be different

Jetting - sounds like an LTR needle in the '06
Ignition
Compression

I say, if it is an animal just off idle, you have a higher compression head on the '06. It's an easy swap to test it out on the '08 sometime. The resom I say this is that my '05 was whimpy off idle compared to my '00 with the higher compression head. With the RB cut head, the '05 became an animal that I tamed with different jetting a gearing.

Even with the jetting dialed in you will have a big difference due to the pipe.

I have used the FMF, Doma and stock GG pipes. The FMF pipe signs off very early. The Doma on my '01 XC300 and the stock GG pipe on my '06 EC300 are nearly identical. The stock GG pipe and Doma are much smoother and have much more top end power than the FMF.

My real world dyno is a hill. On a steep dirt hill, my '01 XC300 with the FMF was only able to pull 3rd gear at a moderately high RPM. When I put on the Doma pipe, I could pull 4th gear screaming at a much higher RPM than with the FMF pipe in 3rd gear. It was a huge difference.

The Doma & stock GG pipe are much better than the FMF Gnarly for my woods trail riding and open sand riding.

Try swapping pipes and see what happens.

The 08 with the stock FMF pipe doesn't have as much bottom as the the 06 with the stock GG pipe. I suspect maybe it has the RB design head is the biggest reason for the huge bottom end torque :confused: The needle is a mystery also. I'm sending off my head and carb on the 08 to have RB work his magic and then maybe it will run as good as the 06.

The RB designs head work will make a big difference on the low end torque. It also improves fuel efficiency.

The RB designs carb mod works well to clean up the partial (0 to 1/2) throttle operation.

After you test the RB designs mods, try swapping the pipes and see how that affects performance. I expect that the pipe swap will make the biggest difference on the top end.

The older FMF pipes sucked. Like Erik K stated the Doma or the older OEM GG pipes are much better all around. From the sounds of it FMF has not made a Doma clone and we are getting the same old pipe. MY 02 300 with the 06 oem pipe, 250 ignition, no reed spacer and the LTR kit flat out hauls. Instant throttle response that pulls to a decent overrev. I am however looking for ways to improve the topend on my bike.

Paul B

Why if the Gas Gas pipe works so well (and I read that allot) and seems to be made of decent heavy material do we continue to get the FMF pipes? Seems to me the stock spec euro GG pipes should come standard.....and the 2K3 as well IMHO but that's another topic for discussion.


Skidad in MA

I wonder if keeping everything the same would make the price come down...