Choices ?? Advice

[Fred1956]

I just purchased a 2006 EC and now the rest of the story. The title/VIN presented itself to be an EC300 (VTREC3000G016xxxxx). The guy told me it had "a 250 head", I, trying to stay in budget and having to drive a ways to get it decided to buy it anyway. It rode and ran nice, although even on the test ride I noticed the fairly good 'hit' it had, has a few mods and was in pretty good shape. It does have Ohlins on the rear and Zoke Shivers on the front. Obviously I was hoping for a 300 and all of it's grunt and 'electric power'. After getting home with it, it turns out to actually be a 250 ( I went by the stamped #s on the head stay mount-25G01). While I have not got ride it in the woods yet as weather has been miserable and holiday preps are running me ragged I have ???s
So now I have a choice, turn it into a 300 via cylinder swap etc or make it a tight woods, one track, rolling rock trail version 250. I'm looking for suggestions or ideas.
It has a FMF Fatty, should I get a Gnarly ? I find conflicting opinions, is the Gnarly a 'heavy wall' Fatty?, or a different powerband altogether ?
It has a V-Force Reed cage is that a help or hurt?
Will the head/carb mods 'mellow' it out, but not lose power.
Do the 300 & the 250 use the same carb?
The ignition is the 2K ?? version I think (wires at 11 o'clock) it does have the dual MAP switch but I can't tell if it works yet.
The guy was running Suzuki CCI pre mix oil at 40:1 and the silencer has a ring of YUCK at the back of it, also the powervalve cover drain tube?? has a drip of SPOOGE that is in the truck bed. I think the Zukie oil needs to go but not being in this for a while I would like suggestions. I used to use Golden Spectro back in 98 but technology and synthetics may have passed Spectro up. Suggestions ??
I found the link to the 'sidestand fix' I need it badly !! :-)

Thanks in advance for all help, I've been lurking and learning but now it's time to ride........ Fred

[eff]

I wouldn't be too worried that it is a 250. I have one and it lugs just fine.

The gnaly and fatty are the same design and the power hit will be the same.

You do have the 2k-2 ignition and if you want to tame it down some you may want to consider a flywheel weight.

I just changed premix and I am trying Amsoil Interceptor. I have yet to run it yet. I don't think you can go wrong with the Interceptor or Dominator. I run 50:1, and ither run between 40:1 and 50:1. What ever you run it should be jetted accordingly.

HAVE FUN WITH IT!

[Fred1956]

eff- I noticed the Interceptor being used, I guess it burns clean enough. I'm trying to find some now. It does have a 7oz FWW should I go bigger ? (added that info to my original)

[eff]

I have been thinking about getting one myself. I think GMP recommended a 14oz. If you really wanted to mellow it out that would be the way to go.

[jostby]

Originally Posted by Fred1956

The guy was running Suzuki CCI pre mix oil at 40:1 and the silencer has a ring of YUCK at the back of it, also the powervalve cover drain tube?? has a drip of SPOOGE that is in the truck bed. I think the Zukie oil needs to go but not being in this for a while I would like suggestions. I used to use Golden Spectro back in 98 but technology and synthetics may have passed Spectro up. Suggestions ??
I found the link to the 'sidestand fix' I need it badly !! :-)

Learn to live with the spooge. I have tried all differant oils and combinations on mine and when it runs good it drips. Not bad but enough to wipe off at the end of the day.
An interesting observation is that my kids bike originally had the GasGas pipe. The kid destroyed it and we replaced it with the Gnarly (noticeable differance, much snappier). His never dripped spooge before but does now. I wonder if the Gnarly pipe design prevents the oil from blowing out clean, like it collects in the chamber and eventually gets blown out as drips?

We both like our auto-retract sidestands, sure is a black and white issue though. People either love it or hate it

[Rick]

I really don't think it matters what pipe you have, mine drips with the Messico Pipe and TCII. I clean my PV cover out after a few rides...which seems to help a little.

[GMP]

Nice bike. Many of us like the 250s, main reason being is they are less tiring to ride aggressively as they don't hit as hard off idle, and as eff said they have adequate grunt.

You can play with a lot of things to smooth it out if you prefer. The Gnarly/Fatty pipe is the biggest culprit. If you can find an OEM GG pipe it will pull an Obama job on the powerband and spread the wealth around. VForce is good. A 11-14 oz flywheel weight on the 2K-2 works very well. You can also retard your static timing slightly and add a base gasket. Many of these mods are cheap or free.

Ride it some first and get a good idea what you want to change, you may find it closer to your liking after a fer hours. I'd start with jetting and a flywheel weight and see how you like that.

250/300 have different cyls, heads, piston kit, o-rings, and jetting. Possibly CDIs as well.

Amsoil Dominator is excellent oil. It will spooge some from a spark arrestor as the flashpoint is high and most blows through the motor and does not burn.

[roostafish]

Fred, oil is oil. How do it know? I've run everything you can think of. Just use a synthetic. Spectro is fine, I don't like it 'cause it smells bad, but, that's just me. This week I'm using Motul 800 2T. Why, because the local dealer hadn't sold any, and had a shelf full, so I asked him what he'd sell the whole lot for. He looks at me and says, "how about $30?" I swooped it. Probably $120 worth of oil at list price. You may try that, it's worked for me for years.

Bike mods? You don't need them. Maybe a 14oz flywheel weight since you've been off the dirt for a while, but that's just to get you going again. These bikes are the best in the woods, so, I'd just ride it. Pipe? If you can trade somebody for something that tickles your fancy, like say, for a gnarly, that you'll surely need as you crash your way back into practice. You don't need to retard the timing. Use the rain mode switch. Once you get used to riding again, you probably will use it on sunny mode most of the time anyway. If you really need to tame the bike, you can retard the timing, but I wouldn't lower the compression. I'd consider the RB head mod, then attack jetting. The squish band mod (RB) will make it super snappy, and make it easy to jet. Maybe you want to just ride it and make sure the jetting's acceptable. We all like playing with new bikes, but I would urge you to try it before you go to far.

[Trailrider]

The power valve drain tube will drip some regardless of the oil you use.
Sounds like an LTR cover with drain tube added on the bottom.

[Cruiser]

The CDI for the 300 and 250 are swappable and just have slightly different mapping so its more to rider prefference.. The older CDI's without the dual mapping were more of a difference in maps and swapping then made lots of change bike to bike. In my 03 I put a 300 cdi in it to give it more grunt down low and it worked.. the cdi for the 03 250 was a soft bottom map.. Ride it till you get used to it and then decide.. Pipe make a big difference,, the messico is great but paper thin.. you will trash them,, and the GG stamped pipes are a HD version of this pipe..more or less.. I ran amsoil and had the least buildup of spooge tailpipe and internal... just use a GOOD synthetic.. watch the old style GS is not a synthetic but a blend and shouldnt be mixed 50:1..
Have fun with it and post pics and ride reports!