Prices on engine components

[CRF450ish]

Going to do the top end soon and am mail ordering everything. Hot cams stage 3 cam and high comp. piston and getting the head done by RPM. what vendors have have people had sucess with?

[jspicket]

I've used MXtime.com and big bore thumpers for headwork. Both do excellent work.

[Hondude450]

I use Motosport.com all the time. for OEM and after market parts. their fast and pricing is good.

[Santan9]

Going to do the top end soon and am mail ordering everything. Hot cams stage 3 cam and high comp. piston and getting the head done by RPM. what vendors have have people had sucess with?

I just re did my 05 in january. it cost me under 1100$ CAD to replace the whole top end...smoking deal if you ask me.

stage 3 bolt on head with SS intakes from big bore thumpers: 675$

new OEM piston, cylinder, gaskets from hondaeasttoledo off ebay (cheapest you will find IMO) for 375$.

total was just under 1100$, after exchange rates and shipping. but your cam is going to add another 200$ to the price.

I rebuilt my engine in 08 locally.. only rebuilt the head and not replaced it, got the parts from the local honda stealership. it ended up costing me 1700$ for everything just to have it last 52 hours before the brand new TI intakes bottomed out. the local guy who cut the seats was a moron!!! expensive lesson learned there ?

[CRF450ish]

ive heard guys tossing the titanium valves for stainless steel ones cause the titanium ones have some kind of coating that peels away and causes the valves not to seat well and also ive read that the valve seats can be too hard or something?????? bring me up to speed.

[Santan9]

ive heard guys tossing the titanium valves for stainless steel ones cause the titanium ones have some kind of coating that peels away and causes the valves not to seat well and also ive read that the valve seats can be too hard or something?????? bring me up to speed.

yup thats exactly right.

the TI intake valves are not a very good idea. theyre made more for performance than long life. and yes, they do have that special stupid coating that is nothing but problems.

I would go with SS valves. they last WAYY longer, but the downside to them, which is insignificant IMO) is theyre a tad louder which makes you think something is wrong, and theyre heavier which takes 1-2 HP, and about 1000 max RPM off the top end of the bike. pretty insignificant if you ask me. I would rather have only 95% performance but twice the life VS 100% performance and only half the life of the valves.

and with SS valves youre also going to need appropriate springs, which isnt a big deal. theyre the same price, just last way longer.

if you want to stick with TI valves for whatever reason, I would suggest copper beryllium seats for the intakes. but for the exra few hundred bucks its almost not worth it unless youre a pro racing that needs every fraction of a HP he can get.

the only thing I dont like about crfs is their shitty titanium intake valves, but you can solve that problem by going SS intakes, then the crf is damn near perfect IMO.

maybe send a PM to Ron Hamp, or Eddie Sisneros if you want more details, and if they have the time, and if youre lucky, maybe they can give you some of their priceless knowledge, those guys are amazing when it comes to engines.