Wr 450 ?

[jmics19067]

Gentleman and Madams,

I am considering buying a new wr 450 for basicly playing. Maybe an occasional MX or DualSport kit and/or both but the main thing will be trail riding and race back to the truck type games .

When I had wr400 I felt it was rather lackluster with the stock cam settings so I retarded the cam to the YZ spec and open up the exhaust. Obviously the bike was a better performer and a lot louder.
How much difference is there in power between a YZ400 and the WR450? When I did the Yz mods on my wr400 I would probably appreciate the difference in power 70% IE the 30% extra was beyond my being able to fully take advantage/enjoyment of it unless I was in a wide open area.

questions I want to ask are.
Would taking out the Ti valves and springs and putting in stainless be a favorible mod for reliabilty. selling the take offs to try and recoup my money. I doubt I will hit the rev limiter so I doubt the wieght of the stainless will be an issue floating
and,

When I had the 400 I was considering on sending out the exhaust cam sprocket to be machined for adjustability. Thinking of YZ too fast and loud and the WR too slow ,going for something in between with matching an insert for the exhaust to try and compliment by trying to cut sound but not choke off power that I wanted. I mean a WR exhaust opened up is an obnoxious waste and while the YZ is a beautiful thing on a track a bit overkill in the woods and useless if corked up in my personal opinion in my experience of the bike I owned. Could this be a viable way of obtaining a happy medium for likes of me?

Thank You for any help
Jim

 

[JasonJ]

I think a happy medium exist with bolt on parts. I would not even consider removing the Ti valves, are you nuts? Get the GTYR or Vor insert and get the stock pipe in the 96 db area, retime and recam to YZ and get a good jet kit like the JD jet kit that is more or less garunteed to tune the bike in niceley.
The problem is the 03 has the auto decomp can and I dont think you can use the stock WR cam with the decomp if you chage the timing as the decomp lifter will be out of posistion. I would get the new WR 450 and see how you like it once you get it dialed in before considering changing the cam and or timing.

 

[jmics19067]

are you nuts?

I have been accused of worse. :laugh: what would be wrong with stainless valves if I am not looking to squeek out every rpm? from what I understand the Ti valves are high maintenance and very expensive. If my understanding of eavesdropping on the good conversations in here The Ti valves would be overkill for my situation. Was I wrong in my understanding? I figured I could sell the unused take out ti valves to a racer who could use them , use the stainless instead of having to replace them in a year or two and having to pay for the whole deal and hopefully not have to deal with valvetrain problems as much as I heard. Moreof a gas -n- go bike like the old 400s where,comparitively

 

[JasonJ]

Well, I could trade you my WR 400 steel valves for your new Ti ones if you want :) . But hey, why bother with all that work? Ill just trade you my well dialed in WR 400 for the 450 :) .

 

[jmics19067]

well actually if I could finance a good clean reasonably priced d/s wr400 would be my first choice. If I had the cash outright that would be what I probably would plunk my money down if I didnt think the used bike was overpriced. Would you convert it to electric start? :laugh:

I am not hung up on the idea of something new but since the used yamaha's 4strokes are apparently holding their value very well . The cost and effort involved on going thru a used bike freshening it up and replacing things to suit my needs sometimes it just pays to start with new to begin with.

 

[JasonJ]

"Would you convert it to electric start? "
No but I could put the 03 auto decomp cam in it :D.
Or wire a cattel prod into the seat to jolt you in the butt, that will give you some kick! LOL.
Looking for an already dual sported older bike is a good idea as there are many of them out there despite it being a PITA to get done. You can get them fairley cheap down sout it seems if your willing to take a rode trip to pick it up. Hey, if its street legal you could ride a bus or trian down and ride it back!