PSWS Racing Reed Kit Review

As always, many thanks have to go out to our performance parts providers. In this case, it’s PSWS Racing. Matt, the owner of PSWS Racing, was kind enough to send us his PSWS Racing Reed Kit for the air cooled Cagllari. Thanks Matt for being patient as well!

Overview:

The PSWS Racing Reed kit is available with or without the Walbro carb. This test was conducted using the provided Walbro carb from Matt, which has a 15.5mm venturi, and 18mm intake side. The carb ports are HUGE! The reeds are made of Carbon Fiber, which will definitely last a lot longer than fiberglass reeds. It also has adjustable tensioners to adjust how stiff the reeds open and close, which will affect your low, mid, and top end power. As a general rule, stiffer reeds are better for top end power, since you won’t have much reed flutter.

At first glance, one can notice the craftsmanship of this billet reed block. The parts that come with the kit are as follows.

• Billet Reed block assembly
• Intake manifold designed for Walbro carbs, and specifically designed for the PSWS Racing Reed kit
• Carbon Fiber Reeds
• Walbro Carb
• All required hardware and gaskets
  
  
  
  

Assembling the block is fairly easy. Instructions are provided with this kit, therefore I don’t feel there’s a need to repeat them here in this review. The instructions that are provided are very clear and concise. It should take no longer than 30-45 minutes to install.


Test Tools & Conditions:

• Half Fairing Cag (stock 6/68 gearing)
• PSWS Racing Reed Kit
• Walbro carb
• IP2 Race Pipe (stinger was cut off prior to this test)
• Ported Stock SY head (dual boost ports and ported exhaust port)
• GPT Tachometer
• Rialto Race Track – Conditions were great. Temperature at the track was in the low to mid 70’s.

Test/Review:

Prior to installing the PSWS Racing Reed kit, I ported the stock SY head to my own specs. I made a dual boost port and ported the exhaust port. I set the squish to .45 and used some gasket sealant to make sure the head will not leak any air/fuel. I also cut the stinger off the IP2 pipe for only one reason…there’s very limited space to install the pipe on my Cag and cutting off the silencer made it a lot easier installing the pipe, and if I ever decide to take it off, it will be much easier without the stinger in the way.

It took me 30 minutes to install the PSWS Racing Reed kit on the bike. The instructions were very clear, and PSWS even offers help on tuning the reed kit and carb.

As some of you know, I had trouble tuning this reed kit initially. As I became more familiar with the Walbro carb, I found it very easy to tune, and quite honestly, Walbro carbs are some of the best carbs you can get for the cag. The important thing, is to ask the pocketbike dealer you do business with, to provide you with a Walbro carb that can provide enough fuel for you mods. The Walbro carb that came with PSWS Racing Reed Kit, flows more than enough fuel for any modification you do to your bike. The fact that you can adjust the fuel mixture (Lean or High) without changing jets is amazing. Too many times have I had to rejet a stock or Dellorto carb, to take advantage of the mods I have done to my cag. Its tedious and time consuming, to take off the bowl each and everytime I want to go lean or richen the fuel mixture. With the walbro carb, you can tune it from the outside, and not have to get your hands dirty J

I started the tuning process by following PSWS’s tuning tips, which said to turn both the low and high speed screws, as well as the idle screw, all the way in. Leave the idle screw all the way in, and turn the low speed screw counter clockwise 1 ½ turns, and the high speed, 2 turns counter clockwise. After you get an idle, I adjusted the low speed screw to give me steady low idle (idle’s at 2200-2500 RPMs). From there, I WOTd on the stand and leaned out my high speed screw till the bike screamed. I then hopped on the bike, and adjusted the high speed screw (1/8^th turns either lean or rich) to give me, what I felt, would be best for overall performance. If you have problems with tuning this carb, I suggest reading up an article I found from DDM that helped me a lot on the tuning process. http://www.davesmotors.com/pocketbike-faq.htm

Once I felt the tuning was perfect, I decided to proceed on with the test.

As I did for the ADA Racing Reed Kit test, I did two different types of tests with the bike. I tested top end speed and also, how the bike and its engine modifications react in a real racing environment. The maximum RPMs that I achieved with this setup was 11,800 RPMs with load. The bike probably would have achieved higher numbers, but I ran out of room on the straightaway. Acceleration was great throughout the whole RPM range, low, mid, and top end. Even from a standstill, the bike had more low end than stock, and when it hits the pipe, watch out. With stock 6/68 gearing, that equals to 36 mph. With 7/68, which this motor can definitely pull, that equals to 42 mph. Now again, for the track that I race at, it would take too long to pull a 7 tooth so if you ride a short technical track, keep the stock 6/68 gearing.

The track was setup as a technical track, meaning, lots of turns. The track is setup for both pocketbikes and karts, so for top end speed, I used the outer part of the track which is setup for karts (circular track). Power delivery coming out of the turn and into the straightaway was instantaneous and powerful. I did about 5-7 laps, twice, to see the consistency of the results and they all were pretty much the same.

The second part of the test is how the bike and the engine modifications react to a real race environment, since this is the intended nature for these bikes. Coming into and out of the corners, the power and acceleration was unbelievable. This Cag is probably the fastest Cag I have tested so far.

I raced against a few X-7’s & cags out there. They couldn’t touch me. And from looking at their bikes, they had a lot of modifications done. I was passing them up on the straights quite easily, and also, they were of no match coming out of the corners. The Cag had so much power throughout its power range.

Would I recommend getting the PSWS Racing Reed block kit? YES! As I’ve said in previous posts and threads, I believe one of parts that limit the cags potential, is the reed block assembly. PSWS Racing has solved this problem by producing a high quality reed block assembly that flows more than enough air and fuel for a stock motor. If you have a 4 –5 port head, big bore motor, or any other high flowing headkit, you need the PSWS reed kit to take advantage of these mods to maximize the potential of the cag. As PSWS has proven at the track time and time again, their products work. No one in socal can beat their Cag open class bikes. They’re just too fast for everyone, and lucky enough for us, they have decided to sell the products that they use in races, such as their reed kit, and head kits.

Installation:

An installation guide is given with each reed kit, therefore, an installation how to will not be given.

PBP and PSWS Racing will not be responsible for any damages to yourself or your pocketbike resulting from these modifications. Perform these modifications at your own risk.