Hi! First, would someone explain the difference between a cdi box and a rev box? My mechanic friend suggested that I find one for my 08 Kawasaki prairie 360. I cannot find one for the 360, all of the other sizes have hundreds!
So I guess I am looking for a low cost chinese cdi or rev box (which ever one that would boost my performance over stock).

Can anyone help??

Mike

 

A CDi usualy controlls the ignition timing and rev limit. I am in the process of doing the same thing so I could not tell you the advantages of a aftermarket one. But from what I have found the best place to find cheap ones are from ebay, or RACING PERFORMANCE CDI 150CC 250CC ATV DIRT BIKE CD08 this place. I dont know exactly what style plug you have, i just posted the one I am looking at right now. But the web page should atlest get you to the cdi section.

 

Thanks for the lead, my problem seems to be they either do not have it or they only have it for the bigger prairie's. Do you know if the ones for the bigger prairies would fit mine?

 

I dont realy know if the plugs are the same I would have to say it will, but most of them are made for a curtian size CC so my guess would be the timing would be off. That is one of the questions I have been wondering and have asked CDI manufactures with no answer. I would think if you could find one with adjustable timing it would not make a difference.

One of the things I have found is as long as you find a CDI with the same number of pins you can change the plug on the wire harness and have no problems.

 

Cool, thanks for your help! I can't seem to get a straight answer. One mechanic told me that I could ude one of the ones for the bigger prairies if the connectors were the same. That was just one guy, and I cannot get anything out of Kawasaki!

 

Yup, pin configuration is how the CDI manufacturers separate the different CDIs.
If your pins match, you will be fine.

http://en.kendincos.net/video-jfpvjr...ke-engine.html

 

So as long as the pins match, any one of the will fit my prairie? Sweet!! Now I just have to figure out where the box is on my 2008 prairie!!

Mike

 

I don't know anything about prairies, but I want to differ with the statement that if the pins match the CDIs are compatible. This may be true for some CDIs, but it is not always true.

The best example of this is the 150cc 250cc 2 pin/4 pin chinese CDIs. There are 12 volt powered versions and high voltage AC powered versions. They look identical, use the same connectors, but aren't compatible at all. In fact in this example if you plug an AC powered CDI into a DC powered quad you usually get smoke and shrapnel out of the CDI.

Like frizman, I wonder how much increase in performance you would get by using the custom ignition timing curve from a different engine on your engine. You might get a decrease in performance. And all this is assuming it works at all.

Also keep in mind that the CDI and ignition coil are tuned to each other. The storage capacitor in the CDI is resonated with the ignition coil primary inductance such that it matches the resonant frequency of the coil scondary winding (formed from the secondary inductance plus distributed capacitance in the secondary winding). So when you use a CDI from another type quad with the existing coil you're adding a lot of new variables. Maybe it will work, but maybe it won't.

If you decide to try it, and it works, then great. I just wanted to point out that this isn't a slam dunk. It may not work as well as you like. And it may not work at all.

 

Well that is certainly something that is NOT advertised in any of the performance ads.
Figures.

 

No it is not. I think those adds are just to try and sell something to the average person that knows very little about these. Like I have found some that say a 8-10 HP gain on a 250cc engine. This started making me think these were bogus because (I dont know about all 250cc) the ATV i have is around 15-18 HP, so your talking a 50% gain in HP by spending around $100. This is a red flag to me.

That is how I found this forum, and it has helped my understanding on how these things actualy work. Knowing a little bit about them, I think the aftermarket CDI companies are just pulling our leg into spending money on something that is more then likely going to cause more headaches in getting the thing to work right.