I am buying a high compression piston from a forum member and plan on a set of cams. I just downt know which ones yet. A new CDI and maybe a carb. I have tore down and rebuilt or juiced up 300EX's, Banshees and Blasters. Compared to those 3 mentioned, how hard is the DS to tear down and put back together? I am a little leary about it, because it seems like a complicated motor. Anyone go into it blind or with little skill and come out ok?

 

As you know from your 300EX, a 4-stroke is much more involved than the banshee. The DS is a little different than the 300EX you are experienced with, because of dual overhead cams, but I wouldn't say more complicated. You also have the liquid cooling that comes into play, but that adds nothing real complicated either.
I suggest getting a shop manual if you don't have one, read through it on the procedures of disassembly and assembly, and if it looks like something you'd be comfortable with then go for it. A lot of people slam the manual, because it is fairly technical leaving out a lot of the stuff the author would consider common knowledge, but it does give you assembly diagrams, torque specs, and loctite recomendations, which is all you really need if you're already familiar with motors.
You can do it if you give yourself plenty if time, don't rush, and triple check everything you just did before going on to the next step.

 

It's probably the simplest quad to replace the cams. We have to take the cams out to do valve clearances so you will get used to taking them in and out. Do a vavle clearance job on the DS and you will know if you are capable of replacing them. When I first seen how it was set up I would've just put better cams in it when I did the valve clearances. So the only hard part that you stated is the rebuild which I haven't done yet but oh so many people on here have.

 

tearing down the motor is the easy part. It's putting it back together that gives me problems.

 

buy a manual and jump in if you get stuck get on here and find the help you need.