I was talking to a guy from Graydon, he claimed to have put together the DS on the cover of Dirt Wheeles a few monthes ago. He said that the Alba DS gets smoked by the Graydon DS, that the Ron Woods stage 1 DS gets smoked by the Graydon DS with the Graydon rev box, and it even beats the Woods stage 2. I know he works for Graydon but if the Graydon pipe, rev box, and ect. cost nere $800 and is good as the Woods stage 1 or 2 for that matter thats one heck of a deal!! But the Qustion is, is this guy full of it???

 

I do not know what is involved with the Graydon set up other than the pipe and ignition box, but it could be possible that he speaks the truth. The Ron Woods Racing stage 2 package includes a 45MM carb with it. That may be the cause of the Graydon "beating" it in some situations. The 45MM carb will give better peak HP #'s at the cost of some bottom and mid power and throttle responce. The fact that it is a flat slide carb, as apposed to the CV carb that is stock, would help maintain equal throttle responce between the two though. Stock heads just don't seem to flow well enough, and the stock cylinder doesn't create enough volocity to get great power across the rev range with a 45MM carb. This carb works great with head work or displacement increases, but only seems to help the peak power on a mild motor. Team Pami and I have done some experimenting on this front and have dicovered that a 40MM flat slide works best on mild motors, ensuring terrific throttle responce as well as broad torque curves, from idle to peak. Although, the peak power was just slightly down from the peak power with a 45MM carb.[2-3HP] If you ever plan to upgrade from the basics, a kit that included a 45MM carb might be advisable, but if you plan to keep the motor mild and would like the wider torque and better throttle responce, stay with a smaller carb. Either way, Team Pami and I can set you up to roost them all[Graydon,Woods, and Alba] LOL
Hope this helped to explain it.

 

Just from what your describing I'd say the guy is indeed full of it. All engine performance is based on the principles of volumetric efficiency. This means the more air/fuel mixture you can stuff into and out of an engine in the most efficient manner, the more power that engine is going to make. If Graydon is only selling the exhaust and ignition box then you still have the matter of the intake. As my dad always reminded me, a matched setup usually adds the most bang for the buck. Look at the success of Edelbrock. The have complete matching sets of components and do very well (ie the Performer Series parts line). So after all this, I think the best bet for performance (without actually being able to self test) would be the Ron Wood setup because of the K&N, carb, intake manifold, exhaust system, and ignition. Being that they were designed with all other parts in mind I'm personally going to get the Stage 1.

 

With just a big gun pipe and 22" 10 paddle haulers I was able to run with a STG I DS650 in sand drags and even a STG III. The STG I beat me once and I beat him once or twice. Same with the STG III, although she was not running race gas. The other DS650's were running 20" haulers and 20" taller haulers by the way. Just goes to show that not everyone has good luck with woods kits. In fact when I tried woods STG I kit, I had all kinds of problems and another guy I met up with locally, that had the STG I kit would blow my STG I kit away.

 

I think your right Scooby. I've seen several stage II and III Woods motors, and they seem to all perform unique. I have yet to line up against him myself, since the 760 kit has been together, but Allen55's stage II seems to win more races than almost any other Woods motor I've seen. And believe me, Al will line up against any one. I would like to see one of the magazines compare each manufacturers top level, off the shelf, kits. A side by side comparison would be a great tool since we don't have lots of options in the first place.

 

Keep in mind that the "matched set up" that you describe uses the same carb regardless of what other mods are done to it. 45MM may be needed with bigger valves and extensive porting such as that involved in the Woods stage 3 kit, but only decreases the flow volocity on a motor that can not create enough vacum from the cylinder to support it. Just because it's bigger, doesn't mean that it's better or "matched"

 

Since I doubt the magazines are ever going to do alot with that, why don't a few of the DS guys around here meet up and see how all of the various kits compare? Have someone from your choice of favorite web or print publications on hand to tally the final results - or just post here when you're all done. If we set something like this up for next year it'ed probably happen before the magazines would think of it.