Hi,

I just bought a 1997 Honda 300ex and am happy with it, but I did have a couple questions hopefully somebody can help me with. It came with a FMF Megamaxx 2 pipe with quite a few of the discs in and I was wondering if it would be better to take the discs off and/or the end piece. I would prefer it to be as loud and as powerful as possible. I'm not sure if the quiet core is in or not but it is louder than my friend's stock 2002 400ex so I'm guessing it's not in. Also, I'm not very mechanical so I do not know if the person who had the quad before me rejetted or not. At about quarter throttle in 5th gear, it wants to cut out and sputter and feel like it's going to die. It does this every time, making 5th gear virtually unusable. I've read this may be caused by not rejetting. I have no experience in this so any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Josh

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'97 300ex
FMF Megamaxx 2
K&N Air Filter
GBC Shredders, Rear
Maxxis Razrs, Front

 

The basic idea with the FMF pipe is more discs = more power (and more noise). If you take the all the discs out, and look at the end of your pipe, if you see a small hole with on a big metal plate on the end of your pipe, the quite core is in. If you can see down into the pipe it's not.

As for your sputtering problem, the first thing I would do is check your air filter and make sure it's clean. Start with the simple things first.

If your bike passes the air filter test, it might need rejetted. If you're only giving it a quarter throttle and it's sputtering, you may need a different pilot jet. It's hard to tell without riding the bike and looking at the spark plug. If you're not that technically inclined, you might want to take it to someone who is and have them look at it.

 

Well, I took the endpiece off of the pipe and started it up and wow was it loud. I drove it around a little bit and it felt like it had more power. I didn't get a chance to get up to 5th gear(about 10:00pm, didn't want to wake my neighbors) and see if it would still want to sputter but I plan on trying it tomorrow. However, can running the quad like this be harmful, especially if not jetted correctly. Is there a simple way just to check the jetting without actually doing anything difficult. If I have to take it to the shop I will, but I would rather not if I can avoid it. Also, on a side note I did have to replace a spark plug a couple weeks ago. I had gotten stuck in the mud and was reving it pretty hard to try and get out when it backfired and died. I tried restarting it, but it would just start and die. I replaced the spark plug and it's been running fine since.

 

Running a bike too lean can be very bad. In extreme cases, it could overheat the engine, making the piston melt to the sleeve. I really doubt that your case is anywhere near that extreme, but still, it would be a good idea to rejet. Also remember, it's better to be too rich than too lean.