I have a chance to buy a 1986 250R quadracer, for $1500. It has been maintained decently, has been rebuild (top + bottom), has a Roll design 400ex style swingarm, an aftermarket, remote res. rear shock (gas + rebuildable), nerfs, pipe, tires, wheels, etc. Now whats wrong with it. The coil or the stator is bad (I know this for sure i've seen it run, and refuse to run day in and out, and the front shocks are original + so are the a-arms. I know the 86's didn't have an exhaust valve, and they had internal reeds, but are they still smokin fast? I have had a LT230 for the last 2 years that i have gone through top to bottom, and is as fast as a stock warrior. Will there be enough of power increase for me? Does anybody have any horsepower specks on this thing? Also, what likes to go bad/or fail on these machines? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

It will probably do 70mph and get there quick. It is a two stroke. Once you get the powerband down you will have alot of fun. Liquid cooled too.

 

Dont get me wrong now ,but im going to tell you the things that like to break. I have alot of time in quadracers,cause thats all cousin buys. He has had stators go, pistons shatter,cranks go, counter balancer bearings explode, frames that are rode hard break and crack, swingarms break, weak upper arms.Thats the 85,86s.
I cant tell u what to do but the 87-92s are much much better.

 

I think they did like 29 on the dyno. I'm not sure.

 

I went from a LT230 Quadsport to an 86 LT250R. There is a big speed/power difference between the two. After riding my 91 I would not say the 86 was smoking fast, but it is not slow. It did upper 60,s with stock gearing and 60.5 on gps with 20" tires.

When I got my 86, it was completely stock. It would walk away from a Blaster with a Bills pipe, run almost even with a 350X ATC and stay within a few lenghts of an 84 250r ATC that needed a tune-up until I hit top speed then he would leave me in his dust.

I shaved the head .020" went to 87 octane instead of 89, added a K+N filter and FMF silencer (the stock muffler adds a ton of back pressure) and 20" tires (stock are 22"). Now it will flat out smoke the Blaster, run away from the 350X (on pavement) and although the 250R can still take me in a long race because he can do around 80 and mine only goes 60 now, I do beat him badly from 0-60 and it takes him a while to catch up.

I rode it hard with raised compression on low octane fuel and 20:1 gas oil mixture for 9 months. Only problems were a bad coil and leaky water pump seal.

 

Thanx everybody, would anybody else like to share their .02 cents?

 

Hello,
I have a 86 LT250, and all I have to say is that if you treat it good, it will never fail you. Nothibg has ever broke on my quad and I ride hard in Glamis. People complain about things breaking, but I never had an issue. Also with the mods that I have done to mine, I beat z400's and hang with Raptors. My brother has an 86 Honda 250r 4trax and It is ported and stuff and I can hang with him, however he is faster.

 

wouldnt you run with higher octane gas with the increased compression???

 

You should

 

Higher octane gas burns slower. Very high compression engines use it because it resists detonation and the power loss due to burning slower is much smaller than the power gained by running high compression.

You should run the lowest octane you can without damaging the motor id you want maximum performance.

Mine has no problem with detonation and runs 170 degrees (on the outside of the head) on a hot day running hard which I would consider a little on the cool side if anything.

Shaving the head really woke it up and I recommend doing so. Running 87 octane instead of the manual recommended 89 gave a power increase similar to removing the air box lid.

When any major company designs a new motor, they do a tremendous amount of testing before it is used. They change things like ignition timing and the recommended fuel to see what affect it has. In most cases, they back the timing off a little and recommend higher octane fuel than absolutely needed to cause a longer motor life. Maximum possible power = shorter engine life than the same power from a slightly larger motor. They know we all want power but also a reliable long running motor, so they look for a mid point between power and engine life span.

My motor may only run a top end for 500hours (example/guess) where a stock one might run 700 hours, but I will smoke his a$$ all day.

I’ve run it like that for 9 months, still have full compression and have outrun other LT250s with many more $s in them including a piped (otherwise stock) powervalved 6speed LT250.

What you should run depends on you. If you have no knowledge of how a motor works than you should run what the book says to. If you have a good knowledge of how your motor works and what effect certain changes have on it than what you should run depend on what type of performance you want from your motor.