What a stupid comparison coming from an engine builder, thats goes without saying with any engine, who mentioned "slapping together" anything? And you assume that Matt is going to deshroud the valves and do everything you mentioned as well, all this costs money and i am sure thats not what Matt had in mind, budget pistons for a budget build, what you have said is correct but adds substantial cost to his build. Most all people that go for the 836 kits and larger WANT PERFORMANCE, which is what i have been referring to, you won't get that with these pistons, for a stock style rebuild, go for your life but without doing everything mentioned you will have lower compression.... And by the way, these bikes go just fine on the street with 10.25 to 1 compression.... You also didn't mention that the MLS gaskets will cost almost as much as these kits....
Not a stupid comparison at all, you were coming off as if you feel that there is no way an ebey kit could outperform stock, let alone a cyclex 836 kit. I was merely stating that it is very easy to do. Deshrouding the valves can be done by anyone, it doesn't cost anything other than time and a little research. There are plenty of people on here, myself included, that are more than happy to lend guidance to someone that is willing to learn. I never said that these bikes won't go on the street with 10.25:1 compression, I said that I did not want that compression ratio in my street engine.
You seem to get hung up on the static compression ratio. This number in reality tells you little to nothing about the engine's performance, as the dynamic compression ratio is what is important. The dynamic compression ratio is almost exclusively controlled by the cam profile and timing.
An MLS head gasket is $80, so for a total of $190 you can have an 836 kit that will run with the $450 cyclex kit.
Nice assumption dude, He will only get those numbers if he does all the things you mentioned. {added costs} I am no engine guru but have had over 20 of these bikes {over 40 bikes of different makes} , all kitted bar 1 and currently have 2 bikes being built, one 1000cc with big ported head, forged pistons, billet aluminium block and tons of awesome parts, the other is a 970cc, with RC crank and rods and everything else as well.... Why put in an 836 kit if all you want is stock like performance..Matt may as well save his dollars and just re ring it ? Considering that all the HP in these old bikes is found in the heads, cam and carbs, pistons alone do sweet FA... Anyway i'm out of here, If Matt wants relatively stock performance while he still has to get the engine bored, gaskets and everything else then thats great, i would buy the correct pistons and get the added HP that comes with that...
An 836 kit with stock compression will still make significant power over stock, even without touching anything else on the head. By simply putting these pistons in and slapping it together you will see 90% of the gains that you would with the 10.25:1 compression pistons. Basically instead of seeing a 10hp gain you will see a 9hp gain but save $250.
Reringing an F2-F3 is pretty hard, the rings for the stock pistons are pretty expensive. You can buy the ebay 836 kit for less than a set of rings for and F2-F3, and you will end up with a better performing engine.
Sounds like you buy all the trick parts you can and then pay someone to bolt them onto your bike for you. You can throw all of the most expensive, trickest parts in a motor and make less power, I've seen it a million times. It is fun to see their faces when they see their dyno run after spending all that money on trick parts. A bunch of bolt-ons thrown at a bike will not necessarily make it fast. Getting the porting to match the cam timing, ignition timing, and the exhaust design is how you make power. Everything in an engine has to work together.
