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I found that using a 5/8" bi metal hole saw on a cordless drill (holding the spark plug with channel locks) makes for really quick plug chops. It takes about 5-10 seconds on high speed before the plug pulls apart.

Nice tip! Thanks for sharing!

No problem Tyler. I was loading some images from my phone into my gallery after reading your photobucket post and decided to post this. That's fitting that you replied on it since you're the one that got me uploading pictures. Its much easier from the gallery anyway but the pictures loaded small onto this post. Hopefully there's a way to make them full size for future posts.

WOW. That is neat.

I clicked on the pics and they expanded.

John_S wrote:No problem Tyler. I was loading some images from my phone into my gallery after reading your photobucket post and decided to post this. That's fitting that you replied on it since you're the one that got me uploading pictures. Its much easier from the gallery anyway but the pictures loaded small onto this post. Hopefully there's a way to make them full size for future posts.

haha that is funny! I still have yet to try it...

That is a VERY neat solution for plug chops! Thanks!

So simple! Thanks for sharing, I've been chopping them off with a grinder for 25 years lol, not any more!

JL4049 wrote:So simple! Thanks for sharing, I've been chopping them off with a grinder for 25 years lol, not any more!

Me too with the grinder (for years) when I got back to the house since my grinder wasn't cordless. This makes for quick work back at the truck.

The plug on the left side is a main jet chop 1st - 6th, the middle plug is a needle chop about 30 seconds long in 4th gear hovering around 1/2 throttle, and the right plug had 20 hours on it. I think its interesting that you can clearly see the 3 different circuits on the right plug. Main jet (152) was too rich, needle (R3) was slightly rich, and the pilot jet (40) was a perfect tan. R3 refers to a JD Red needle in the 3rd clip. Those were all done with it being around 80 degrees. Its now really hot in Florida 95 degrees, 95% humidity and it took a 145 main, the needle in the 2nd clip, and the pilot jet, still at 40, before the porcelain was tan all the way down on a plug that had at least 5 hours on it. I'm going back up to a 148 to be on the safe side. I finally have year round baseline jetting figured out for this bike. All the settings below are give or take a little bit in that range depending on the humidity.

Air box lid on, snorkel removed, twin air filter, 35 air striker float set at 18mm, VF3 reeds, 220 Wiseco piston, RB head mod (152 psi compression with the stock head, 169 psi after RB), BR8ES or IEX plug, FMF woods, Turbine core 2 silencer, 1 gallon of Chevron 110 octane mixed with 2 gallons of Chevron 90 octane recreation fuel, with Maxima 927 at 40:1. I certainly don't need race gas but its at the pump right down the road so I use it.

*40 pilot jet, 1.5 turns out on the air screw (1/8 -1/4 turn either way depending on the day/season)
*JD red needle clip 2 in the 90's, clip 2.5 in the 70's, and clip 3 into the 50's. Give or take on the needle clip position but those settings seem to have ideal throttle response.
*145-148 main in the 90's, 150 in the 70's, and 152 into the 50's

All that tested my patience to say the least!! All you want to do sometimes is ride but it was well worth it in throttle response, overrev power, and 1st kick start ups hot or cold. A 150 main right now would hit a wall in power around 8500 rpm's and the 145 main pulls good through 10,000. 11,050 is the max rpm recorded with the 145 and a quick test with a 142 would only get 9,700 max so I knew I went one size too lean. The Trail Tech makes for a nice cheap "dyno". A 148 is safe for these outside temps and more power than I need anyway. The majority of the time I'm riding in the woods and you guys would be blowing past me with whatever jets you have but when a straight opens up, its nice to have it ripping so clean on the main without having to "clear out". In the past I've always jetted it close enough (kind of rich, but pretty good) and this is the first time that I've had a bike that's truly dialed in. It was well worth it in getting to know my bike (the sound) and how its reacting to different throttle inputs.

Hopefully something in this post will help someone else out down the road. This is such a great forum and I appreciate you guys who make this possible. I would've never had time to test my bike to this extent if it wasn't for this website because I'd still be busy trying to figure out all the other crap I had going on with this bike.

Wow. I had never seen or heard of:

Chevron 90 octane recreation fuel

Thanks, and congratulations.

Jason wrote:Wow. I had never seen or heard of:

Chevron 90 octane recreation fuel

Thanks, and congratulations.

Thank you Jason, I'm loving my KDX. I've wanted one for a REALLY long time and it's been fun so far messing with it.

The Chevron Rec90 (as it says on one of the signs) is on a separate pump and their way of saying its non ethanol. I see boats and lawn guys filling up with it. The nozzle right next to it is 110. That's a pretty fancy Chevron you got there lol. Big banner "WE HAVE RACE GAS AND RECREATION FUEL". It worked on me.

Great info, thx.

I did a plug chop this weekend and wanted to add an update to the drill procedure I forgot to mention above. Once you start drilling you can feel it cutting and then it tapers off. That's when you've hit the first of two circlips that hold the plug together. Turn it the plug upside down and the clip falls out, drill again until it tapers off, turn it upside down again and the other clip falls out. At that point or shortly thereafter the whole ceramic part of the plug will fall out. It still only takes about 10 seconds from start to finish even with stopping to dump the circlips.

Thanks for the update.

I'm adding the pics back to this post since the original ones don't show up anymore

Talking of jetting recently... this was one of the best on actually reading your plug posts I've seen anywhere on the internet. John, can you re-upload the pics with the appropriate commentary? If you don't want to do all that you can send them to me and I can reinsert them in to the correct post.

Thank you SS I really appreciate that coming from someone I've taken much advice from on here. I have a picture that goes with my long post above showing the 3 plugs cut up (main, needle, and a 20 hour plug. I have another pic I'll snap of a plug I have at work and I'll add those also. Its main jet chops with a 160, 155, 150, and a 148 with the max rpm's that went with each of those runs.

No, thank you for the excellent write up! I have referenced this thread on many occasions. I've linked your thread here to other forums before to show others on how to do plug chops and read them.

I added the pic to the long post

Thank you good sir!

I love that pic. It clearly shows how to tell the difference between your main jetting and being on the needle. Armed with that pic, and knowing how to tell if you have the proper pilot jet, you are equipped to dial in any bike's ideal jetting.

Thanks again!