Plastic reed stuffers are junk!

[Bryan Glynn]

About 2 years ago (60 hours or so) I purchased a set of Riva plastic reed stuffers for my GP1200. I replaced the reed cage assemblies with Deta 2's yesterday - and I found the stuffers were all bent and misformed, and one was even cracked in half along one side! The only reason I bought them was because they were out of stock of the metal Boyensen ones and didn't expect to have any in soon. I knew that the plastic would not fare as well as the aluminum, but geeze! So if anyone is thinking of getting stuffers - NEVER get plastic - it's not worth it! Go with aluminum!

[Chris Newmiller]

This kind of info is why I like your site.
Thanks

[SeaLion]

Bryan,
My experience with reed stuffers goes like this. I had Mariner plastic stuffers in an X-2 that after a year looked like what you are describing. On the same note, Polaris has stock plastic reed stuffers that on my previous SL750 were fine after 5 years of use and also the used 96 SLX I bought had the same plastic stuffers and those were fine as well when I recently replaced them with Boyesen Rad Valves. In short, I guess it depends on the type of plastic used in the manufacturing process but I agree that aluminum stuffers are the ones to get if possible.

[Bryan Glynn]

That is definitely true - the stock plastic polaris stuffers are of a completely different caliber than aftermarket stuffers - much beefier design, much more material. Unfortunately aftermarket units are only of the crappy design.

[titanic]

What is the factory brand life of reeds? What is a stuffer?

[Bryan Glynn]

The life expectantcy of stock reeds, in a stock motor is in most cases, more than the life of the motor. Most stock reeds are 100% fiberglass, and will have the best durability, at the expense of performance. A stuffer is an insert, that reshapes the opening of the reed cage, to better flow or accellerate the flow of the air/fuel charge into the case. Typically, the reed cage assembly has a much larger opening than the end of the intake manifold, and stuffers make it a smoother transition.

Here is what a stuffer looks like:


Here is what a stock reed cage assembly looks like:


Here is what a stuffer looks like inside a cage - note the different opening dimentions. Also note that the stuffer is not supposed to be warped or cracked like that:


Here is what the Delta 2's look like in comparison to a stock cage with Boyensen Dual Stage Pro reeds in them. Note that the Delta 2's offer twice the opening area by doubling the number of petals on the cage:


[ March 05, 2001: Message edited by: Bryan Glynn - SBT Webmaster ]

[The Kid]

I had a set of White Brothers, metal(anodized purple) reed cages in my Blaster, they worked good until I raised compression( cut head, ported, bored carb, ect ect)once I did these mods, the reeds would snap back to hard, and snap off, I had to replace with stock cages again, Anyone else have a prob. like this. Is there any way to fix?
The Kid

[Bryan Glynn]

What petals were you using with those cages?

[titanic]

Bryan, thank you for the information.

[Bryan Glynn]

No prob. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[The Kid]

I was using the stock petals

[Bryan Glynn]

I'm not familiar with that specific brand of cage, but most good ones have adjustable reeds stops, as shown on the Deta 2's above. Either a sliding stop, or a separate, different length stop is usually included. I would say that with your mods you needed a different stop or stop setting.