For next season I want to add a few performance parts to my FIII;

I was thinking about reeds, do just the reeds add much, or do you have to buy the whole cage?

Also I have heard from a fair number of people on hear that the stock Formula III's have WEAK clutching, what color springs should I get?

All I am looking for is some simple, easy mods to do to my sled, afterall it is pretty fast just the way it is!

I am adding some cosmetic improvements also, but I think I can handle that one on my own :smilielol:

It's that damn poll this week, got me prayin for snow already

I have looked at some reeds and carbon tech seeems to be the best that I've seen so far, they stress RELIABILITY as well as performence gains. Any other suggestions?

don't bother with reeds, they are worth 3hp if you are lucky. clutching and gearing will make the most drastic improvement for the money. also make sure it is jetted correctly.

Thanks, I wasn't sure about the reeds.........................


All three plugs are brown, I have the carbs cleaned and syncronized every year.



You know how I said that I can handle the cosmetic part of my sled, well I lied. I am going down to my local doo dealer tomorrow and I want to order a Yellow belly pan for my sled, the only problem is that I can't find the doo one for a CK3 sled ANYWHERES!! :banghead: I want the nice Doo one, but my local Dealer is full of a bunch of young guys that don't know how to find accesories that aren't in the "new", or current accessory catalog.

A FRIEND OF MINE HAD ONE OF THOSE WHEN IT WAS NEW. HE GOT HIS DEALER TO DO SOME CLUTCHING AND GEARING AND IT REALLY BROUGHT IT TO LIFE. (BIGTIME DIFFERENCE) NOT SURE WHAT THEY DID BUT IT WAS JIMS PERFORMANCE IN ONTARIO 613-652-2245 ASK FOR JIM. ALSO ANOTHER GUY I KNOW PUT CRANK SHOP PIPES ON WOW IT WOULD EAT MY SRX. GOOD LUCK

check royal distribution ( i think) they should have some stuff. O r do a google search, I'm sure you'll find something

For clutching, I would figure out what you want to change from your sled now, and read up on the 'net to see what you should change. What areas do you want to improve the most? Every component you change will effect others, and you might regret making changes. (i.e. you want to improve acceleration off the line, and changed some things, now you can't get your clutches to shift out all the way.) I haven't played around with a FIII 8, but I know the FIII 7's would respond well to changing the clutch components over to what came stock in the Mach 1, just run a little lighter pin weight than the Mach 1, and there was a big improvement.

Otherwise, look into a clutch kit from Cudney, Goodwin, Dynoport, etc..

CK3 Skidplates should be VERY easy to come by. They made that chassis from 98-2003, so there's a lot of them out there. I bought a yellow one off eBay last year for about $15 shipped. It wasn't the doo one, I think it was a holeshot. It looks great on my friend's 98 FIII 700.

Dropping a tooth or two on your top sprocket in the chaincase will GAIN you some top speed AND acceleration. My friend's 1999 Mach 1 that we played with last year had 25/43 gears stock, he went to 23/43 and gained about 10 mph on the speedo on top end. Accelerates like a raped ape now. I changed my gearing last year from 26/44 to 25/44, and it made a big difference. I am probably going to try 23/44 this year (I don't really care to go faster than 100 mph anyways, give me more acceleration instead..).

For clutching I would like to have more acceleration. Top speed and mid range is awesome right now IMO. But if a simple top sproket change will help out I will do that while I have the chaincase a part doing the anual cleaning. Stock my gears are 26/43. 25/43 sound good? I just don't understand how I can gain top end, or even keep it the same by dropping the top gear a size. I'm not doubting you just windering.

For the FIII 700 using the Mach 1 springs, I've been told to use the Mach Z ones on my 8. There is a guy here that builds CK3 sleds up and races down south (crank shop motor) and cleans up, I've been told that he is real good with FIII's and Mach's.

Thank's for the help everyone, it is very much appreciated! :div20:

you really would'nt think dropping a tooth on top would give you more top speed, but it does on some sleds. most dont have enough power to pull all the gear they have. my old ultra would have a hard time hitting 105 on the speedometer with 20/35 gearing. tried 19/35 and it would hit 110 easily and get there a lot faster. the only problem with the deeper gearing might be traction. mine spun ruthlessly with the 19/35 but that might have been from all of the slack in the chain shocking the track.

That makes sense, but I have seen over 100mph on mine on a rougher lake with fairly loose/deep snow (for those speeds) so I think it is handling the gears fine, but a small sproket isn't that much money so it's worth a try.

I ordered the new windshield base today, along with 12 new push pins and washers. The old ones are a pain in the rear to get off, I slit my hand with my "grinder sharpend" flat screw driver. Lucky for it that it was the last one! When it comes in i'll put the new checkerd flag decals on (the doo ones)

I am going to spread out my spending, so I'll order the belly pan later on, you know to make it seem as though I'm not spending a whole lot on her.

Maybe a yellow front bumper too, I need a little contrast, but don't want to go over the top, if you know what I mean. I have the yellow running board grips on it now, soon to have checkerds and a belly pan. What do you guys think?

With the stock gearing, you'll more than likely never be fully shifted out in both of your clutches. If you are, you will be at 129.8 mph (you have to subtract about 5-10 mph because of friction losses and such...) ('99 Doo race manual, 26/43 gears, 8300 rpm in your 99 FIII 8). Look on your clutches to see where it is wearing. You may be getting to the top of the primary clutch, but more than likely the secondary is not shifting all the way out, the belt should be going all the way to the bottom. My primary wouldn't shift all the way out at top speed (it was about 1 inch from the top). Going down 1 tooth caused it to shift all the way out, gained me more acceleration and top speed. Mileage was better, too.

I have ckecked my Primary and it seems to be shifting out all the way, but never checked the secondary. I am taking the chaincase off for a cleaning and going to put syn oil in it, I'll put the one tooth smaller top gear in it then.

With one less tooth and a clutch kit (whatever I get recomended from the guy that races them) should I expect it too pull a lot harder all the way up through? Right now a 600 twin with some mods (heads, V force 3, clutching......) jumps quicker out off the line. That doesn't last long however because the triple pulls hard mid range, but you know how you never have enough power :doh:

it will pull harder from a stop to top speed. try klotz chaincase lube, i use to run amsoil but switched because it is like water and likes to leak anywhere it can.

I have never seen Klotz in my life around here. Amsoil is what I am using for the engine, but since I can't get klotz for the chaincase is the Bomb synthetic stuff any good?

Go to Sled-Hedz and talk to Zmachman he will give you some clutch setups that really work and like said before drop the top gear down some maybe go to 24-43 we gained top end when we did that.

yah the bombardier synthetic stuff is very good id say. Ive used it in all my sleds and have never had any major problems and besides its bombarider so u know ur useing what ur sled requires i just dont know if its as good as other oil but u cant go wrong using it

Id say use it

We have never ran synthetic oil in any of our sleds

do you mean chaincase oil VmaX 600?

If your primary is shifting out all the way doesn't the secondary have to be shifting out all the way too. If the distance is set correct both clutches have to be shifting out the same amount as the belt length is not changing?

Formula Rob... the belt is slipping in the 2ndry that is why it looks like it is shifting all the way on the primary. Do youself a favor and read the clutching IQ at this website. http://mxzx-revzone.com/

you need good side belt clamp from the 2ndry in order to move forward. The problem is that the further the belt travels down in the 2ndry the less efficient it gets unless you can control the belt clamp a lower finish angle on hte helix will give you more belt squeeze and cause your primary to overrev.....you then need to add pin weight to the primary to tune you RPM back. You will be able to gear down several teeth as the clutches won't be slipping.

I am going to put my $.02 in

If you go with reeds get v-force III and spacerers, drop 1 tooth on small upper gear, and do clutch kit

you will notice a big differ in the throttle response, clutch kit will keep it pulling on big end


keep eye on belt height.

what are you trying to achieve, thort shootin twisties or lake bed racing???

I drag race a tripple and have my twin for cross country short short shootin,

the other question is how deep is your wallet to what you want to gain.

as much as others think I have been havin good resuts with amsoil, I am sure there is other comparable products out there.

I just want to do some fairly simple "bolt ons" to raise the performance on my sled. I'd like to keep the top end, and enhance the bottom end.

I am going to put in a clutch kit, and drop one tooth on top. I'm also now adding the ETS kit from AD Boivin.

By droping one tooth on the top gear will this change the rpm's on my sled? I am assuming that it won't, because that is controlled by the clutches, but I don't have any experience with doing this.

then you want to go with reeds (v-force) and spacers,

I have gotten both bad and good responses on reeds.

My brother has the V force 3 reeds, but never drove it stock, so we have nothing to comapre it to. Is there a noticeable difference worth the $300 + ?

yep with spacers

start shopping on ebay you will get them a lot cheaper then $300.

do the spacers at least, drop gear and clutch kit