Information pulled from these threads: Jake Perkio Adam Riggsby Ian Rose
Introduction
The 1977 Reed Kit is known by some as the "Lil' Gila", a potential ""Polini Killer", and by the Dutch as the MK Reed kit. It is a clone of the Athena Reed Kit. With the stock components it doesn't let the ports open by 3.4mm, which can pose a problem for ring cooling and overall performance. However, this kit is very affordable for a big reed intake setup.
Purchase
This kit can be purchased at several different sites.
Dutch Ebay Seller with Free Shipping $150
Moped Division (DMP version with un-bridged exhaust port) $145.00
First Impressions
PRO:
Nice casting
Good looking nikisil
LARGE transfers with easy increase to metra large port transfer size. Barely seals on a e50 without welding.
Nice piston, drops through the cylinder easily.
Comes with gaskets and nice rubber coated 2 petal reed block (SS reeds, not CF.)
Sweet bridged exhaust
Huge nearly Gila/mb5 size reed block
Nearly 360* intake duration
Pre-chamfered ports
Ring gaps located near top of piston, not near exhaust port
CON:
Round exhaust port, could use some reshaping for a larger port to utilize the bridged exhaust.
Goofy fin pattern won't match a Puch head
Intake duration could be raised to 360*
Long wrist pin clips
Piston spacing issues
Reed block screws hit the inside of the cylinder. Makes your reed block not seal and air leak.
Stock Assembly
Reed Block needed some filing
Ring Gaps are up top which is good
Ports don't fully open by 3.4mm
File:MKAssembly.jpg
Modifications
An easy modification to possible save your engines life. Shorten the long wrist pin clips to remove the extra mass that might cause them to dislodge while the engine is running.
The treats reed valve piston works flawlessly with this kit, despite the ring gaps being extremely close to the side transfers. It fixes the majority of the spacing issues on the 1977 kit and the real AJH and boosts your exhaust timing to a still usable number. Still need to get a countersunk head though to dial in the squish, unless you want to deck your cylinder.
Out of Box Performance
Using the included gaskets (metal head gasket, 1mm base gasket, reed gaskets), Polini reeds, and a 19mm PHBG, super stuffy crank, points, a stock magnum head, and a proma circuit this kit produces all kinds of power. The midrange hits the hardest and pulls all the way up to the top. That could be due to the pipe, I have not tested it with a top end pipe yet. Temps rarely go over 375F and stay between 290-350F most of the time. With 18 x 45 gearing that setup has hit 53.14 GPS'd. With a tuned clutch this kit could easily pull higher gearing, like 18 x 38 or so.
It runs fine with the ring in the ports. Although not optimal, it seems okay. Especially since this isn't a super high RPM setup. For the price, the MK reed kit performs very well and has a ton of power with a lot more potential with some modifications.
