ACE RACING and SouthBay Moto joined forces late in 2002. South Bay would build engines to support Ace in their desert series, MX racing and TT for the 2003 season. SouthBay Moto is serious about performance and increasing the life of their high output engines. Dustin Lundy along with his father Chuck and engine builder Wade Wilcox were about to send us the first of many engines to power the ACE Racing Cannondale MOTO 440s.

The Review I am compling is of SouthBay's 440 engine, it is a true 440 displacement, w/ a high compression piston and major head work. Re-positioned injector angles are the only thing that give away the fact that this engine is far from stock. Based on my conversations w/ the guys at Southbay, there are many changes made overall to increase reliablility across the board; better oiling capabilites and other tricks that are deemed somewhat secretive, will make all their engines powerful and running for a LONG TIME.

The Large engine box arrived on a Tuesday morning, I couldnt open it fast enough. To completely honest I expected little, because I had seen and rode other awesome engine mods that had left me dissappointed and only dreaming of more. This engine would be THE EXCEPTION. The first radical change was easy to notice, The runner or "throat" on the front of the cyclinder head had been modifed to accept the injectors at a different angle from stock. The work was very clean and except for a slight color change, the untrained eye would probally not notice. I popped the injectors in just to get a look at how this was going to work. The injectors now were aimed directed at the intake valves and not at the back of the port as they are in stock form, this only made sense that it would work better, but would we feel this change alone? My answers were only a couple of hours away.

I fought the urge to hurry, this was Shaun's Race Bike for the Adelanto Grand Prix, and no longer his practice and MX bike, So I took my time making sure everything was 100% perfect. The injectors now being in a different location, more forward and straight, they are also much closer to each other. The stock helmets can be used, but I had to trim the hose the connects them by half it's previous length.

Now with the injectors and their helmets installed, fuel lines hooked up and routed correctly, it was time to install the radiator, which posed the second and final fabrication that had to be accomplished with South Bays Hot Rod engine. There is no longer proper clearance between the Rad and injectors for the stock mounting set-up. This is only a blessing because there is more than ample room to tilt the rad forward and provide the clearance needed. The modifications I did were very simple and for the most part I was able to use stock C'Dale parts. (please see final paragraph for complete explanation and parts)

Moving the radiator forward makes good sense in my mind, in that, the hot air coming from out of the backside of the rad , now has more room to cool and slide by the already hot engine. I was pleased with how well it turned out.

We downloaded the map that was Emailed to us by Dustin at SouthBay and we were ready to find out just how good this thing would perform.

Break-in:: (Can we ride it yet?)
I started the engine and heard it for the first time, it had a different sound even at idle, which only arroused my curiouslty more. The sound of the new engine was very deep toned and rough, it actually put me in mind of a 350 Chevy small block with 3" exhaust as it comes to life. I almost thought the the FMF silencer was on it's last leg and would need repacked. It did not, it just sounded that good with the higher compression. After leaving it idle to normal operating temperature and a good hour to cool down, I fired it again, this time reving it to about 1/2 throttle every couple seconds. It revved so quick, and was so crisp, you could only smile while listening to the Titanium valve train go to work. I listened as the fan came on at 80C and then cooled itself down to 70C and as the fan shut-off ... I left it cool down one last time before riding it like I stole it!!

First Ride:: (Where's my depends?)
Two Words... Fast !! I know that that is only one word, but the first word of the two is a slang term for Forbidden Unlawful Carnal Knowledge and it better off being omitted from young ears, so lets just leave it at that! The mapping feels dead-on with no steps or hits, it just plain pulls hard from off idle to the moon.

Shaun was the first to ride it and the look on his face said it all... I did not even let him speak, I pulled my helmet on and took off down the road. I went very easy at first... just shifting through the gears at a little over 1/2 throttle. This thing was scary fast and I had yet to push it.... it was even close to being broke in and it felt amazing. I pushed it hard on the ride back and wanted to hear the rev limiter, but my mind made me shift before I got to it and it was still pulling hard. The stock valves float at right around 11.5 rpm and this engine was still pulling at what I firgured was 12 or 12.5. Every gear seemed to double my speed and I could only think that this was the fastest Quad I have ever been on. The power is smooth yet it pulls harder than my words can desribe. It truly felt like speed mapping on steroids and twice the grunt that was there from the factory. South Bay had put something together that made me just a tad jealous, that we at the factory had not been able to do. Keep in mind, SouthBay needs somewhere in the ball park of $3000 to do these mods and that was a little steep for a manufacturer to swing.

After a phone call to Dustin @ South Bay Headquaters, I found that the mapping was heavy on timing advance and sounded to me like it was very close to the mapping found inside an X440s, which has always been like a rocket. Positive Fueling changes were also possible due to the porting and polishing, along with the improved injector positioning, which awoke some more ponies between the frame spars.

Parts and Modifications:: ("Easy as Pie")
This dept. was not tough at all. Tilting the rad forward was extremely easy to do and the spacer I used was the plastic spacer (p/n 5002810) from the headlite mounting assy. found in pre-2003 models... it was the perfect length. The bolt I used was 2 1/4" long with a short top hat (p/n 5001531) as a washer. I left the rubber mounts in place as well as the tinnerman clip on the rad mount as well.

I also fabricated two spacers to tilt the fan out as well, in order to keep the shround in place to insure good cooling by the fan. I used an aluminum headlite bracket and cut from it, two tabs each 2' long rounded the edges and added two holes in each end. This spacing turned out to be perfect. I used the factory bolts and nuts on the fan side, and two short M5 bolts and nuts on the original mount side.

In the very near future, we will be putting this quad on a dyno, to run some numbers and check AFRs along with testing some minor modifications that we have developed at ACE. We are hoping very much that FMF will be helping us out with some ideas we have in the exhaust dept. And I am waiting patiently to hear back from them. Look for that in the weeks to come, I will be keeping Cannondaler.Com readers updated on our progress.

Conclusion::
The bottom line is that this engine pulls hard like a jet plane taking off, and I can't imagine how good their 450 and 460 will feel.

I encourage all Cannondale owners out there to take a look at SouthBay Moto. and ...if fast isn't good enough for you, try this engine upgrade from SouthBay and buy yourself some new boxers. You just may need them!!

Stephen Maslanik

ACE Racing...Carl Moore Owner/Manager

South Bay Moto
2101 Pacific Coast Highway
Lomita CA 90717
1-310-784-7694
www.southbaymoto.com
info@southbaymoto.com

Questions? Talk about South Bay Moto's 440 kit in our forums. SBM 440 Kit Discussion.