As you all know there is a lot of questions surrounding the new Edelbrock Carburetor for the Yamaha Raptor. Some of the things being said are "The engine is made for dual carburetors", "You lose top-end", "Slower revs" and "Less throttle response". Well, to be honest I was concerned about some of these issues myself, but since I always seem to be the risk taker and go against good advise and recommendations from friends and people who know better, I decided to purchase the Edelbrock Carburetor.

Here is how it all started. It was a cold windy April afternoon on the Oregon coast. Just kidding. Actually, now that I think about it, it was cold and windy. Anyway, ever since I bought my 2002 Raptor I have been completely disappointed with the CV Carburetors they put on them. No matter what we did, we just could not get them to perform right. So once I heard that Edelbrock was coming out with a carburetor for the Raptor, I knew that I would purchase one. The only other alternative is the FCR's, but those were quite a bit more in price.
When spring started approaching fast I decided it was time to make the purchase. I started looking on the Internet for companies that sold the new carburetor, but only found one at that time. This was Barnums Pro out of California. When I called, Rob Barnum the owner answered the phone. I started asking him questions about the carburetor. That is when I found out that he is the person who did the R&D on this carburetor for Edelbrock. I realized quickly that this guy knows this carburetor inside and out. When you are in the market for something, and you come across a person who is very knowledgeable (or even helped design it) and can answer any question with confidence, you have no choice but to purchase it. I felt that I struck gold by actually talking with the person who helped design the carburetor. He told me to call him if I had any problems. Rob also recommended that I install the Pro-Flow filter kit and run it without the cover on the stock box. So, I ordered one of those also.

When the package arrived, I could not wait to open it and fondle this beautiful shiny new carburetor. Once I finished, I took the box and all its contents into the garage and laid everything out on the counter. Once I scanned through the instructions I got started. The installation was a snap. It would have only taken maybe an hour to install if I did not take pictures and document each step. There will be a step-by-step installation on our site (www.sandwizards.com) soon. Be sure to check back. Everything fit perfectly. Once it was all together, I proceeded to start the bike. It actually fired right away. It took a while to learn how to start it without flooding it. Once I got it started and the idle set, I ran it up and down my street a couple times. I ended up spending a half hour adjusting it and then running it, until I felt I had it pretty good. Then a couple days later Denise Barnum (Rob's Wife) called and left me a message telling me that Rob wants me to put the larger needle in before we go to the dunes (I had been talking with them about my carb), because of the modifications that I had. So I called and talked to Rob. I told him that I am running on the rich end of the needle that is in there. He said that by putting the bigger needle in, it would bring the adjustment into the meat of the grind (mid-range of the needle), which is better. The further you get to either end of the needle adjustment, it affects either the top end, low end or mid range power. This also gives you more adjustment by being in the meat of the grind. So I changed the needle and adjusted it the best I could without running it hard on the dunes. Needless to say, my neighbors are not my biggest fans. I left the needle adjuster in the carburetor for the final adjustments at the dunes. Once I installed the carburetor and had it running at my house, it was time to take it out and test it. So we planned a trip to Winchester Bay, OR.

We pulled into Winchester Bay on Friday afternoon about 4pm. We stayed at some friends (members of Sand Wizards Racing) house, which is 2 minutes from the dunes. Once we were all there and unpacked, we then went to the Dunes to do some adjusting and testing. When we got there, I immediately unloaded my bike and removed the front plastic and made sure the rear bolt for the tank was just snug. I then put the seat on and started the bike. Once it was warm, I put a 10mm wrench in my pocket (for the rear tank bolt) and headed for the dunes. The bike ran really well as it was, but I decided that it felt a little rich. So I pulled the seat, removed the rear tank bolt, reached under the tank and pushed the needle adjuster down, then I slowly pushed the throttle to full and held it. At that time I turned the dial on the adjuster until I felt it fall into the groove on the adjuster inside the carburetor. I then turned the dial counter clockwise until it clicked once. I then released the throttle, put the tank bolt back in and then put the seat on and off I went. Each adjustment took maybe 45 seconds to a minute. I adjusted the needle a total of 5 clicks leaner and then one back. At this point it felt pretty good. I could not fully test it because when the needle adjuster is in the carburetor, you cannot go full throttle because the adjuster sticks down into the carburetor and stops the slide from coming up all the way. So I headed back to the truck and removed the adjuster and installed the plug. I then installed my plastic and went out for a short test run.

The test run did not last long due to a clutch problem with one of our bikes. My bike did run flawlessly during the ride though. It seemed to have much more power and response than before. The big test came the following morning. We spent that night installing a Roll Design LOBO front end on one of our Raptors (Desracers). Can you say "Jealous"? That review is coming later. Check back for that one too.
We woke up the next morning to an absolute perfect sunny day. That morning we fixed the clutch on the other bike and then went to Spinreel in North Bend, OR to ride for the day because it has a lot of trails, whoops and hills for jumping. This is a good area to put the carburetor to the test. When we finally got out on the dunes, I opened it up and was surprised at the power increase. WOW!!! This thing rocked. It did not take me long to realize that I had the carburetor dialed in perfectly. The torque is incredible. Even when lugging in second or third gear, if you punch the throttle, it responds instantly.

We started heading to Saunders Hill hitting the dunes and catching a little air here and there. We also hit some whoop roads on the way. The carburetor never missed a beat. Once I got out on the flats I was really surprised at how much the bike pulled all the way through each gear. All the speculation about losing top end is just that, Speculation. This has way more top end. In fact the thing always seem to have more. The one thing about the Edelbrock is the distance the thumb throttle needs to travel to get to full throttle is quite a bit more than the stock carburetors. Just when you thought you are at the end of the power, you realize that the thumb throttle still has more to go.

Once we got to Saunders Hill, I had Desracers from our group take it for a spin. He desert races his Raptor which has many modifications both engine and chassis done to it. I basically wanted him to confirm my results. He took it around through some trails and up some hills and came back. He said that it definitely has much more torque and response. I asked him if he opened it up and he said that he didn't. So he took it out again to some flats and opened it up. When he returned the second time he said that it has much more top end than the other carburetors and that it pulls through each gear and wants to pull even more. He was definitely impressed.
We rode all day down there with no problems with the carburetor.

I have to say that this is definitely the biggest performance gain that I have made so far with all that I have done. I am glad that I decided to give this carburetor a try even though there were a lot of speculations. All the concerns that were mentioned in the beginning of this review were proven "FALSE". In fact I talked to Rob about the concerns mentioned above and he explained to me why they are false. He basically said that it all comes down to R&D. He spent months developing and testing this carburetor. If anyone has any questions or speculations that they want an answer to before they purchase this carburetor, I would suggest that they call Barnums Pro and ask to speak to Rob Barnum.

Here is a list of the Pros and Cons that we found with this carburetor:

Pros:

Cons:

As you can probably tell by now, I am very pleased with this carburetor. I wish that all performance upgrades were this easy to install and showed this much increase in performance.


Note:Please keep in mind that all bikes are different. Two identical bikes may have different results.