Are you looking to get a little more torque out of your KX? The Pro Circuit HC Piston Kit will give you just that. The PC Piston has a 14.2:1 compression ratio and the kit comes with coated wrist pin, rings and clips. This kit requires some sort of race fuel but if you’re reading this then you’re not opposed to running some type of better fuel than the pup gas you get at your local fuel station.
Paired with a Pro Circuit Ti-6 BC muffler system and some VP RX96 the difference between the stock KX and this slightly modified version is quite big. Your lethargic stock KX450 comes to life with more throttle response and added torque out of corners. However, I didn’t just jump into all of these mods at once, here is how I broke down these mods in steps:
Base: Stock Bike
Step One: Pro Circuit Ti-6 BC Muffler
Step Two: Pro Circuit HC Piston/VP RX96
Step Three: Vortex ECU mapped to HC piston
Step Four: Twin Air Power Flow Kit
After step two I could of walked away a happy man so if you want to do these mods in stages like I did, I think after step two you will be more than satisfied with where your money went. The PC piston wakes up the engine character but also doesn’t leave you with an on/off feeling when on lower RPM situations. The KX450 HC piston and Ti-6 BC muffler retains that linear Kawasaki character but just gives you a bit more torque/recovery when lugging yet also allows for earlier third gear shifts when exiting corners. Another aspect I was concerned about when going up on compression was engine braking. I liked that the PC piston kit didn’t add much/if any engine braking to any off throttle situations (especially when the track is tilled up deep).
For $450.00 you’re getting more with this piston kit than you can with any other mod that you can do to your KX450. As far as reliability goes, I am currently 25 hours into this piston without issue. Do with this what you may but my plan is to get to 40 hours and inspect the top end. This is the same amount of time I would go with a stock piston so depending on how you ride as well as the conditions you ride in, is when you should inspect your top end. In my experience the Kawasaki brand in general takes a little more love on the maintenance side of things so just make sure you know this.
