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Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
It's too bad his reputation has been tarnished, he was a nice guy when I spoke to him.
did a new sleeve and port work on my kx500 2 years ago. good except packed like shit and ruined the head gasket in shipping. he made it right and sent me a new gasket.
I've heard both good and bad from local guys.
I won't risk it anymore.
Most people are trying to save a buck and end up spending more in the long run and the bikes still run like a crap. Just recently a guy had 3 big bore YZ 144s built for his wife and they were slower than stock. They had way too much compression and made 24hp in the dyno. A stock YZ 125 makes 34!
There are several good builders out there but once you find one stick with them and don't bounce around for the flavor of the week.
Terry Varner has built several motors for me and my son. His latest YZ 125 is a 40hp beast! My son pulled 2 hole shots this weekend against a full gate of 250f's.
The Shop
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
And I agree with you about Terry, I always use him for my 2 strokes...never an issue.
Eric did all our motors, mod 65's, mod 85's, all of the super mini bikes we raced at Loretta's and our CR 144 which made more peak HP than a stock 250f.
Katie won the Branson National on the mod 85, and 2 other years finished 3rd, made it to Loretta's 3 times had a 5th place OA and an 8th place OA.
I called SEVERAL of the "More well known" shops and asked them all the same question, How is your reliability? They all answered, Well........ I asked Eric, he asked me , How is your maintenance? I said I thought it was pretty good and then he told me "As good as stock Shawn".
Never, not once ever, did I feel like we were "Out motored", Never had a motor failure that was the fault of anything he did.
I'm sorry to hear anyone had a less than positive experience, but that was NEVER our experience. I would recommend him to anyone.
You always hear "It's 90% rider, 10% equipment, he gave us the Best 10%.
@Brocsdad I do not mind spending the money and actually Terry was on my list options when I first started this project. I just read mostly good reviews from Eric and he seemed very popular. Depending on how it runs I may send it back out for the full treatment over the winter.
I'll try and call him again tomorrow, maybe with a different phone number haha.
I'm sure some people received good motors but I'm not rolling the dice on that.
You don't ever hear of any high profile amateurs wanting a Gorr motor. There's a reason for that! You do hear good things about Terry Varner, Lynks, JMS, EBR, Etc.
Communication is big deal to me and he's terrible at it.
Maybe the guy is just swamped with stuff, after not being so busy , doesnt excuse your issues , i agree, but that may be why.
Also you cant blame Eric for OEM casting porisity.
Pit Row
The platers (all) do a terrible job of proper bridge relief and chamfer work. A proper chamfer is almost imperceptible, it's not a visual thing but what the ring feels which is only .001-.002" deep.
Oem cylinders do this "right".
Powervalves fixtures to manually machine would be pricey, same for cnc... so you get manually done valves. At the end of the day this isn't important... it needs to not hit the piston.
As to gorrs "performance" work... I can't say anything good. We have package after package come through from him that manage to run fine, be reliable enough.. but not deliver the performance they should, or often even exceed a proper running stock bike. It's a mean statement to make that ill gladly back up at any time on any race package we offer on a dyno of any choosing - of which I don't believe gorr uses at all. Our race 125 combos make more hp then any gorr 144 I've ever tested... and our 144 combos have made as much hp as some of his 250 combos. He utilizes a horrid head design that just doesn't work, universally to every engine (which also is a no no) and typical port work is clean up of tunnels which is purely for show on just about any race engine, the real work lies in the actual durations, widths, angles, and combo of pipe, head, fuel and ignition.
I think his knowledge of vintage bikes and combos is excellent... on much of that a small amount of modernization towards what is production now goes a long way.
To fix your piston issues, you need a proper bridge relief. If you oil the bridge and run a ring up and down it, you will see the bridge relief is currently terrible and not consistent/even.
You can also go to the TT website & read about his bad engine mods on many CR250's. I've had a few members send me PM's asking for advice after getting work done by him. Most have given feedback of loss of topend & not being able to jet the bike properly. Even though most members are running a PWK Keihin carb the engines are difficult to jet probably due to his head mods.
PC, TV, TMR & Watts Perfections would be much better choices for engine work.
I've always been curious how much 3D modeling plays into this.
I bought a yz with one of his 295 kits already installed. I checked the comp. on it because it ran good but I just wanted a base #. It was pretty low. I pulled the head and checked squish it was like .075 which is basically stock. And all EG did was cut a huge angle into the bowl to lower compression. So I took the head to work and cut .020 to get the squish around .055. It ran better but the head was still not right. Once I rebuilt the engine and got the cylinder replated by Millennium it had a bunch of compression but the head was not right. So Derek fixed the head and now it runs like it should, has good compression and a head on it that's not prone to detonation.
Derek has also ported a stock bore yz250 I used to own and it would run circles around a friends EG YZ295 race gas engine he had done.
And that's why I send my stuff to Derek at HP Bikes he has helped me out numerous times and even given me free stuff to test. As soon as I have time I will be taking my 295 apart and let him fix the half ass porting EG did on the cylinder.
Post a reply to: Eric Gorr Terrible Customer Service