KN Filters

[croach1776]

Thinking of removing OEM Airbox and installing individual KN air filters on carbs. I would think these would make removing carbs for cleaning and maintenance easier and perhaps help Connie breath easier, better sync of carbs at idle and better air filtration. Any thoughts or experiences.

 

[bpdutton]

Not a good idea. Plenty of posts about running pods on the forum - most go like this one:

Fuel smell from exhaust

I have freshly rebuilt my carbs, they’ve been synced, I’ve adjusted the mixture screws to lean and to enrichen as a test. The bike sits and idles fine , has plenty of power , I don’t have to hold the choke excessively when starting and idling during warm up time , the bike accelerates fine and...

forum.concours.org

 

[SethInIllinois]

In general, motorcycle carbs are designed to work with a specific airbox volume that helps provide good throttle response and low and mid-range torque. Removing the airbox and replacing with pod filters eliminates that, and while it may not affect top-end power (and could improve it slightly), low and mid-range power and throttle response are almost certain to suffer. Some of that can be mitigated with careful iterative re-jetting, but that still won't replaced the tuned resonant response of the airbox volume.

The best thing you can do for easier carb R&R is new airbox boots. You won't believe how soft new ones are.

My ZX600-C has even tighter clearance to remove the carbs. When I pulled them with the original 25-year-old boots, it was an epic battle. Putting them on with new boots was easy in comparison.

 

[SethInIllinois]

A couple articles on the topic from the legendary Kevin Cameron:
https://magazine.cycleworld.com/article/1993/3/1/airbox-exoneration

What Is The Secret Importance Of A Motorcycle Airbox?

Remember individual replacement air-intake filters? Kevin Cameron explains why leaving your sportbike’s stock airbox in place is the smart move.

www.cycleworld.com

 

[Stasch]

Years ago I had an 82 Suzuki GS1100E with pod filters and aftermarket header and V&H 'muffler' (ie: meaning very loud).

The bike would bog slightly in cross winds when at freeway speeds. I could move my upwind leg around to recover some of it.

The cross wind seemed to negatively affect the air flow to the carbs enough to lower performance.

 

[Cra-z1000]

Thinking of removing OEM Airbox and installing individual KN air filters on carbs. I would think these would make removing carbs for cleaning and maintenance easier and perhaps help Connie breath easier, better sync of carbs at idle and better air filtration. Any thoughts or experiences.

It's been done successfully but involved alot of trial and error ( carbs on , carbs off, etc , etc) getting jetting just right . Not at all worth the effort and I wonder if the few bikes that were apparently successful actually ran better .

 

[brooke.benfield]

Purchase and install Steve Sefsicks' 2 Minute Mod.

 

[Motorcyclerider]

People that have made it work have fashioned plastic sheets to cover them from cross winds. Something to remember is that there are sound waves that pulse inside the intake tract/ airbox and when reverberating correctly act as a mini supercharger and will force more air into the intake. Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I think the blocking a portion of the air intake with foam possibly heightens this effect hence the low end torque added when this mod is done. Because I’d you were to just get the jetting perfect without the foam mod I don’t think you would gain the increase in torque. If you want a comfortable, affordable sport touring bike with a few mods these bikes are wonderful. If you want a sport touring rocket I recommend a cbr1100xx. Also if you use a heat gun to soften the carb boots these carbs are not hard to remove. Loosen the the clamps and heat up the rubber without cooking them. Then pop the carbs off the the head side and press them back into the airbox boots and slide them to the left. Remove the choke cable before doing anything and remove the throttle cables when the carbs are out. You would be surprised how much faster your bike was with the proper jetting and foam insert. Aka 2 minute mod.