NZSpokes

I was doing the snorkel mod today and took a look at the K&N I got with the bike. Its not fitted. My take on it is the filter itself is to close to the trumpets. It is closer than the stock filter by a long way.

So this reduces the area under the filter quite a bit. I also noticed the K&N filter is lose on its housing. Not well made at all.

Ive not run the K&N and wont as I can see why its not going to work. So stealing an idea from another member Im going to get a old stock filter and use it to mount the K&N filter much higher in the airbox. I will be interested to see if this will work. I plan on spending no money on it.

What could go worng?

NZSpokes

Its Mikstr im stealing the idea from. Hope he doesnt have a copyright on it.....

jscobey

ive read and read and read and researched and read about airbox mods on the VTR. its basic engineering that to get more power out of an engine it needs to breathe. in other words, gas plus air in the right combination makes a big boom!! obviously there is more to it than that but it seems natural to start tampering to get more efficient airflow.

ive seen people cut out more holes in the snorkel, take away the middle section in the snorkel, try BMC and K&N filters, do the retaining ring lidless mod, gut the airbox for more post filter volume, litterally englarge a stock airbox by making it taller and raising the tank, the use of different stacks (aftermarket or different combos of OEM long and short) and to the most extreme and my personal favorite, ram air.

through out all my reading in threads on here, the UK board, and other websites, ive come to the conclusion, as well as many others, that the stock airbox is really perfect as it is for the VTR. many people have put in many hours only to revert back to a stock or similar set up after loosing power with things like the lidless airbox.

ive never seen any reports of noticable gains (on otherwise relativley stock engines) after countless hours of custom fab work on the airbox in conjuction with countless hours of jetting and dyno time. most times ive seen alot of losses. for example on this website the guy does lots of custom work and lots of dyno and eventually concludes that stock just works alot better.

the only real power gains ive seen in regards to air intake are either aftermarket velocity stacks (HRC, HPower, Moriwaki, Dr. Honda) and also the use of Ram-Air which is pretty effective but only if you have a built engine to utilize the air induction properly. IIRC Roger D. came to the same conclusion on leaving the airbox alone. i know the moriwaki race and customer bikes used a completley different airbox that mori made but those bikes also had anywhere from STG 1 to STG 3 engines putting out between 120 and 150 BHP with cams, OS valves, valve springs, pistons, custom heads, ram air, and upgrades carbs.

i will say that i follow Mik's post regularly to see if he makes progress on the airbox. hes trying some "new" techniques which seem promising. but remember his engine is fully built...

just my 2 cents

NZSpokes

What that guy didnt do was allow more space after the filter. I believe this is why it wont work. I do like the filter in lid idea as well and could be swayed to try that but will need to lift the tank a little to allow air under there. Im going to try get a spare airbox and make a cleaned up bottom. Then I will try one of the two mods. This thread I think gives the best outline.

www.vtr1000.org • View topic - Airbox modding

jscobey

I have a spare airbox if you want it

SIRR1

I built my first street fighter out of crashed Honda F3 that a friends son had and he wanted it out of the garage, so I pulled the trailer over and picked up a F3 for a 100 bucks.


The plastic was junk so off it came like a dummy I pulled the airbox snorkel along with the airbox shroud and let me tell you it was one headache after another trying to get the bike to run at any speed other than sitting still.


That was until I figured out that Honda does a lot of R+D on the OEM airbox and the damn thing will not run without a complete OEM airbox.


Lesson learned so on my Hawk when I was trying to get the thing to run properly after sitting for several years I remembered the F3.


I pulled the bigger jets and plugged the 3rd eye hole on the carb slides, and made sure the OEM Hawk air box was complete along with a stock air filter.


After cleaning the carbs and buying OEM jets, needles and bowl gaskets, O-rings and a petcock repair kit I put the carbs back together, synced them with the air screws 3 turns out she fired up and ran like a champ!


So IMHO in order to make the Hawk run good you will need a complete undrilled OEM air box and snorkel, no other way around it without dropping a few Benjamin's across the pond!


SIRR1

jerryh

+1 they are tuned intake to exhaust tip. I wonder the amount of money spent on engineering an airbox.

NZSpokes

Love one, but shipping may be a bit high. LOL

NZSpokes

Ive read the Roger Ditchfield can get K&Ns to work. I do wonder how.

8541Hawk

If you want to shoot me a PM sometime I'll give you the run down on the airbox mods I have on my bike.

I still have a few more things to do but so far I have a pretty good set up with noticeable improvements.

So yes there are gains to be had, but you better know how to jet carbs because it will be needed to get things dialed in, though not really a big deal.

nnjhawk02

My .02 & Upfront I'm Not an expert mechanic

I bought my VTR on my BDay 12 yrs ago.

Soon after I had the dealer install Stage I needles - The big ones along with the K&N - Paired mod done too. Along with the Erion pipe install.

Now I know lots here think the K&N won't work, but after almost 50k, mine does. I did have some idle problems years ago, but with some adjustments, it runs & idles fine.

I clean my K&N once or twice a year, depending upon miles ridden.

Still works.

And I dyno'd her some years back & had about 5 hp bump with the Jetting, K&N & Erions.

As always YMMV

GlockPointer