Results of putting airbox back on

I took off my factory airbox and went with K&N air pods when I rebuilt my motor. I had the head ported and installed 1075 10.5:1 MTC pistons. Every since then I have hated the pods. I couldn't get rid of the surging while cruising down the highway. I wanted to put the airbox back on but I was afraid I would lose power.

Boy was I wrong! Not only did it eliminate all of the surging, it seems to have more torque now. From 20 MPH in first it will spin the rear tire all the way to redline if I pin the throttle. It doesn't seem to have lost anything on top. I really wish I had never taken the airbox out in the first place.

Yep...those were clever Kawasaki engineers...I'm running pods on my KZ1000A1, but only because the airbox is rare

fordtruck wrote:

I took off my factory airbox and went with K&N air pods when I rebuilt my motor. I had the head ported and installed 1075 10.5:1 MTC pistons. Every since then I have hated the pods. I couldn't get rid of the surging while cruising down the highway. I wanted to put the airbox back on but I was afraid I would lose power.

Boy was I wrong! Not only did it eliminate all of the surging, it seems to have more torque now. From 20 MPH in first it will spin the rear tire all the way to redline if I pin the throttle. It doesn't seem to have lost anything on top. I really wish I had never taken the airbox out in the first place.

It's awesome to hear someone sing the benefits of an airbox- much less the stock airbox! I've been hesitant to switch to pods, and the more I read on here, the most likely I'll keep my airbox.

Kudos to you, sir!!!

It depends on your experience and expertise in tuning carbs, wether or not a set of pod filters will work.

They are terribly finicky, and generally result in the mixture screw settings being quite a ways off from eachother once setup correctly.

Yes, they will tend to not produce as much torque until full advance, but will make lots of extra power in the mid-high range, especially at high speed - IF tuned correctly.

You got all your power back cause your bike was too lean and the airbox smoothed things out, closer to corrrect accelleration mixtures. It is possible with pods, but difficult to duplicate.

Cheers.

I run my 791000 with pods, and my 81 1000csr with airbox.

Both tuned well, the csr can leave the line faster than the 79 and carry 2up well, but i cant do anything to catch the 79 after 6000rpm, or top it on the highway.

its those wonderfull bs34s on your csr! :woohoo:
gearing is probably differant also

TeK9iNe wrote:

It depends on your experience and expertise in tuning carbs, wether or not a set of pod filters will work.

They are terribly finicky, and generally result in the mixture screw settings being quite a ways off from eachother once setup correctly.

Yes, they will tend to not produce as much torque until full advance, but will make lots of extra power in the mid-high range, especially at high speed - IF tuned correctly.

You got all your power back cause your bike was too lean and the airbox smoothed things out, closer to corrrect accelleration mixtures. It is possible with pods, but difficult to duplicate.

Cheers.

I run my 791000 with pods, and my 81 1000csr with airbox.

Both tuned well, the csr can leave the line faster than the 79 and carry 2up well, but i cant do anything to catch the 79 after 6000rpm, or top it on the highway.

Well said. Someone with more experience tuning carbs might have been able to get it to work better. I did notice the air screws were very different from each other. After putting the airbox in, they are all within a quarter turn of each other.

I don't spend much time at high speed, so a little loss on the high end is worth it to me. I also like not having to worry about getting caught in the rain. I had that happen once with the air pods and it made it run crappy until the filters dried.

PLUMMEN wrote:

its those wonderfull bs34s on your csr! :woohoo:
gearing is probably differant also

:laugh: Yeah.

... and the gearing is different on both.

fordtruck wrote:

I took off my factory airbox and went with K&N air pods when I rebuilt my motor. //// I couldn't get rid of the surging while cruising down the highway. I wanted to put the airbox back on but I was afraid I would lose power.

Boy was I wrong! Not only did it eliminate all of the surging, it seems to have more torque now. From 20 MPH in first it will spin the rear tire all the way to redline if I pin the throttle. It doesn't seem to have lost anything on top. I really wish I had never taken the airbox out in the first place.

I nominate this to be a sticky......:laugh:

how many busas do ya see running pods? :laugh:

PLUMMEN wrote:

how many busas do ya see running pods? :laugh:

None, but aren't those a ram air setup surrounded by plastic bodywork buried under the gas tank?

the reason they say not to use them on sportbikes is it causes turbulance,stirs up the air on kzs also would be my guess.

Take off the pods and mount a turbo. Only one carb to deal with and "turbo-lance" is a preferred affect! Ask Plummen!!!