Goodbye Keihin, hello Mikuni

I'm done farting around with these things. I had it accelerating great a few days ago with my newly secured diaphragms, but I had to run it with choke, despite needing no choke to start. Next time it ran well without choke. Today it was back to running like crap, stuttering and stumbling on acceleration. I cleaned the crap out of these last year and I'm done, and my mind is made up. My attempts to be cheap and patient are over. I can probably recoup the cost of the Mikunis by riding it to work all summer.

speedmotoco.com/kawasaki-kz305-replaceme...z305-carburetor-kit/

So whats the skinny on the different filter options they give you? I think pods are fugly but I'm more concerned about running than how it looks. I don't even know what a stack is. They give you

1. no filter (stack),
2. Uni Foam filter
3. round gray

Are the last 2 both pods? What's the difference? They both cost the same. What would you do with #1, run it into the airbox?  That would be my preferred option but I don't want to make more trouble, I presume these are jetted for pods and don't want to monkey around. I want as close to plug and play as possible.
 

Velocity stacks that  are not filtered will suck in whatever is nearby. I would not choose them for a daily rider. You can buy filters for the stacks, but that is an added expense. If you are curious, there is a pic of some at the bottom of the page at this link.
kzzone.com/carbs.html

I would give them a call about the Uni filters. They make both individual (aka pod) and paired style filters. The grey ones look like APE or K&N. Either of these should be a good choice.

Here are some stacks installed on a KZ.
 
 

Both the UNI (which is foam) and the K&N (pleated) are reusable, that is you can wash them, oil them and go. Having used both types, I prefer the K&N or APE over the foam UNI. Here's a very dirty example of both

 

TexasKZ wrote:

Velocity stacks that  are not filtered will suck in whatever is nearby. I would not choose them for a daily rider. You can buy filters for the stacks, but that is an added expense. If you are curious, there is a pic of some at the bottom of the page at this link.
kzzone.com/carbs.html

I would give them a call about the Uni filters. They make both individual (aka pod) and paired style filters. The grey ones look like APE or K&N. Either of these should be a good choice.
 

The stacks seem to be no extra charge, but the only reason I would go that way would be if they make it easier to use my airbox. But I'm not holding out hope for that, and will probably go with the K/N.   Although now that I've searched up more user experiences with the company and the 305 specifically, I wonder if I'll just be trading one can of worms for another can of worms and paying over $400 for that privilege.
 

KzEnormous wrote:

Both the UNI (which is foam) and the K&N (pleated) are reusable, that is you can wash them, oil them and go. Having used both types, I prefer the K&N or APE over the foam UNI. Here's a very dirty example of both
 
 

Thanks. The K&N is slightly more sophisticated looking. The uni would make my bike look like a lawnmower.

82KZ305Belt wrote:

TexasKZ wrote:

Velocity stacks that  are not filtered will suck in whatever is nearby. I would not choose them for a daily rider. You can buy filters for the stacks, but that is an added expense. If you are curious, there is a pic of some at the bottom of the page at this link.
kzzone.com/carbs.html

I would give them a call about the Uni filters. They make both individual (aka pod) and paired style filters. The grey ones look like APE or K&N. Either of these should be a good choice.

 

The stacks seem to be no extra charge, but the only reason I would go that way would be if they make it easier to use my airbox. But I'm not holding out hope for that, and will probably go with the K/N.   Although now that I've searched up more user experiences with the company and the 305 specifically, I wonder if I'll just be trading one can of worms for another can of worms and paying over $400 for that privilege.

 

I seriously doubt that you could get the stacks connected to the airbox without considerable work. The stacks are flared, so that end of the connecting hose would have to be able to seal on that thin lip somehow, and then flare down to he airbox hole, or the airbox holes will have to be enlarged and all of that designed so it could seal, blah, blah, blah. I think it would be cool, but likely a lot of work.
Can of worms? Dunno. Hopefully, it will get you back on the road with only minor tweaking.

Thanks, I think I'll just go with the cones. I also think I will buy my parts separately at considerable savings. I don't see anything in the kit that can't be found cheaper elsewhere, except maybe the cables. I won't be able to get support from them then, but from the sound of their reviews they don't give much support anyway. Mikuni also seems to have weak support in the US. I called Dennis Kirk who have the carbs at the best price and they couldn't even make jet recommendations.
That means I'll have to find support on this forum.

I see now that they make 2 different kits for the 305, a VM26 kit speedmotoco.com/kawasaki-kz305-carbureto...ent-mikuni-carb-kit/

and the VM28 kit I linked above. I am leaning toward the smaller carbs, because some people have had trouble with the 28's and they seemed too big. Not many reviews on the 26's though.  And what jets should I go for? My riding is all between 600-1500 feet elevation, and mostly right around the 1100 foot level. I don't want to be messing with jets once the carbs are installed.  Here are the specs they give but they are Greek to me

Main Jet: 190
Pilot Jet: 22.5
Needle Jet: O-0 (332)
Jet Needle: 5E75
Throttle Valve: 1.5 (VM24/361)
Main Air Jet: 0.5 (VM13/04)
Needle Valve: 2.5 (VM26/26)