Airbox mod

[tuningfork]

I don't know, if you can trust a guy that plays a flute...lol. :ban:

 

[Wavex]

well technically he didn't answer his question. He can't really say yes it will work or no it won't unless it's tested. Like he did say, there are many variables.

haha riiiight... I was expecting a response in those lines ^^....

But really, if your understanding of this article is that we don't know if cutting your airbox randomly will do good or bad to you motorcycle, we definitely do not understand it the same way, and I doubt we'll ever agree on the matter even if I showed you dyno charts with holes everywhere, you'd tell me you don't believe me because you were not there to see it with your own eyes...

You can turn anything to your advantage, but really, you're being dishonest with yourself and others.

 

[Spideyrex]

I thought that article made a pretty strong argument to stop monkeying around with something that takes a lot of engineering effort to work correctly. Thanks for the post. That just ended my thoughts about modding my air box. Would I drill holes into a piano hoping that it will sound louder? No.

 

[urbanj]

haha riiiight... I was expecting a response in those lines ^^....

But really, if your understanding of this article is that we don't know if cutting your airbox randomly will do good or bad to you motorcycle, we definitely do not understand it the same way, and I doubt we'll ever agree on the matter even if I showed you dyno charts with holes everywhere, you'd tell me you don't believe me because you were not there to see it with your own eyes...

You can turn anything to your advantage, but really, you're being dishonest with yourself and others.

I think we both agree. I know the theory and I've never agreed with the people that have cut the tops off the air box or drilled holes in it. What I did do is enlarge the snorkels opening while maintaining the air box's integrity. Hacking it up takes the "box" out of air box.

Now with did the way I did it, it may be great or it may be bad but there is no real proof it has harmed anything or have negative effects. That may sound stupid but there is a lot of things we do that only have a perceived improvement.

That is all I'm saying. search around and look at the other "air box mods" people do to other bikes. They are complete hack jobs. I've seen enough things with my "own eyes" that I know that what is thought out and expected is not always what ends up working. That's how we progress.

 

[gmickey2001]

Wavex - I think the key to a successfull airbox mod is having the background and expertise of a heating and air conditioning technician. The guy who wrote the article you posted clearly lacks this vital experience so of course he cannot perform a successfull air box mod.

 

[goker]

The only time such modification will benefit the bike is if amount of air that gets to the engine is “less” than what the engine needs during WOT. Personally, I haven’t run the numbers so I don’t know if that is true in our bikes. However, generally speaking, naturally aspired engines do not benefit from this type of modification unless design of the airbox is really restrictive. You also have to remember due to location of the airbox, having extra holes in the airbox is not necessary mean you will get more air in there.

You also have to consider, what you “really” want is “cool” air, so, if by opening up the air box you are sucking more of the “hot” air from the engine because air box is getting air in there from all directions that are not intended by the bike designer, you will only hurt yourself.

Personally, I am not thinking about modifying mine until I have a chance the run the numbers and I can figure out a way to get cool air into the box if the numbers says I need extra air.

 

[Doorag]

I think an admin should lock this thread - or better yet - kill it all together.

 

[Wavex]

I think we both agree. I know the theory and I've never agreed with the people that have cut the tops off the air box or drilled holes in it. What I did do is enlarge the snorkels opening while maintaining the air box's integrity. Hacking it up takes the "box" out of air box.

Now with did the way I did it, it may be great or it may be bad but there is no real proof it has harmed anything or have negative effects. That may sound stupid but there is a lot of things we do that only have a perceived improvement.

That is all I'm saying. search around and look at the other "air box mods" people do to other bikes. They are complete hack jobs. I've seen enough things with my "own eyes" that I know that what is thought out and expected is not always what ends up working. That's how we progress.

How do you know you kept the airbox's integrity after modifying the snorkel? Isn't the snorkel part of the airbox?

There's no real proof indeed until you take it to the dyno and see new holes in your dyno chart :thumbup:

I think people misunderstood my point from the beginning, so I'll repeat it:

I don't care what you do to your airbox, my ONLY point was to provide proper information... there are too many ppl saying things without having a clue and swearing that they know what they're taking about... so this thread started like this:

"This is the best mod in the universe and all you have to do is randomly cut your airbox cover and you'll get better sound, better airflow, better engine performance, more torque, and less wine!!! Trade-offs? NONE!!!",

to a more reasonable:

"Do this mod at your own risk because while you'll get more sound, we don't have a clue about anything else, and it's probably having a negative impact on performance".

That's all I wanted to establish and if your airbox mod makes you happier on your bike, well than that's just super :Flash::rof:

 

[Wavex]

Wavex - I think the key to a successfull airbox mod is having the background and expertise of a heating and air conditioning technician. The guy who wrote the article you posted clearly lacks this vital experience so of course he cannot perform a successfull air box mod.

hahaha awesome bro... how've you been?? long time no see!

 

[Wavex]

I think an admin should lock this thread - or better yet - kill it all together.

I think this thread is great. It's got loads of info about this VERY popular FZ6 mod... isn't that what this forum is for? :rockon:

 

[Fred]

I'm tempted to build a simple test rig and send it out to California (The Land of the Hacked Airbox) for testing.

Here's the simple setup. Connect a vacuum sensor to the airbox downstream of the filter. There's enough hoses in this area that you could tee a sensor in fairly easily.

Add a restrictor to the sensor line to prevent the needle from fluttering.

Mount it near the instruments, and use a tanktop camera to film the results as you go to WOT. The rider with the lowest level of airbox vacuum across the rev range is the winner.

 

[tuningfork]

seems like we could just sample the output of the intake air pressure sensor we already have on the bike...a DVM will do the "smoothing". Looking at this change in pressure might also be able to tell if the airbox mod causes pressure readings thast are off the tables of the ECU for a given RPM, in which case a PCIII could be used to fix potential AFR issues. for the pre-filter side a vac guage that reads in mm H20 instead of mm Hg should probably be sensitive enough to see if there is any vaccum pre-filter. http://www.autospeed.com had a good article on removing "negative pressure" restrictions in airboxes. I have tinkered some with cars/intakes/airboxes and it was easy to scan the MAF sensor...more MAF = more air getting in the motor. A read of the pressure sensor should tell the same thing.

A lot of the airbox's job on a street bike is to limit induction noise from the front of the bike per EPA, so I don't doubt some gains might be possible in some parts of the rev range, especially if one was willing to tinker with the velocity stacks as well...but I agree that some quantifiable testing would be in order.

In the books "4-stroke performance tuning" and also "Motorcycle Carburetor Theory" there is some stuff on airboxes, velocity stacks, pressure pulses, etc.

On some of the carb-ed bikes there were some gains to be made.

 

[jtarkany]

opcorn:...:iconbeer:...opcorn:

 

[Fred]

seems like we could just sample the output of the intake air pressure sensor we already have on the bike...a DVM will do the "smoothing".

Don't quote me on this, but I think that the MAP sensor reads downstream of the throttle bodies.

Fred

 

[tuningfork]

yeah, I'm sure you are correct on that.

I assume you'd be doing WOT tests so I'm not sure how much of a difference the TBs would make.

A 3 sensor test would be the best to see the effects of all the pieces...airbox pressure/vacuum before filter, after filter ,and in the intake.

 

[Doorag]

I think this thread is great. It's got loads of info about this VERY popular FZ6 mod... isn't that what this forum is for? :rockon:

It's just getting a bit personal that's all. If everyone can play nice then, yeah, keep it running.

 

[Fred]

It's just getting a bit personal that's all. If everyone can play nice then, yeah, keep it running.

I don't see this thread getting at all personal or inflammatory. And if you disagree, I'll kick your ass, jerk!

Fred

 

[Fred]

yeah, I'm sure you are correct on that.

I assume you'd be doing WOT tests so I'm not sure how much of a difference the TBs would make.

You may be right about that. There may be some venturi effect, but then again, the port son the throttle bodies may be designed to avoid venturi effect. Short answer, I dunno. I agree, a three sensor setup would be ubercool.

Fred

 

[Kragthar]

hey dudes, i'm from germany, i don't understand exactly what u mean with getting rid of "inlets"!

i got a pic from the airbox, do you mean this greyish foam material there? (i never had my gastank off)

regards from germany

 

[psnbye]

My head hurts.....:surrender::banghead: