Good news about "pods"

I don't have "pods" on my bike, I have K&N 2372s. K&N makes them for our bikes. I'm speaking of 550s. I have a NOS Mac 4 to 1 and the aforementioned stacks. I went with 6SigmaRacing to put together a jet kit. They ask for your mods (exhaust, intake, elevation) and put a kit together. I told them what I had. They sent me a kit. I used two shims on the needle and went with 130mm on #2 and #3 and 127.5mm on #1 and #4. I adjusted my valves and colortuned. The mixture was in the blue up to 4000 rpm. I am at sea level. My NOS Mac needs re-baffling, but other than that I am running clean. My plugs were decent and just some fine tuning with the colortune and no need to re-change shims or jets. 6sigma is a performance exhaust company that does competition work with cars and bikes. I went all out since I had the equipment and went stage 3. Go with what I stated above if you have similar. If you have PODS all bets off. I have K&Ns MADE for the 550, so can't say what will happen with cheap pods. My bike now gets great response and acceleration and gets to red line really quick. It's wicked acceleration and fun, but be prepared to do some tuning (get valves and carbs right) though I didn't have to change anything internally after adjusting my valves and carbs. Meaning I didn't have to pull carbs and change shims or jets again. ONLY WORKS AT SEA LEVEL AND WITH THE MODS I HAVE, CANNOT SPEAK FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

 

Adding this to the mix.

 

I'm thinking of buying the same filters. What size were the mains and pilots?

 

Only changed the main jets. Sizes listed above.

 

So what exactly is the news? You didn't exactly use pods, per se; and you DID have to re-jet. The only upside I can see is this shop that did the dev work for you.

Does it still pull to redline? Have you run any plug chops to see what is happening at say, 9000rpm? The "extreme" performance you're describing may be at the expense of a high-rpm lean condition. These motors absolutely scream if you run them lean... right until they blow up.

I would definitely monitor your plugs closely for a while.

 

There wasn't the tuning nightmare so many people moan and carry on about, I lucked out and got it the first time around. I was passing along what worked in my situation to other people interested in doing similar. It pulls hard though out the power band. Bike was on the rich side not lean. Lighten up Fitz.

 

after doing some reading on more "pod friendly" sites, if i were to put pods on a bike, I'd put duct tape on the inside of the outside pods facing out, to help prevent from side drafts and the tuning you can do with your legs... it can really lean out the outside cylinders

 

I tried pods but went back to the air box

 

put duct tape on the inside of the outer half of the outside pods, it makes sense if you dont think about it

 

The only problem that ever got solved by using Duct Tape was how to keep sections of heating and air conditioning ducts to stay together.

 

Rick, I find your sardonic humility hilarious.

 

Duct tpe and WD-40 are all you need. If it moves and shouldn't, duct it. If supposed to move and doesn't, WD-40 it.


But isn't the pod theoretically an air duct?

 

please :roll:

 

Rick - not even that. It's why UL 181 tape is now mandated for all duct connections/joints. However, it does work well across mouths. :lol:

 

The sudden obsession with duct tape is starting to sound like a Red Green episode.

 

Can anyone show me one post on this site of where someone put pods on there motorcycle and it blew up from running to lean. I can't find it, running poorly because they can't properly tune yes. Here is a guy who is giving guys who have modified there bike and want to run something other than an airbox an option and right away gets attacked by the stock guys who would never run anything but a stock setup. Why?

 

This is not true! One of my friends from my old job at piper aircraft sent me this. Link

www.rense.com/general89/duct.htm

Sry to keep going off topic but we all fuss about the pod thing. Arguing with people that have made their minds up on the situation gets us no where... Arguing wether or not duct tape fixes things is another story though!!!

 

Well if women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

 

and it holds race cars together also

 

First off, I wasn't "attacking" anyone.

Secondly, the K&N "single big air filter with 4 holes in it" isn't exactly the same as pod filters, by a long shot; it brings its own unique set of airflow characteristics to the table (which is why #1 and #4 are jetted differently than #2 and #3.) It's more like a really free-flowing airbox.

Further, since it's NOT a set of pods, and it DID require rejetting, my point was only that while possibly "good news," yes, it did not necessarily represent a solution to the problems associated with tuning for pod filters.

For everyone except 550 owners, the only real "news" to be had is a source for jet kits that in this case, apparently worked right the first time. That's great news; I was and would still be concerned about possible starvation issues at high RPMs, that's why I asked. Most pod-equipped CV carb bikes I've had direct experience with tended to fall flat at higher RPMs, and/or ended up being way lean at the top end.

And yes, there have been more than one post from folks who found holed pistons in a motor that had been run too lean. I don't want to see anybody blow up a real nice 550 like that; and I welcome the possible alternative to the stock airbox.