Pods on a Vstar 1100

A neighbor was asking for help to get spike air cleaners on his Vstar 1100 he is underthe impression that removing the stock airbox and adding this filters does not require rejetting. I am not familiar with that bike but everything I have read about our XJs is that at greater air flow the engine will run lean unless rejetting.

Does the same principal not apply to the Vstar?

 

Have him do what we do on these Bikes when doing an Airbox Delete.

Experiment.
Don't throw nothing away!

The 37mm Mikuni's have Throttle Position Sensors.

 

Thanks Rick, do you know if he will have to remove engine to get the airbox out like we do?

 

It sits on top of the carbs, right under the fuel tank. Very easy to remove.

He'll have it running like crap in no time at all.

 

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are...... :lol:

 

I just talked to him and it sounds like he knows as much as I do and it's not my bike and bought some questionable parts.

He sounds hesitant to even take his gas tank off to mess with it. I am not sure what is he expecting but I am not messing with his bike that he says is running fine. I don't want the blame with it does not.

 

So my neighbor stopped by today and he has an 05 vstar 1100 with aftermarket pipes. It sounds sweet, he has a spike air filter that wants to use to replace the current air intake.

The kit he bought from fleabay came with no instructions, just a bunch'o parts. This guys really is not mechanically inclined, the kit came with jets that are not stamped so who knows what size they are.

He needs help to install the new one, he almost got everything in but the rubber connector from the filtering element to the airbox came loose and he is afraid of taking the tank off.

This will be interesting since this should be straight forward task. We'll se how it runs, but it should look pretty good.

 

So, this guy is not mechanically inclined, is scared to take the fuel tank off, but managed to get some of the parts on anyway???
Run away, run away!!!!! If you try to be a nice guy and help and something goes South, guess whos fault it's gonna be?
I'd rather have him pissed at me for not helping than pissed at me if something gets EFFED UP!

 

He's not going to get that goofy rubber boot back on the air box without removing the tank.

He needs to get all that stuff off anyhow to get the jets in.......

Maxim-X gave you some very good advice.

 

Engaging in Intake and Carb Mods with:

a) Mystery Parts
b) Limited Mechanical Skills
c) Not understanding Basic Theory
d) No instructions

(a) + (b) + (c) + (d) = Ominous results. Potential calamity / catastrophe

 

10-4. I am quietly walking away...

 

JUST WHY If it works don't mess with it. Is he hoping its a supercharger in a box. If it does not work the way he wants it to he will be wanting to put the old parts back on anyhow. Would be different if you knew it would work without problems afterwards. A v twin with pods is gonna suck small animals and children in when you grab a hand full of throttle. I think your smart for walking away. Its one thing to be messing around with our 30 year old bikes but a much newer bike sounds like disaster to me.

 

I know, I remember the phrase from Fitz "stop trying to out-engineer yamaha".

 

I talked to him a nit longer and his 2005 seems like it's already behind maintenance schedule. He didn't know where spark plugs were (so I am guessing he has not checked them). Valves have not been inspected with 5k miles on the odometer.

I guess this is how we end up finding old bikes that are all messed up. Maybe I will buy it from him in a few years when it stops running and he has now idea why

 

I think modifying the "air cleaner" on a V-Star isn't as bad as our XJs, simply because he isn't removing the surge tank, so it's not quite the same problem as pods. I'd say it's more comparable to drilling holes in the airbox and installing an aftermarket filter. Still requires jetting, but you still get the surge-tank effect from the airbox.

Add changes to exhaust from stock, and there will likely be some more jetting changes required. The instructions for my Kuryakyn had different jetting recommendations with different pipes. You neighbor might be able to check the aftermarket manufacturer's website for "suggestions" when jetting.

I had a 650, and it had an aftermarket airfilter set up (triangle, not spike) that it came with when I bought it. I bought a stock one to replace it, but never got around to it before I sold it. This is a summary of my experience with it:

1. Aesthetics: The chrome quality on a lot of aftermarket parts is severely lacking. It just won't last. The bike I had was 10 years old, all of the Yamaha orginal chrome looked fine, and all of the aftermarket parts were flaking off.
2. Fit: Those things are supposed to be "bolt on" however, they are manufactured to fit as many models as possible. There were quite a few difficult screws to reach, and one of the thin metal brackets that hold the air cleaner on were rusted through and broke when I went in there to adjust the valves. No doubt this was due to the fit and lack of proper isolation engine vibration
3. Quality: Again, due to how it was assembled, it had some screw holes that were filled with a piece of foam to create a seal with the filter element. That foam shrunk over time, allowing unfiltered air to bypass the filter. This was fixable, but wasn't noticeable until you disassembled it.

As for valves, they are screw adjusted tappets (at least on the 650). Not hard to adjust, but an all day job as you have to pull just about everything off the top to get to the inspection covers.

At 8 years old, there's lots more maintenance to do besides the engine (brakes and tires come to mind). And fluid changes. Depending on how behind he is on maintenance, he'll likely need to pay a shop a significant portion of it's kbb value to get it up to date, learn how to work on it himself, or sell the death trap to someone more willing.