why an airbox?

[xcaptainxbloodx]

I had the beast kit on my S2R 800 and have ridden numerous fuel injected and carburated Ducatis with pods

its going to be a pain to tune for the pods. Even tuned well, you are going to lose power and create dead spots in the throttle.  The weight loss is completely negligible and if you ride or park in the rain you will be damaging your heads.

The only benefit these provide is the intake sound when you open the throttle up (which to its credit is pretty damn awesome)

Best thing for your bike is to cut the aibox lid  (or get a fancy replacement one that achieves the same goal) and run a high flow K&N/BMC filter. There are tons of things that will shed weight while looking better, having a greater affect, and not diminishing performance.

[tdmf]

interesting.

I looked at the Corse Dynamics kit, and my intention was to also use this Drycharger Cover. Does that not prevent water from getting in?





http://motowheels.com/i-7788067-corse-dynamics-high-performance-intake-kit.html

http://motowheels.com/i-16588407-kn-filter-drycharger-cover.html

[brad black]

in an oem application the primary reason for the airbox is noise reduction.  fit pods and you'll know why.

also crankcase ventilation, it's very hard to do that without an airbox.

it also provides a stable air envirinment for the intakes, possibly this benefits cv carbs more than injected applications.

ideally you want a large space of air for the engine to draw from with an easy entrance and good filter area.  i'd fit pods and build a big box around them.

but most seem to want to fit pods for the look.  in that case, go for the look you want and work around that as required tuning wise, etc.  it's not going to make a lot of difference, but the difference will be somewhat proportional to road speed.  on these engines with the intakes at the front it's not such a big deal, but on a jap 4 say, where the carbs are behind the motor and the airflow is rushing past the side of the bike, you will get a dynamic low pressure area behind the motor.  whee the carbs are.

i remember reading a report about a big naked run out here in one of the race series, a zrx1200 maybe, and the mechanic said that they had lots of trouble with inconsistant jetting at high speeds when running pods.  so they put an open fronted box of sides, floor and back around the pods.  from the side you couldn't see the carbs.  so it got all its air from over the motor (hot air, oh the horror!) and it was faster and much more consistant.

ram air adds another dimension, and of course that requires an airbox.

water is of no consequence, it just cools the charge a little.

[xcaptainxbloodx]

interesting.

I looked at the Corse Dynamics kit, and my intention was to also use this Drycharger Cover. Does that not prevent water from getting in?





http://motowheels.com/i-7788067-corse-dynamics-high-performance-intake-kit.html

http://motowheels.com/i-16588407-kn-filter-drycharger-cover.html

It does to some degree. I used outerwears, same thing.

the real threat is water collecting if you leave it parked in the wet. an abundance of moisture like that tends to disturb detonation.

FWIW, I ran them for a bit over a year and was riding year round in the PNW including a trip to LA, 2 seasons of track days and daily commuting.  I had a full arrow system and a Power Commander that was tuned on the dyno of a shop with an excellent rep for engine building and tuning.  After a year of having a bike that ran like crap in 90% of the RPM band I put my modified airbox with a high flow filter back on and all of a sudden the bike ran great all around again.

[koko64]

For a simple mod, the open airbox K&N filter one is easy and low cost. Tuning may still be an issue, but others will have been through it. The forum is good like that, someone somewhere has usually tried it first.

Even careful tuning on two carbed 900s with pods I tuned still gave a more layered feel to the power delivery than an open airbox. I do wonder if there is more slide flutter and therefore turbulence in CV carbs with pods. I have only tried pods on flatslide carbs. You would also think there was a better chance of tuning EFI and pods with less compromise, but real world results can be surprising. It's the layered feel of power that people seem to be unhappy with.

Ungeheuer has had good results with pods and velocity stacks on his 1100S, but he did a lot more than a simple tune up. His efforts were extensive. He also runs the outerwear covers.

The K&N outerwear covers are claimed to also smooth the airflow through the pods and are a first defence against rain and dust. If I run any pods in the future I will definitely try them.

Curious to see what you decide to do.

[Nibor]

Brad, how much hassle do you think it would be to build a bigger airbox around pods? I'm keen to polish my turd of a 750  its off the road for a while with everything else, and the carbs are being rebuilt at the very least.