Shooter CB550 Progress with Pix - 4 December - PODs (and help needed)

Inspired - I fitted PODs.

Needed a bit of squeezing in and also needed a modification to the Choke mechanism due to available space.. Picture shows mod as work in progress - will be fitted with a small lever soon.

Other picture shows gas outlet spiggot that used to flow back to the air box. What do I do with this now?

Shooter, lookin good! That spiggot is most likely the crankcase vent, run a hose off it to your swingarm so it vents to the ground or it will slowly spew oil here and there on your shiny motor. Second..you will have to rejet your carbs for pods..if ya didnt know already. They allow MUCH more air into your carbs than the airbox, and it will cause you to run lean, which is bad as it can cause massive damage to your valves and pistons/rings. Im not a Keihin guy, but on my Mikuni's i had to go from a 115 main to a 127.5 main jet...pretty big jump. You'll also prolly have to move your needle a couple spots if its adjustable. Best bet would prolly be to look for a jet kit for your bike's set up. I dunno if Dynojet makes kits for Keihins but check with them. Its a hell of alot easier than trying to jet yourself as its a bit of a trial and error process. The Dynojet kits will have a new needle and jets for your carbs, and will tell you the best set up based on pods and a 4into1 pipe...

Most people run another filter on the crankcase vent, after putting a hose on it as suggested. The engine 'breathes' and you don't want it sucking in any unfiltered air directly into the crankcase.

Here's a pic of two of them, along with fuel filters that I like. Picked them both up at Bike Bandit. I have two crankcase vents so need two. They're Emgo and were about $14 each I think.



There's another filter style that I found fits better on the 500/550. It's shaped like a can of tuna, not a dixie cup. Doesn't come as close to the frame on cylinders 1 and 4. I'm surprised you even got those on.

Looks awesome. I am running pods as you know and straight exhaust on the factory spec'd carbs. I haven't re jetted yet but I do read my plugs and all is well. I am not running lean or rich for that matter. I'm sure you will probably see an increase in power and I would imagine it would be minimal with larger jets but I cant attest to this. Just keep an eye on the plugs and read them occasionally and you should be fine. And of course, there is that possibility that you could run lean, but again, read those plugs.

Thanx - I will sort something for the cranckcase vent. You are saying it only needs to be able to vent the gas somewhere safe and prevent intake of dirty air? BTW - the old airbox and filter system were doing neither of these functions well due to corrosion of the metal filter and a bad seal in the airbox..

I managed to squeeze the PODs in by trimming the rubber on the outer two.

Will cross the re jetting issue when it arises. I have also considered running with some foam inside the PODS (experiment) but will get some jets on standby.

Can a mechanic with the right gear tell if an engine is running rich/lean? Whats the test apart from checking sparkplugs?

You just need to run a rubber hose away from the motor for the crank vent. Its not that it will take in dirty air, as it has some (usually) wire mesh filters in there to keep dangerous stuff out of your cam and valves, its mainly for venting air out. It will be oily air..i have the same issue with my GS and installed a tube to run it away from the motor, ran it over the carbs and down to under the swingarm so it vents to the ground.

As far as tuning for your pods, a mechanic may have a gas/air meter that can do the job, but he's prolly gonna charge you an arm and a leg to do something you can do yourself pretty easy. Plug chops are one way of finding out how you are running, but thats quite involved and can be a PITA yanno? If ya have the bucks (like 80ish i think) invest in a Morgan Colourtune plug...its a spark plug with a glass window that allows you to see into your cylinder to see what colour the fire is. If its yellowish or orange you know you are too rich, light blue or white youre too lean...nice blue, you know you are right there. You may check into a mechanic to see what he'd charge, as you may find a deal, but i prefer to do it myself just so i know what im doing later on should something come up and i need to fix it. Just my opinion...Hope this helps!

Josh

All points noted.

BTW - I just had an auto electrician check my electrix after I had installed them over the last couple of days.

I just wanted the surety that there would be no sparks and that I had good grounding.

Evidently I nailed it first go. ;D

I was surprised that it was easier than I had anticipated. Bit of a credit to the original design of the system.

Hey shooter, when I was running Dellortos on my bike with pods, I did like you said with a foam prefilter to avoid re-jetting. I just cut some foam filter material I had into circles slightly larger than the carb throat and then put the pods over them. Worked awesome.

Nate said:

Hey shooter, when I was running Dellortos on my bike with pods, I did like you said with a foam prefilter to avoid re-jetting. I just cut some foam filter material I had into circles slightly larger than the carb throat and then put the pods over them. Worked awesome.

Click to expand...

Cool - thats all I need to try it out as well.

When I told my mechanic that I threw the pods on, he raised his eyebrows a little. You and the guys have given me heaps of confidence to carry on because I really want them instead of the ugly black box.

Also - just bought a K&N breather filter . I am going to try it right up on the cover. If it stinks too much I will rig it back and under on a hose.

This is how I did my breather filter (see the little white one under the two massive cones?). A little different location on the Yammie's than the Honda's, but you get the point. Everything fits really tight on this engine, but it looks good when it's all in there. I'd say if you could mount the filter on the engine, that would be the best. Just looks better than a rubber hose running to a filter somewhere's else.

Thanx

I have bought the same breather filter (K&N) and was thinking of positioning it there as well.

I wondered if it made a mess on the engine? If so I will locate it in the empty space left by the old airbox.

Shooter

I wouldn't get bent on the jetting yet. Usually I find that a set of pods and freer breathing pipe can be just fine with stock jets. That's whats on my KZ - it runs great & the plug color is good. Maybe I miss out on a bit of extra power but if it works good & I'm not close to melting a piston then I'd rather spend time riding.

Get it together - see how it runs and then have a look at the plugs.

zixxerboy said:

Shooter

I wouldn't get bent on the jetting yet. Usually I find that a set of pods and freer breathing pipe can be just fine with stock jets. That's whats on my KZ - it runs great & the plug color is good. Maybe I miss out on a bit of extra power but if it works good & I'm not close to melting a piston then I'd rather spend time riding.

Get it together - see how it runs and then have a look at the plugs.

Click to expand...

Thats my plan. Seeing as I'll have to safety it with the stock exhaust on as I'm sure the straight pipes won't meet noise pollution limits.

You may get away with not rejetting..but i really really doubt it...Zixxerboy may have gotten lucky. And then again he may be cooking his valves. When you take the air filter off a bike such as an old CB, KZ, or GS, you are playing with fire. litterally. It may run, much as my GS did with leaking intake rings and pods...but its running HOT. My pipes started to blue, so i started poking around. My plugs had decent colour..not the amber that you'd generally look for, but they didnt *look* torched. But the bike was running way warm. You have to think...you are now letting a massive amount of air into your motor with the pods, Its going to lean it out..period. There are lots who say that you can get away without rejetting for a new 4into1...and lots of times thats true because Vance and Hines or whomever has tuned the pipe for your specific bike to work with stock settings. But there are very few who will tell you that you dont need to rejet for pods. If you wanna give it a shot without rejetting, go for it...but do yourself a favour and watch your plug colour, and watch the colour of your headpipes. If they start bluing ( a lil bit can be normal, but farther than an inch or so down and you may have problems) then start looking at jets..

Thanx for the info everyone.

We are going to start the bike today for the first time since I started the project.

If she starts and runs, we will take a careful look at all the points you guys have made.

I am still thinking I could knock the air flow back a bit with some additional foam in the pods if necessary. (or even some "restrictor washers")

Other thing - I think the bike has run for sometime before I got it with more than usual air flow anyway. The filter box was not properly sealed at the lid and the blow back filter was corroded out and floating around in the box. We stripped the engine right down and there was no sign of any valve damage or carb build up. The original ppes were of good color around the header region.

Anyway - we will see.

I did a little airflow "restriction" test on another bike I own that I had previously installed a pod air cleaner on.

A 125cc Sachs Mad Ass (Sccot bike) that I had fitted with a larger carb after removing the original and the catalytic converter and junky airbox. It always ran a little odd under load due to too much air.

I stuffed outer part of the filter with 3M cloth soaked with filter cleaner. This cut down the space by about 40%.

Worked great. Now I will keep an eye on the plug.

I guess this might also work on the CB550 if it becomes necessary.

Yeah, without re-jetting or resticting the air flow, my carbs were popping like crazy and wouldn't even run under load

Im running pods and open exhaust and it runs really well. I do need to do some tweaking but the temp is pretty cool outside right now and Ill do most of my riding in the summer so Ill wait till normal riding temps before re jetting. Im sure Ill get a litle more response with bigger jets, but it would be jumping the gun to do it now.

Shooter, what footpegs are you using and where did you find them?

Thanks
JKR4

Footpegs were easily available from my local MC shops.


They are EMGO brand. I fitted a bush inside them and used tghe original Honda fittings from the CB550. Saved about 1 KG in weight.

I filed the bottom of the EMGO pegs to get them to sit flat and level