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$21.50 DIY Intake

17465 Views 26 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Ryan Lake
8
Here is how I made an intake for the Z. Only thing I had to buy was the air filter.

Perfect companion mod to Kaw'ee's 10 cent muffler mod. Intake and a pipe for under 22 bucks lol.

1. Buy K&N RC-1060 filter, got it for $21.50 on Amazon.
2. Take off side fairings that push into rubber grommets on stock air box.
3. Remove stock air box. I had to take my horn off first but mine isn't stock. Stock air box is bolted to frame one screw on Left hand/Clutch side 2 screws on right hand/brake side. Loosen philips head on hose clamp that secures hose from stock air box to the throttle body. May need to wiggle that hose around the throttle body to get it to break free. Remove crank case vent hose from air box. There is another hose that goes from air box cover to under motorcycle to drain water if any ever gets in there. Remove it. Should now be able to remove the air box with the hose. I took the cover off first not sure if necessary.
4. Replace the bolt and bracket on the right hand side that guides the throttle and clutch cables.
5. (PIC 1) That flexible hose (hence forth refereed to as "the hose") should pull out of the stock air box. Will re-use it. I always assumed the hose was rigid abs but it is actually very flexible. Use some finesse so you don't break sh|t.
6. (PIC 2) I thought about cutting off the flange on the air filter end of the hose, but placing it next to the filter and taking a measurement it looks like that flange will pop out and sit nicely against the inside of the filter and not block air flow.
7. (PIC 3) Put the filter on the hose. Push it down and twist at the same time to get that flange to sit nice on the inside and not get jammed up.
8. (PIC 4) shows the hose and filter assembly installed on the bike. Don't forget to oil your filter if it isn't. Install the hose clamp and tighten it down. I used a zip tie to hold the hose up and keep it from moving around.
9. (PIC 5) Remove grey inserts from air box that the fairings clip into. The inserts have an OD of about 3/4".
10. (PIC 6) Make a fairing brace now that stock airbox is gone using the stock grey inserts. I had some schedule 40 1/2" PVC (the white stuff) in my garage that was perfect for the inserts, I got lucky. Some guys have bought the carbon fiber tube but I had the PVC why not use it? I used some hot glue to secure the inserts into the pvc after using some black rattle can to paint the PVC. Section of PVC was cut to 11" long.
11. (PIC 7) Shows fairings back on, intake in place and home made fairing brace installed. Nice!
12. The crank case breather hose has an inside diameter of 1/4". Best thing would be to get a mini filter for this guy. I'll probably do that eventually but for now I just tucked and secured the hose (yes, with another zip tie) up and facing back to try to prevent anything from getting in there.
13. (Pic 8) Shows the secured breather. You could cut a piece of the stock filter and zip tie it around the breather hose too instead of buying a filter. I was not ready to commit to damaging stock parts yet...

NOTES:

Intake is LOUD! Like holy (rap loud.

Evil Pirate's Bleeding Ears Loudness Scale, 1 - 10:
Let's call Harley w/straight headers a 10... Where when he fires it up everyone looks around, babies cry and car alarms go off.

Stock Exhaust is a 1.
10 cent muffler mod a 2.5
Mustang GT ripping it down the highway a 6
DIY intake is a solid 5.75, but unlike the mustang that's going 85 mph we're going 35.

It makes me consider ear plugs and I'm a little scared of the Zoom Loop that's coming today which I planned to run without a baffle. At least with the pipe the "business end" is behind you. Intake is in front of you so you get more of that noise when riding. Really it's when you open it up to WOT that it makes most of the noise. MrEvilPirate 15 years ago would just have said F yeah now let's get that pipe on... so maybe I'm getting too old.

Butt dyno say performance gains, even with stockish exhuast. My wideband O2 sensor confirms by showing increased airflow. My horn blocks a lot of potential road spray, but if you ride in the a filter wrap may be in order. I imagine you could keep it under the seat and pull it out when needed.

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Would work better if it had a velocity stack bell shape to help get the air coming into the pipe. Some of the K&N pod filters have that built into the base.
There's one built onto the tube.
Are you guys running this without a fuel controller? How well can the little ECU compensate for Exhaust and intake? Do you think it’s running to lean? I’d like to try this out on mine but don’t want to burn it up by running it to lean.
Intake and exhaust no problems with running lean .

Heres some actuals thanks to our Effie Engineer
.(See, FINALLY - NO EFIE, STOCK ECU, INTAKE and EXHAUST:)
.
https://www.z125owners.com/forum/engines-discussions/15405-efie-experiences-5.html#post122949
.
Also the effie is a great inexpensive mod !
that’s awesome. Thank you for all the hard work. So mid/low 13’s AFR with intake and exhaust, that’s Pretty good, as was mentioned don’t want to melt the piston I run it pretty hard near 3/4-WOT almost all the time. Since we are concerned with temps running it a touch lean would an oil cooler help bring the temps down at all? My initial guess is no cause I don’t think it’s “oil cooled” as in running oil through more passageways around the cyl and head for cooling purposes I think it’s just oiling purposes for the top end but I could be wrong.
Here is how I made an intake for the Z. Only thing I had to buy was the air filter.

Perfect companion mod to Kaw'ee's 10 cent muffler mod. Intake and a pipe for under 22 bucks lol.

1. Buy K&N RC-1060 filter, got it for $21.50 on Amazon.
2. Take off side fairings that push into rubber grommets on stock air box.
3. Remove stock air box. I had to take my horn off first but mine isn't stock. Stock air box is bolted to frame one screw on Left hand/Clutch side 2 screws on right hand/brake side. Loosen philips head on hose clamp that secures hose from stock air box to the throttle body. May need to wiggle that hose around the throttle body to get it to break free. Remove crank case vent hose from air box. There is another hose that goes from air box cover to under motorcycle to drain water if any ever gets in there. Remove it. Should now be able to remove the air box with the hose. I took the cover off first not sure if necessary.
4. Replace the bolt and bracket on the right hand side that guides the throttle and clutch cables.
5. (PIC 1) That flexible hose (hence forth refereed to as "the hose") should pull out of the stock air box. Will re-use it. I always assumed the hose was rigid abs but it is actually very flexible. Use some finesse so you don't break sh|t.
6. (PIC 2) I thought about cutting off the flange on the air filter end of the hose, but placing it next to the filter and taking a measurement it looks like that flange will pop out and sit nicely against the inside of the filter and not block air flow.
7. (PIC 3) Put the filter on the hose. Push it down and twist at the same time to get that flange to sit nice on the inside and not get jammed up.
8. (PIC 4) shows the hose and filter assembly installed on the bike. Don't forget to oil your filter if it isn't. Install the hose clamp and tighten it down. I used a zip tie to hold the hose up and keep it from moving around.
9. (PIC 5) Remove grey inserts from air box that the fairings clip into. The inserts have an OD of about 3/4".
10. (PIC 6) Make a fairing brace now that stock airbox is gone using the stock grey inserts. I had some schedule 40 1/2" PVC (the white stuff) in my garage that was perfect for the inserts, I got lucky. Some guys have bought the carbon fiber tube but I had the PVC why not use it? I used some hot glue to secure the inserts into the pvc after using some black rattle can to paint the PVC. Section of PVC was cut to 11" long.
11. (PIC 7) Shows fairings back on, intake in place and home made fairing brace installed. Nice!
12. The crank case breather hose has an inside diameter of 1/4". Best thing would be to get a mini filter for this guy. I'll probably do that eventually but for now I just tucked and secured the hose (yes, with another zip tie) up and facing back to try to prevent anything from getting in there.
13. (Pic 8) Shows the secured breather. You could cut a piece of the stock filter and zip tie it around the breather hose too instead of buying a filter. I was not ready to commit to damaging stock parts yet...

NOTES:

Intake is LOUD! Like holy (rap loud.

Evil Pirate's Bleeding Ears Loudness Scale, 1 - 10:
Let's call Harley w/straight headers a 10... Where when he fires it up everyone looks around, babies cry and car alarms go off.

Stock Exhaust is a 1.
10 cent muffler mod a 2.5
Mustang GT ripping it down the highway a 6
DIY intake is a solid 5.75, but unlike the mustang that's going 85 mph we're going 35.

It makes me consider ear plugs and I'm a little scared of the Zoom Loop that's coming today which I planned to run without a baffle. At least with the pipe the "business end" is behind you. Intake is in front of you so you get more of that noise when riding. Really it's when you open it up to WOT that it makes most of the noise. MrEvilPirate 15 years ago would just have said F yeah now let's get that pipe on... so maybe I'm getting too old.

Butt dyno say performance gains, even with stockish exhuast. My wideband O2 sensor confirms by showing increased airflow. My horn blocks a lot of potential road spray, but if you ride in the a filter wrap may be in order. I imagine you could keep it under the seat and pull it out when needed.
Here is how I made an intake for the Z. Only thing I had to buy was the air filter.

Perfect companion mod to Kaw'ee's 10 cent muffler mod. Intake and a pipe for under 22 bucks lol.

1. Buy K&N RC-1060 filter, got it for $21.50 on Amazon.
2. Take off side fairings that push into rubber grommets on stock air box.
3. Remove stock air box. I had to take my horn off first but mine isn't stock. Stock air box is bolted to frame one screw on Left hand/Clutch side 2 screws on right hand/brake side. Loosen philips head on hose clamp that secures hose from stock air box to the throttle body. May need to wiggle that hose around the throttle body to get it to break free. Remove crank case vent hose from air box. There is another hose that goes from air box cover to under motorcycle to drain water if any ever gets in there. Remove it. Should now be able to remove the air box with the hose. I took the cover off first not sure if necessary.
4. Replace the bolt and bracket on the right hand side that guides the throttle and clutch cables.
5. (PIC 1) That flexible hose (hence forth refereed to as "the hose") should pull out of the stock air box. Will re-use it. I always assumed the hose was rigid abs but it is actually very flexible. Use some finesse so you don't break sh|t.
6. (PIC 2) I thought about cutting off the flange on the air filter end of the hose, but placing it next to the filter and taking a measurement it looks like that flange will pop out and sit nicely against the inside of the filter and not block air flow.
7. (PIC 3) Put the filter on the hose. Push it down and twist at the same time to get that flange to sit nice on the inside and not get jammed up.
8. (PIC 4) shows the hose and filter assembly installed on the bike. Don't forget to oil your filter if it isn't. Install the hose clamp and tighten it down. I used a zip tie to hold the hose up and keep it from moving around.
9. (PIC 5) Remove grey inserts from air box that the fairings clip into. The inserts have an OD of about 3/4".
10. (PIC 6) Make a fairing brace now that stock airbox is gone using the stock grey inserts. I had some schedule 40 1/2" PVC (the white stuff) in my garage that was perfect for the inserts, I got lucky. Some guys have bought the carbon fiber tube but I had the PVC why not use it? I used some hot glue to secure the inserts into the pvc after using some black rattle can to paint the PVC. Section of PVC was cut to 11" long.
11. (PIC 7) Shows fairings back on, intake in place and home made fairing brace installed. Nice!
12. The crank case breather hose has an inside diameter of 1/4". Best thing would be to get a mini filter for this guy. I'll probably do that eventually but for now I just tucked and secured the hose (yes, with another zip tie) up and facing back to try to prevent anything from getting in there.
13. (Pic 8) Shows the secured breather. You could cut a piece of the stock filter and zip tie it around the breather hose too instead of buying a filter. I was not ready to commit to damaging stock parts yet...

NOTES:

Intake is LOUD! Like holy (rap loud.

Evil Pirate's Bleeding Ears Loudness Scale, 1 - 10:
Let's call Harley w/straight headers a 10... Where when he fires it up everyone looks around, babies cry and car alarms go off.

Stock Exhaust is a 1.
10 cent muffler mod a 2.5
Mustang GT ripping it down the highway a 6
DIY intake is a solid 5.75, but unlike the mustang that's going 85 mph we're going 35.

It makes me consider ear plugs and I'm a little scared of the Zoom Loop that's coming today which I planned to run without a baffle. At least with the pipe the "business end" is behind you. Intake is in front of you so you get more of that noise when riding. Really it's when you open it up to WOT that it makes most of the noise. MrEvilPirate 15 years ago would just have said F yeah now let's get that pipe on... so maybe I'm getting too old.

Butt dyno say performance gains, even with stockish exhuast. My wideband O2 sensor confirms by showing increased airflow. My horn blocks a lot of potential road spray, but if you ride in the a filter wrap may be in order. I imagine you could keep it under the seat and pull it out when needed.
great info and so easy to install took me like 30 mins. Even ran a K&N valve cover breather filter. (Filter is blue and eliminated stock grey tube)
559 Jack are you in the valley? Let's ride!
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