Standard Headers VS New Full System

Hi All

I'm an English SV650s owner living in Australlia (and milking the results of the Rugby) I have a 99 Curvey with a Remus slip on exhaust and I'm wanting a few extra ponies... I was thinking of jetting the carb, shiming the needle, putting a K&N or BNC air filter and removing the snorkle... My question is is it worth getting a new exhaust system with headders included (I'm looking at the Vance and Hines full system) would I notice much difference?

[rictus01]

the basic answer is yes, most full systems not only have a large bore pipework, but are also balanced between the rear cylinder and front to produce even gas flow, with a full system you can used the BMC RS race filter (it doesn't have a top as such so no snorkle to remove, just bolt in), Jets well you'll need some fairly big ones, but as I don't know what make you get over there and sizing is different by make, you'll have to investigate yourself, but a lot bigger than standard.

I had a full M4 system with the RS race filter, jets and a G-pak, consistent 80 bhp at the wheel (no matter what dyno), a useful mod is polishing out the heads & mouth of the headers if you're into that sort of thing, makes the power "fatter" and allows you to pull to the limiter.

Good luck.

Cheers Mark.

[jambo]

As Rictus has pointed out, full exhaust systems and race air filters require re-jetting to run right. The "snorkel" is a part of the K3 onwards air box so won't affect you. People with 99-02 bikes often raised the front of the tank up using spacers of about 10-15mm or something to help get a little more air in there...


Bottom line is you're starting to look at real money if you're paying for setup and buying new parts, in return the bike will produce more power, but not by massive amounts (Rictus' 10Bhp raise sounds about right). Make sure you're happy with that level of gain and then think about your budget it's easy to get carried away

[northwind]

Yep, if you're paying for pro setup and new parts it's expensive for the gains... I'd say personally that there's no point at all in tuning on a slipon, the setup time or costs are identical and the gains are too small. I'd also say there's not an awful lot of point in tuning with a K&N, as they're less good than the BMC Race RS filters and again, take as much work for less benefit.

If you do it like I did, and get the parts cheap and jet it yourself, then it's hard to argue with- cost me about £250 UK, less than some slipons. But then if I'd done it the same with a brand new quality system and jet kit, and a few hours dyno time, it would have been somewhere between £600 and £1000, which is silly money.

It all comes back to the same thing with tuning an SV, what do you want it to do... Tuning purely for power and speed has to be balanced against just getting another bike- you could spend £2000 UK on tuning the SV's induciton and motor and it'll still make less power than a £500 CBR600 off Ebay. I love the SV's basic package but wish it was better, so I can justify work that to most people would be ridiculous. So I#'m hardly going to say "don't do it", but it's not really that simple...

Also, I'd say if you've got the money to spend, suspension gives bigger rewards.