Hi guys,New Member here. I have a 04 Midnight Star 1700,just put Vance & Hines Longshot HS's on it & rejetted Carb.I saw something about drilling the stock airbox to get more air.Is this a good idea or not & how much do you drill?

welcome to the Clinic.

Check this out ..... http://www.geocities.com/fatbike4/Fat_Bak.html

The engine is straving for air so this techinque helps it breath a bit.

Doc

My brother-in-law and I did that to our 2005 Rodies, and we both felt a big differance. We drilled 1/2" holes, 3 wide on the front and back part of the black section of the air box. These R/Stars love as much air as they can get. Paul

Did you re-jet? If not, how is it running?

TIA, Ted

The local Yammy Mechanic said that drilling the holes in the airbox would not make that much differance and rejetting would not be necessary. But after having a taste of the extra power, we both added Vance & Hines LongShots and a Hypercharger. Re-jetted the carbs then. Question. It seems it is running rich. I know you would rather run rich than lean. I'm running a 185 with a 40.0. Any thoughts?

no thoughts on your carb settings... depends on what year you have also... but I do know that our bikes have a problem with carbon building up on the exhaust valve guides, causing the exhaust valve's to stick... this problem is magnified by a rich condition, also these bikes will tolerate VERY rich conditions without much grumping until the valves start sticking... so the current theory is to run them as lean as they will go.... and still give you performance... I have a baron's jet kit (baron has a unique needle) and I've got a 167.5 in it, I've got stock pipes and a speedstar air box / K&N filter. I started with a 172, she ran great, but rich, I dropped to a 170, ran great but still rich, dropped to a 167.5 and have a slight drop in performance, but still stronger than stock, and she's a touch on the lean side... ~D

I drilled mine last night. I used a 1" hole saw. Drilled 3 on the leading edge and 2 on the training edge. all up high. Went to Lowes and got some grommets in the hardware section, in the drawers with all of the specialty items.The size is 1 1/8" OD x 23/32" ID.

I cut one side of the grommet lip off as the air cleaner plastic housing is too thick for the grommet to grasp the air box. This lets the grommet slide in without being crushed into a smaller opening than the 23/32" spec.

I got a pair of my wifes old black nylons, with her permission of course. It might have been more fun had she actually been wearing them... I digress. I cut oversize pieces of the nylon and put it over the 1" holes and then pushed the grommet in to hold it in place. It's all held together by Gorilla glue because that's what I had. Only problem is that the stuff dries brown and required a lot of trimming with the utility knife.Something that dried clear or black would be better. But if I need to redo these I think I can pop the grommets out.

I'll try and post some pictures if my wife will help me with her digital camera. The reason I did only 3 holes on the front and two on the back was that I thought it looked better and I figure I'm still getting 40 to 50 percent more air. The grommets and black nylon protect the holes to keep junk out and also look better than gaping holes into the air cleaner.

I did the stage 1 stock exhaust mod and now opened up the stock air box. The bike definitely runs better. It sounds better and the carb seems OK with the stock settings. I haven't removed the plug on the PMS as yet.

Hope that helps. Man I'm having so much fun with my new motorcycle I should be twins.

That should be two holes on the trailing edge...I was looking at my training wheels when I typed that.

Mutha,

Thanks for the info.

And I'm eagerly waiting for pics of your wife in black nylons. Opps .... read it wrong, I mean pics with your wife's camera of the black nylons.

Doc

DocShadow wrote:


And I'm eagerly waiting for pics of your wife in black nylons.

Doc

Ha ha! You read my mind.