Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Simple Performance Measures

The thing is, in my mind if you can lesson resistance to air or exhaust flow, it makes sense those gases will move through the system quicker which would equate to performance gains.

We know that from free-er flowing air fliters and exhaust pipes and valve ports, so wouldn't larger carb orifices and inlet manifolds work in the same positive manner.

Personally I don't really understand why the changes in question wouldn't be of value. In saying that I'd imagine there are flow considerations like even rifling that have maybe not been explored as certain experimental areas.

Personally when I first read about the "improved" billet intakes I was one of those where my ears pricked up with an understandable "hey, let me know more"?

I certainly hope just because Fast Fred ran into some sort of difficulties that it is assumed this means they don't work. Yes I know the before and after dynes showed little but from what understand these intakes were one of the first prototypes meaning who knows what further experiments and changes could have improved the objective.

I guess time will tell if there is any real worth to these intakes and if so, the new entrepreneurs should they appear would also consider the carbs diameter as related projects.

In other words the market will drive this one but if we never see it again as a known mainstream improvement, we can safely know they're worth is more in the expensive bling category.

Dave, this isn't the first you've become defensive without reading ALL (key word) the info on the table without picking a certain sentence and taking it out of context. No one is disputing your dyno results but others like myself are weighing up the big picture worthiness of the intakes by
themselves.

Fwiw, I'm confused you're confused.

Lighten up mate. You've done a great Job with your bike.

Relax buddy, I'm not mad atcha! Not being defensive at all, just trying to understand that one statement. FWIW, I had a pair of stock intakes that Fred had ported out and I sold them to brokenfixed I think, so maybe he can chime in to say if they improved anything on a relatively stock motor.

before and after shots of stock intakes ported...

Perhaps a better question is whether the ported billets made more power than the ported stockers. Porting wasn't part of the OP's question.

just throwing out info here since the original post was about Nology wires and Procomm CDI

Understood Dave, the thread kinda morphed into intakes. Nothing wrong with that. My original response about intakes was from an "all other things equal" perspective. More info certainly adds to the collective database. All good.

Where are the billet intakes even available from? Last I saw them on newspeedmaster.com, they were still only for the Bonnevilles because the America/Speedmaster needed the angle on them to get the carbs level. Even the first set I got didn't work because they were straight cut. You can see in the pic I posted how the angle is cut on the carb side so the carbs fit right.

The ones that I referenced were from TPUSA, & they very well could have been prototypes. I didn't see them, however I have no reason to doubt what I was told from a very credible source. On a Scrambler, also.

Do the carbs on a Scrambler hang level or do they angle up slightly like the Bonneville?

Well, I just did something that I thought I wouldn't do unless necessary:

PVL (a/k/a Nology) Coils - Ultrarev Sale . God help me...

IIRC they are angled like a 360 motor, even though the Scram is a 270.

Excellent Dave. All's good then. I must admit I was a bit testy as last night was my daughter's engagement party and at that time a couple of things weren't going to plan etc etc.

Fwiw, I really appreciate how well you've done to get the gains you've got. In fact when I do start looking at beginning the process of doing the more expensive stuff, I'm thinking I would want your advice and experience to give me a hand so I don't have to reinvent any new wheels.

Getting back to the question of Billet intakes and enlarging the carbs orificeseseseses , and just for now taking out the dyno, how about you to take us back to when you had them done and what you recall "bum dyno" wise.

For instance do you recall whether you did both separately and if so what were your impressions at the time eg, perhaps you did the billet intakes before the carbs or vice versa, and whether you remember a definite improvement in response. Stuff like that. I'm trying establish a plan for the future and besides the obvious, using various non main stream methods to add little bits of extra oompff, are what I want to pick your brains for.

here is what I posted in my other thread about the carbs with only butt dyno...

Quote:

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Okay, so even without the billet intakes, these things feel like they have more power to them. Pulls really strong through the midrange, 2500-5000 seems to really make them happy. 70-95 mph pickup in 5th gear is sick, gets there in no time! Need to get them fine tuned, and when the intakes get here get it up on the dyno. I've heard that if you can feel a difference, then thats 5hp on the dyno. I believe it! The manifolds should add some torque to the mix. So far, I'm impressed!

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Does anyone know what happened to Fast Freddie? I bought a set of his billet intakes in 08 and my America was so new that I really couldn't tell any difference in performance when I installed them. But they are beautiful and seem to be top quality. I wish now I would have had Freddie enlarge my carbs at the same time. He did excellent work and although he had medical problems he made sure to call to let me know that my intakes were going to be delayed a week or so, then called after they arrived to make sure I was happy with them and had no problem installing them. I think he was a good guy with serious medical problems.

Dave, this is a belated thankyou for posting your last to point out you did think the bored out carbs did make a difference. It appears though that you may be the only guy we know who's had it done. Lucky you hey?

All those little things put together would add up I'd imagine. Here in Aus I've probably got Buckley's chance of finding someone but maybe Thunderbike across the ditch may have the expertise.

Hey, no problem buddy. Yeah it all adds up... like picking up pennies until you have dollars