550 issues and questions

I'm in the process of building my 550 ltd bobber.. I have a stock air box and exhaust still with factory h pipe.. If I take my muffler off n extend my pipes will I lose tons of power? Also I want to just put filters on my carbs and get rid of my air box I jus got this bike kinda wanna make it louder and better looking i had my carbs tuned up last year and it runs nice so I don't wanna have to mess with them again... Open to suggestions maybe a smaller muffler? Baffles on straight pipes ? Lemme know much appreciated

Odds are good you'll have to mess with the carbs again. You're probably going to need to throw a lot more fuel into the cylinders because you're increasing volume of both the exhaust and intake.

I don't know offhand (I'm not crazy) what kinds of jets you'll need, but I bet you can find a good guide somewhere out on the internet: "rejetting a kz550 for open pipes, air pods"

If you're really crazy and don't want to think about it much at all, you could try unscrewing the pilot screws a couple turns. I don't think it'll really help, but it's worth a shot.

And as for power - yes, you're gonna lose torque at the bottom end. The top end may feel the same, but you'll be running the engine lean, which can be pretty bad because it gets much hotter.

Hmm also my number 2 cylinder doesn't fire sometimes, also wen it does its kinda cooler than the rest I understand it might be the float? The outcome is I'm constantly playing with the idle screw it's got new coils wires and plugs I find I gotta turn it up wen it's cold and down wen it's warm then it's usually good after that the carbs are synced and it idles and starts like nobody's business but there's that number 2 issue.. On my tach wen I rev it up it will hang there and slowly come Down Unless I knock down the idle screw it'll fall right Down to about 1300 rpm.. Last year it idled perfect no number 2 issue ... How would I fix that float? Or adjust it or clean it

Could be a lotta stuff. The high idle after warming up sounds like you're running lean (I know this because I just had that problem, and moving the carb needles fixed it). But you haven't changed anything in your fuel/exhaust system, so I don't see how that can be.

As for the cylinder being cold, I would guess it's only firing sometimes. It's only the one? The matching cylinder is firing fine? On my bike 2 and 3 are at TDC at the same time and 1 and 4 are, too. Basically the two that are on the same ignition coil travel together.

You could check if it's getting spark. Pull the plug when it's not working and see if it's sparking. If it is, then it's probably either your mixture (carb is leaking? check by spraying wd40 or something on the seals) or you've lost compression due to a leaky valve or piston rings.

I put pod filters on my 550 last year, I had to drill my jets. I put a 4 to 1 on this year and didn't have to touch the carbs.

What do u mean by drill the jets haha... And what does a 4 into 1 pipe system go for do I need to fix my carbs to have just exhaust?

Get it running solid and reliable before messing with pods and exhaust, or you will be fighting several battles at the same time.

After you get the bike running reliably in stock configuration, you will need adjustable needles (which come in the rebuild kits or in the Dynojet kit), and larger main jets, and you will have to likely drill the pilot jets since there are no non-stock sizes available. The rebuild kit will come with new mains, adjustable needles, and new pilots, so I recommend going with them, plus they are cheaper than the Dynojet kits and you get a lot more stuff like the fuel valves that you probably need.

Check my signature and get all of the manuals, read the valve train warning, and go to the TK22 carb site for info on drilling jets and setting fuel levels etc.

My buddy is rejetting a 550A (same engine as yours) for a Mac 4-into-1 and pods (I did try to talk him into using the airbox), so I can post the details when we have it all sorted. His bike still needs a lot of other work, so it may be a while.

If all you do is add a relatively quiet 4-into-1 exhaust (like a Kerker street system), you might get away with stock jetting. With pods, you will definitely have to find the right jet combo and will be drilling the pilots.