VM26SS on a KZ650, what does it take?

If I were to purchase a VM26ss for my 78'kz650 what intake boots (between carb and engine)would I need to get? For anyone who has done this upgrade, I am interested in knowing if it was worth the effort. My goal for my bike is to give it some little added power by in a way that I can perform myself, pretty much anything short of a engine build. I am also searching the forum on a reccomended jet kit for pods and a pipe for this very set up so far no luck, I have found enough info that says it will work but, not what it will take to make it happen. Thanks for any help, meanwhile I will continue my search.

I'm running that same set up on my 77 kz650, piece of cake to do the conversion. You'll need the carb holders from either a kz900 or kz1000 (same part, should be able to get them from Jeff at z1). You'll have to slot the mounting holes on the carb holders and sand off the little lip (designed to seat inside the intake ports on the bigger head, won't seat into the 650 head). I used a little bit of high temp silicone when mounting mine just to avoid any potential leaks with the modified carb holders. Throttle cables will be a direct swap, no worries there.

As far as jetting, with K&N pods (also purchased for a kz900 because they need to be bigger than those for vm24's) and a lightly baffled 4-1 I was running 17.5 pilots, needles on the #4 clip, and 117.5 mains. After switching to a custom fabbed 4-2 system I had to increase my main jet by one step and am now running 17.5 pilots, #4 clips, and 120 mains. K&N pods, in my experience, will require a bit larger main jet than the cheap ones, so if you use Emgo or Uni pods I'd take my jetting figures and back them off by one step.

Doing the carb swap is HUGE performance boost. I've not had my bike on a dyno, so I can't tell you specifically what kind of gain you'll likely achieve, but from the saddle it sure feels like a fairly significant gain.

Hope that helps!

I have done this swap also. I forst had 28mm carbs off of a z1, way to much carb for that bike. I just put on the 26mm carbs off of a kz 1000, i havent ridden it yet but i can tell it has better throttle response and seems to idle better. I had the stock pipes on there but it backired and popped to no end, so i put back on my 4 into 1 vance and hines header, custom bent mid-pipe, and a yoshimura slip on exhaust can off of a gsxr 600, the popping and back firing is gone now, it sonds really cool with the yoshi on there. The 26mm carbs slipped into my stock intake manifolds, but they are new and soft so im sure that is why.

Good looking out Anarki that is exactly the info I was looking for. I will have to order those parts and develop a better understanding of the process to mod the carb holder. By the way is that your KZ in your avatar? That ish is sweeeeet!

Oops, double posted.

jayboogz wrote:

Good looking out Anarki that is exactly the info I was looking for. I will have to order those parts and develop a better understanding of the process to mod the carb holder. By the way is that your KZ in your avatar? That ish is sweeeeet!

Glad to help!! And yeah, that's my baby in my avatar, thanks for the compliment!!!

You'll see when you get the carb holders what I meant by stretching the bolt holes and sanding off the lip. I used a dremel with a skinny stone to stretch the bolt holes, a hell of a lot easier than using a hand file!!! The lip on the backside isn't very big and a quick hit with some sandpaper will let you level it off without screwing up the mating surface, just go slow and easy on modding them so you don't end up having to buy more!!

Just chiming in on this one I'm currently working at put some VM26's on my 650. I got them off a Suzuki GS750 and the cables don't work one will the other won't. I just got done checking the stock airbox will work if thats the way you want to go. the boots from a 900 fit into the stock 650 airbox just fine. Of course you must change the jets I'km going to start with 15 pilot and 105 mains. Have both air and pilot screws. A work in progress. Good luck