1981 KZ 650H1 CSR Pods or box air filter?

Hello all,
I'm new to the site and really new to working on bikes. I got ahold of a kawasaki z650h1 csr to learn to ride on and work on and I am basically taking it all apart and cleaning everything and am looking for opinions on the air filters. Just looking at the box, placement under seat, etc... it seems like pods would be the way to go because they'd be much less restricted. But like I said, I am totally new to motorcycles so any opinions, advice, etc... would be awesome. I am also curious as to the idea of jetting the carbs. What for and how to kind of stuff! Thanks!
Sincerely,
The n00b.

hey matt650, does the bike have the stock exhaust still intact, if so you may want to leave the stock airbox assembly as it is. if you are putting a four into one system on , then i would look into the pod filters and changing the jetting. carburation and exhaust go hand in hand.

Matt that subject has been beaten to death around here. There is a ton of threads if you do a search of pods vs airbox. Seems every week something comes up about it. I would only strongly urge you to research it before you decide to 86 that airbox. Other than that welcome here! Good idea of taking it apart and cleaning. Pay attention to the wiring connections, get a manual and have fun. There is a library of info here if you do searches and a lot of knowledgeable friendly people. Pictures seems to pacify the beasts. (hint)

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It has the stock exhaust for the moment but I am looking at a less restrictive and better sounding:lol: four into one!

That was good advice. Get it running good with your stock equipment. Then you can start adding things you want like a louder exhaust and (eech) pods. If your bike is not running good you will be opening a can of worms by changing things. You may be opening a can of worms then too but at least you will have something to judge them by and a benchmark starting point that you can go back to if you need to. Most of the time this is not what someone wants to hear but it allows us to say "told ya" when "the dang blasted thing won't run right" threads starts. :woohoo: :whistle: :pinch:

Reading your post and what you are wanting to do, I'd stay stock on the air box. I run pods and have no problems to speak of, but I also don't have a problem setting up carbs and re-jetting several time until I get them where I like them. You may or may not have that patience or place to work on them that much, if you do then great but if not then you will get frustrated fast. Not familiar with the carbs on your bike but I'd guess they are CV's and as such they are not the best kind of carbs to learn jetting with pods on, you'll have a lot to do to get those right.


You can make your bike faster but modern bikes have insane hp to weight ratio's. When I had my ZRX it was twice as fast, handled 10 times better and was virtually (except the damn chain) no maintenance as with my KZ1000. My favorite saying is that "there are no free puppies"... anything you want to do is going to cost you time and money, you get a bike for cheap or free and it will cost you more to "get it right and like you want it" than if you just bought the one pretty much like you want. Just the nature of the beast, we all spend more time and money on these old bikes than we should if we were being logical but there is a certain satisfaction to that as it is our labor and vision that went into it, not just some modern off the showroom floor cookie cutter bike. Enjoy it and good luck!

Cripes we need to make this age old topic a stickie......

matt650csr wrote: Hello all,
...am looking for opinions on the air filters. Just looking at the box, placement under seat, etc... it seems like pods would be the way to go because they'd be much less restricted. But like I said, I am totally new to motorcycles.. I am also curious as to the idea of jetting the carbs...

Welcome to the site. You're right. Those Japanese engineers spent millions of yen designing the airbox so the bike would run well at all RPM and be faster than their competitors, but hey, what the heck did they know? They probably had never heard of pods. You're totally new to motorcycles so you don't have any of that engineering baggage or experience to interfere with your intuition regarding the effect of a much less restricted intake on a bike designed for an airbox. I say go for it since you want to learn about jetting.

Now it's a pods vs air box post for sure.... :silly:

Just remember, there is nothing better than stock, absolutely nothing that's why nothing has advanced since the very first gasoline powered engine, yep those omnipotent engineers had it right and nobody can improve on it, that's why if you want your bike to run like the original engineers intended then it has to look like this or else it's just junior engineers and shade tree mechanics messing up a good thing! If it was good enough for 1885 then it's good enough forever!



Can you even FIND the carb on this thing??? :silly:



Seriously though, with those carbs just keep it simple and find an air box.

650ed wrote:

matt650csr wrote: Hello all,
...am looking for opinions on the air filters. Just looking at the box, placement under seat, etc... it seems like pods would be the way to go because they'd be much less restricted. But like I said, I am totally new to motorcycles.. I am also curious as to the idea of jetting the carbs...

Welcome to the site. You're right. Those Japanese engineers spent millions of yen designing the airbox so the bike would run well at all RPM and be faster than their competitors, but hey, what the heck did they know? They probably had never heard of pods. You're totally new to motorcycles so you don't have any of that engineering baggage or experience to interfere with your intuition regarding the effect of a much less restricted intake on a bike designed for an airbox. I say go for it since you want to learn about jetting.

Oh man! I didn't know trucks and motorcycles were so different and that the Japanese spent so many yen on putting performance parts on these fairly low-end bikes back in '81... I wonder if the yen is still worth so much... I think a million yen is a few thousd u.s. dollars... those crazy big spending japanese folk! I appreciate your sarcasm! I was just asking because I don't know much about motorcycles but I think I will go ahead and give the japanese engineers the finger since I have a clean slate experience and intuition wise! Thanks! Haha

These double overhead cam 4 bangers started a site before 81' and they brought their own share of troubles of design. One being a big old bank of jugs with 4 carbs sitting behind them and breathing backwards. It complicated things of getting a nice clean cool smooth flow of air to these mills. Yes it was a step forward in smoothness and power but there were obstacles. The Japs did a heck of a job engineering them. They did not over complicate these boxes but they did do a nice job or they wouldn't be around after 40 years. They even use them on some v-twins. As for pods being an advancement I don't buy it. They display too many bad tendencies for pretty much little payback. They are easier to get on or off but then again if you do not suspend them you might pay for that with your connectors. That is not design advancement in my book. It seems you can somewhat change the design but not the concept. IMHO