1981 KZ440 carb recommendation

redhawk4 wrote: My old Triumph Tiger works well with the single carb because originally the head was designed that way, the two ports are really close together and work with the little intake manifold for good flow. It's also not a very high performance engine in terms of HP from the 744cc. ..........

Exactly. I bought my 500cc BSA Cyclone engine from Gary Nixon - an AMA Grand National Champion. The highly prepared engine came from the factory to him set up for racing with 2 carbs even though most street BSA 500cc bikes came set up with one carb. One carb engines in the 650 - 750cc displacement range work fine, but if I was planning to run a 440cc engine I would not change it from two carbs to a singe carb. Ed

By MartyrMachine: .... finally taking care of my carb issue on the old bike. The issue was the stock carbs were crap.

What do you mean when you say the stock carburetors are crap? Also, do you have the complete stock airbox?

martin_csr Wrote: "What do you mean when you say the stock carburetors are crap? Also, do you have the complete stock airbox? "

Excellent question! The KZ440 bikes ran perfectly fine when new, so the carbs were well matched for the engines. However, the KZ440 was never really intended to be the quickest bike in its class as the image below shows. It’s a road test comparison from January 1982 Cycle Magazine. Changing carbs is not going to turn an average performing bike into a superbike, so if one is looking for a really quick bike it might be wise to select a different model rather than trying to make a KZ440 a rocket. Ed

I was thinking new carburetors would be pricy & his 440 might be running poorly because of a missing airbox. ???

martin_csr wrote: I was thinking new carburetors would be pricy & his 440 might be running poorly because of a missing airbox. ???

I believe you are absolutely correct! I found a picture he posted (see image below) so if that is the bike he still has it is missing the airbox. To make matters worse, the bike came with CV carbs, so tuning them to run well may be beyond his (or maybe anyone's) capability. The stock CV carbs were very good carbs, but if one rips out the air box all bets are off. Ed

For easier tuning then I guess new mechanical slide carburetors would be a reasonable option.

To the op: some guys have had success fabricating an airbox & using the stock carburetors.

I struggled for weeks tuning the stock setup without an airbox, those CVs are tricky as they come. Went to the stock airbox and had them dialed in pretty quickly with straight pipes. Never heard of anyone getting a great tune with pods on stock.