Valve cover gasket install?????? and Airbox question.

[apache]

Alright before I loose what hair I have left, whats the trick to getting the valve cover and gasket back on a 97?? leave it on the cover, or set it on the head? I cant seem to fit it in cause of the cam ends catching on the cam towers and falling off. What a PITA.

  Strange airbox. the rear sections both have intake holes but the right which has a larger hole has a rubber cap over it. The left has a foam sleeve insert of sorts? is this for noise supression? Also it looks like my smog equiptment fell off, imagine that. There are 2 multi wire plugs by the coils just a hangin. Are these for the evap solenoids that were there?

 Thank you once again.

[Mudhen]

Strange airbox. the rear sections both have intake holes but the right which has a larger hole has a rubber cap over it. The left has a foam sleeve insert of sorts? is this for noise supression?

There are big power gains to be had in getting the bike tuned correctly to run with both intake holes open.  It isn't as simple as just removing the cap, unfortunately...which will cause the bike to barely run.



I got mine set up that way a couple months ago, with some 2Bros filters (off a mini bike) installed to act as pre-filters on both intake horns.  Some people claim to have over 100hp after making that mod...I only got up to 92, though...

[apache]

Sounds like the hole in the box airbox is dictating the airflow to much. If thats the case whay happens if you went to individual filters? has anyone tried that? Im not big on either K&N or otherwise, but curious. Sounds like that jetting is way out. Wonder if its just the US bikes due to emission regs.

[BR]

Apache,

I think I had glued (silicon sealer or equivilent) the gasket to the valve cover before I put it on.  Yes, it's a pain and the gasket's little half moon cutouts will snag on the cam caps as you wiggle it in place....but it can be done of course...Just expect to do a bit of cursing!



My '98 Tiger has the stock airbox and yes, one side is capped off and the other has the little tube in it.  No plans to change any of that despite having the Yosh cans on it.  And, the '98 models have the Keihen (sp) carbs whereas the '97 and earlier models have the Mikuni mixers and there was at one time a jet kit available for them...don't recall who the supplier was.  However, I don't beleive those jetting changes will let you eliminate the airbox and go to individual filters... it has been done before but it's apparently not easy.  Not sure, but I may have heard that the carbs from the mid-90's Speed Triple might work as well as a starting point.  Anyway, the Tiger's airbox is generally regarded as one of the dumbest designs ever put on any motorcycle... it could have been done so much better with a replaceable filter especially since it clogs up so easily.  I replaced my entire unit and it cost $60.



Regards,



Brendan

'98 BRG tiger, 30K miles.