I know that everyone is changing or has changed their snorkel configuration from stock, but I had an experience with my stock snorkel the other day that some may find interesting.

While waiting on all of my mod parts to arrive, I got antsy to do something to the bike. I decided that I would at least lose that danged seat strap. While doing that, I figured I could save myself a few seconds on my double snorkel mod by going ahead and turning the stock snorkel around. I seem to recall that someone did that just to add a little bit of protection against water ingress, so I figured it wouldn't hurt anything.

Well, I learned just how sensitive this bike is to airflow. I noticed as I rode the following day that the bike was even more starved for air than before. It really showed up when under load, like going up a hill. The bike was really struggling. It was hesitating and losing RPM under even a modest load. I don't really know how things are supposed to feel when rich vs. lean, but I figured that I was rich because I was not getting good airflow.

I guess I assumed that since the snorkel is under the seat, that air is not so much blowing into it as slowly getting pulled in as needed. It would appear that the bike much prefers an active blowing of air into the snorkel that comes from having the opening facing forward. I know that the point is moot because no-one is just going to turn their stock snorkel around and leave it that way, but I think I am going to use this knowledge to try to come up with another way to use the stock snorkel in the double snorkel mod. I think it would be better to somehow get both snorkels facing forward, maybe with the stock one extending forward above the KDX200 fat snorkel. If there is enough clearance between the top of the snorkel and the bottom of the seat, I think I will try it that way.

If anyone has already done it that way, I would love to hear your experience.

Thanks,
Chris

 

Sounds cool. Almost like a ram air injection setup. Let us know the end results. And post pictures!

I noticed how sensitive the bike is too to the A/F mixture. After I fired it up after doing the free mods, I'd bring my hand down in front of the snorkle inlet, and the idle speed would change even with my hand several inches away from the inlet.

Willum
TC

 

I will definitely follow up with results and pics. It will be good to actually add something to this board if I can. I have been pretty heavily into "taking" mode for the past week.

 

thats all fine and dandy unless you ride through alot of water like i tend to..... id be scared to just take it off.. i have gotten water in the airbox with the kdx snorkel on.... ill leave it on thanks....

 

Dammit, Chris! Now you're making me wish I'd put the KDX snorkel facing forward, and the stocker facing backwards!
Hmmmmmm. [gears grinding in my head]
I wonder if I could fab up some kind of bigger better snorkel that still provides water protection, but allows even more airflow than the dual snorkel setup...

 

I'm with EMS on the water issue. I know there's a drain hole in the airbox, but if water's getting that far, it's probably already in the engine, too.

I guess it's refered to as a "snorkel" for a good reason - it let's the bike "breath" in shallow water. It looks like it does this 3 ways:

1 - Its designed to keep water out, even if water is splashing around under the seat and running over the top of the airbox.
2 - If water gets into the snorkel intake, because the snorkel is tilted downwards, maybe it will run back out instead of into the airbox
3 - If water does go through the snorkel, its flowing downward, past the middle of the carb intake and hopefully keeps going towards the drain hole.

The double snorkel isn't a bad idea, but the rear facing intake is tilted upwards, so any water that makes it into the snorkle intake WILL go into the air box.

So I guess you gotta figure out what your objective is regarding airflow (and therefore performance), water protection, and intake noise.

- If you enlarge the holes in the airbox cover, or just simply remove the snorkle, you might as well remove the cover completely
- A dual snorkel setup increases the airflow and performance, but probably does a reasonable job on cutting intake noise
- The KDX snorkel is a good compromise for power and noise, without compromising water protection
- The stock snorkle is just plain dumb.

Its just like that 7-Up commercial from a couple decades ago ... "Life is full of agonizing reappraisals".

Mike

 

My snorkel stays on cause I don't wan't an airbox full of water

 

KW -- Yep, that's pretty much what I am going to try to figure out. What I am envisioning is to have the stock snorkel inlet sitting basically on top of the KDX200 inlet, both facing forward. That means that the stocker will not be fully seated into the airbox lid, so I will have to figure out some way to seal around it. I found out late last week that my KDX snorkel is backordered from RonAyers.com by about a week, so I will need to wait a little while on this experiment. That will give me a chance to get my other mods done, I guess. I will post pics and thoughts. If anyone beats me to the punch, I will be happy to just steal solution, though.

 

I'm trying to dream up some type of ram air induction... I haven't had time this weekend to think much about it.
I hope to do experimenting this week myself.