I purchased the max performance kit a couple of months ago. I used the mains and jets provided in the kit. I'm at 4500' in altitude. I used the 48 pilot jets, and 195 main jets that came with the kit.
I couldn't get the bike to stop massively popping on deceleration. Also, I was running CRAZY LEAN. My plugs at idle looked pure white almost. The pipes were also burning my leg through my pants.
In the end, I had to remove the pipes and velocity stacks.
However, it wasn't the Max Performance kit's fault.
My carb likely had never been rebuilt before. It had the aluminum plugs over the fuel adjustment screws, and the jets were all OEM.
I ended up replacing the Max Performance pipes with some Cobra dragsters, and I ended getting the dynojet kit for my bike which came with a custom needle that has notches to put an e-clip, and mains that are a bit different than the Keihin mains. The bike was still WAY lean.
After 7 FRICKING times of removing my carb to find the sweet combination of jets to use, I was about to give up and go back to the factory Honda pipes and jets. Nothing was fixing the lean condition. I tried 52 Keihin pilot jets that fixed my idle lean condition, but at a red light, I was smelling fuel. My bike wasn't leaking fuel either. My pilot jets were running too rich, but they 52 pilots needed for idle to be not lean. WTF?!
I watched this youtube video that went into detail adjusting a vt1100 carb. I purchased the little tool off of amazon, less than $20, and I measured my floats. They were WAY OFF! They're supposed to be at 9.2mm. My rear carb was at 15mm, and my front carb was at 13mm. No wonder I was running lean. No amount of jetting would fix it.
I moved each metal clip about .2mm and I was able to get it to 9.2mm within about +/- .2mm. What a difference this made!! The bike runs better than it ever did.
I don't understand how these were so out of spec especially since the carb was never modified before. No matter. I was able to back off the pilots to 48 from 52. It runs perfectly now. No more fuel smell at a red light.
Adjusting the floats however didn't address the decel after fire popping though. What fixed that for me was capping the stupid california tree huger PAIR system. Introducing fresh air into your exhaust is what causes the popping. Exhaust leaks can as well, but with fresh exhaust gaskets (MAKE FREAKING SURE TO REMOVE THE OLD GASKETS WHEN CHANGING THEM) I didn't have an exhaust leak. After plugging the PAIR valves, the popping was reduced by at least 90% on the Cobra dragsters. There's still a very small amount of popping, but I don't sound like chitty chitty bang bang any more. It was embarrassing. Here's what the PAIR valve looks like on my 06' VT1100C2 Sabre:
Remove the vacuum line, and cap it. There's one on the top of the front and rear valve covers. Use a high temp cap. You can also remove all of the plumbing involved in the PAIR system. There's quite a bit of it. I couldn't find any plates for a vt1100 to block off the system, so a cap will have to suffice.
Now, back to the max performance kit. I love the pipes. They sound amazing. All of my neighbors within a 1/2 mile radius love them too. 😎 I won't however be using them on my Sabre. I'm looking for a Shadow 1100 Aero to put them on. I want to take advantage of that single pin crank sound and use the max performance pipes on it. I'll upload pictures and videos once I find one. I would recommend the max performance kit to anybody with a VT1100 solely for the sound. Loud pipes save lives, and they look bad ass too!
A recap on what I'm using now:
- Elevation: 4500'
- 06' VT1100C2 Sabre
- Cobra Dragsters
- K&N Air filter in factory air box
- 48 Keihin pilots front and rear
- Dynojet DJ170 Front
- Dynojet DJ175 Rear
- Dynojet needle with e-clip on 2nd notch
- Fuel adjustment screw is out 2.5 turns
- Full carb rebuild with new rubber boots, new air cutoff valves, float plunger with tiny filter, slides and diaphragms. Every o-ring that could be replaced was replaced on the carb.
- Corrected float height to 9.2 mm. CRITICAL!
Once I get my VT1100 Aero up and running with the max performance kit, I'll post what worked for me. Can't wait!!
