1986 vf500f exhaust mods

[matt1986vf500f]

ok how hard would it be to build a single exit muffler for the old 86s vf500 i about to start on it but i would like to have some feedback on it thanks

[Jimtt]

Hard.... Jamie D. can do it I think, but he is not your average wrench. JIM

BTW: Jamie if you happen to read this I assume it was you who was thanked for the superbike engine build in the last issue of Motorcylist Retro?

[matt1986vf500f]

its been very hard to find content on the internet it seem like no one has even though about trying it

[JamieDaugherty]

Originally Posted by Jimtt

Hard.... Jamie D. can do it I think, but he is not your average wrench. JIM

I'm still working on that. To answer the question, you cannot just modify what is there to make it a 4-1.

Originally Posted by Jimtt

BTW: Jamie if you happen to read this I assume it was you who was thanked for the superbike engine build in the last issue of Motorcylist Retro?

I don't read that magazine, can you scan and send it to me?

[matt1986vf500f]

no im not just going to cap a side of and put a slip-on , on it i would like make a 4-2-1, if that makes sense, im just looking for a little help that all

[JamieDaugherty]

Originally Posted by matt1986vf500f

no im not just going to cap a side of and put a slip-on , on it i would like make a 4-2-1, if that makes sense, im just looking for a little help that all

Keep in mind that making an exhaust for a V4 is pretty difficult. If you are a car guy you might be thinking about equal length tubes. This doesn't work with the V4's. The 90° bank separation throws that out the window. You can make the front two tubes equal length and the rear two equal, but once you merge them you'll need to make sure they 'overlap' just right. If all four tubes are the same length they will not merge correctly. Be prepared for some trial and error, it probably won't be 'right' the first time. With some tweaking and a few trips to the dyno you can make this work.

[matt1986vf500f]

ok i understand what you are saying, but it just blows me away that noone has ever tried this before, is there power to be lost by doing this or gain?

[JamieDaugherty]

Originally Posted by matt1986vf500f

ok i understand what you are saying, but it just blows me away that noone has ever tried this before, is there power to be lost by doing this or gain?

They have! In fact, Hindle was the biggest player and made quite a few 4-1 headers for the 500 and the VF's in general. The problem is they stopped making them about 8 years ago due to low volume on these models. They actually quit making the entire nickel plated line, but for the same reason.

There is good power to be made with a 4-1 (or 4-2-1 as you are suggesting). Due to the phasing issue you can expect a bad dip in the midrange but about 3-4hp gain up top. That's a lot, in case you were wondering. The midrange dip isn't too noticeable because the V4's have great midrange characteristics by design.

[nozzle]

Matt:

Recall that the 1986 VF500F was manufacturered and popular well before the world wide web was empowered by the Mosaic browser in 1993, or lots of people even had seen the web by 1996, ten years after your bike was made.

there is likely quite a bit of history that could be found in the back of motorcycle magazines from that time period if your local library had copies.

I have a boat from 1988. Someone had scanned the owner's manual in and I downloaded the PDF for my reference. Imagine my surprise when I searched the PDF for "winter" to see how to winterize the boat engine. Well, turns out that since no one ran Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that search function for a word had nothing to search on... it was just a bunch of pixels. Point of this paragraph is to point out that the information you seek may be out there, but is not in a form that you'll easily be able to search for.

You posting on forums and writing to folks that used to make/race your bike would be a possible starting point.

You are not the first person to try to build a custom exhaust for the bike, but you could be the first to add how you did it in the wiki :-)

Good luck in your search!

[matt1986vf500f]

i understand the point your makeing, no i didnt think about looking in old bike mags for info on it, or in try to see if anyone that used to race those for info i have been documinting it so far, my goal is to build a power adding 4-1 exhaust system for the vf500f, so plenty of dyno trips will be in order, and so far everybody has help me out alot.

[matt1986vf500f]

on more quick question, how broad is the power curve on the 500s does anyone have a link to a chart mybe?

[JamieDaugherty]

Originally Posted by matt1986vf500f

on more quick question, how broad is the power curve on the 500s does anyone have a link to a chart mybe?

Broad. It's just like any V4 engine except just less power all over. If only that engine had 30 more hp....

[Jimtt]

I had one of the Hindle systems (pic below) but sold it a few months back to another VFR World member.

[matt1986vf500f]

very nice bike, the exhaust system is very clean looking.

[matt1986vf500f]

heres what im working with

[matt1986vf500f]

does anyone know were i can find a rear seat cowl? off topic but ive got my heart set on one.

[Lucas]

I don't think that is a cowl, but a custom seat...

[JamieDaugherty]

Originally Posted by Lucas

I don't think that is a cowl, but a custom seat...

The bike shown has a Corbin seat with the built-in 'superbike' rear. If memory serves me, there was a solo seat cowl available as an official Honda accessory back in the day. Rare, rare, rare.

[matt1986vf500f]

ohh i know ive seen rear seat cowls on ebay for 86 750s, so i just though they made them for the 500s.

[JamieDaugherty]

Originally Posted by matt1986vf500f

ohh i know ive seen rear seat cowls on ebay for 86 750s, so i just though they made them for the 500s.

...and they did make it for the 500's. I think the parts were actually produced by Targa but sold only through Honda dealerships as an Official Honda Accessory.