GreginDenver

You can also see from the drawing that in both cases (both the 180 degree crankshaft engine and the 360 degree crankshaft engine) the primary headers are on cylinders that provide the widest possible spacing of exhaust pulses into both the primary "Y"s and into the final merge (the "collector"). This is how you arrange things for good gas flow through an exhaust system.

Yes this is still happening. It appears that we (those of us already in with deposits on the current group-purchase) have stalled out below the number of header systems required for an order to go forward to production. So if you come in and add yourself to those who've placed deposits we'll be closer to "go!".

You really don't know what you're talking about. This will probably piss you off, but it's the truth.

Actually there's an all-in-one fuel pump solution that's available from Honda. It's a self-contained external (as in: not an in-tank pump) that Honda uses on its fuel injected TRX 4-wheel ATVs and on their big V-twin cruiser bikes. It's an aluminum housing that includes an electric fuel pump, a 43psi fuel regulator and a "sock" type fuel filter. There are two versions of this fuel pump, one is for engines up to about 550cc and the other is for engines up to 1300cc (the big VTX 1300 cruiser bike). The two versions are externally identical, just the pump volume is different. I used the lower volume version on both of my EFI project bikes, one is 250cc bike while the other is a 400cc bike.

And... and... and... and... When you add the MicroSquirt ECU you can also implement full ignition control, which allows you to custom tune the timing and dwell of the ignition coils. The OEM Honda ignition settings are really on the conservative side, there's more ignition advance that can be tuned into the bike without hurting anything. I installed "stick coil" (coil-on-plug) ignition on my EFI project bikes. The DENSO corp stick coils that Honda used on the CBR600RR were perfect for my projects.

Exactly what would those problems be? I can tell you that both of my carb-to-EFI motorcycles run better than they did on carbs. The best thing about my EFI converted bikes is that I can let them sit for months and they start right up (I've let them sit through a full winter with no more effort than hooking up a battery tender). I'm not saying that carbs aren't a fine solution for fuel delivery, they are fine. But some people just want to tinker and experiment and improve things, they like to have a project to work on. That was me. I didn't enjoy cleaning and rebuilding and tuning carbs, but I really like the challenge of configuring and installing and running a fuel injection system (tuning air/fuel ratios as I ride the bike around with a laptop computer hooked up to the MicroSquirt ECU). If you've got the necessary skills/knowledge/time/tools a project like this is a very fun and satisfying thing.

I've done two motorcycle carb to EFI conversions, a Kawasaki EX250 and a Suzuki GSF400. On both bikes I used the MicroSquirt V3 ECU. If I was doing an EFI conversion on a bike like the VFR750 with its unusual "V" configuration I would convert the original carb set into throttle bodies (which is what I did on my Suzuki GSF400 conversion project). The reason for doing this (instead of trying to engineer up a custom set of 4 throttle bodies into a functional "V" configuration) is that getting things like the throttle actuation linkage rigged to work properly and reliably (meaning: getting the linkage to simultaneously open all four of the "V" configured throttle bodies the exact same amount when you twist the throttle) is really, really difficult.

Yes, the reality of the "pulsing rotor" situation on a car or motorcycle can be a warped rotor, but the more common cause is an actual re-tempering (by heat) of a small (brake pad sized) area of the steel alloy of the brake disk. When a brake disk is heated up to very near its maximum operating temperature, due to something like a situation where there was a long period of brake use on a long downhill run (this is common with inexperienced drivers who don't know how to "gear down" the transmission rather than constantly use the brakes), and at the end of this period of extreme heating if the driver/rider is faced with a reason to come to a complete stop and sit for a while (like a traffic light or a stop sign) if the driver/rider holds the brake lever/pedal down during that time the area of the brake disk that is located under/between the brake pads can undergo what is essentially a re-tempering of the area under/between the brake pads. This re-tempering of the small area of the brake disk held under/between will result in a slight change in the crystalline structure of the steel alloy in that area. Once the brake disc cools the change is permanent. Forever after this event this small portion of the brake disc's surface area that got re-tempered by this extreme heating event will have a slightly different coefficient of friction from the rest of the brake disc area. The permanent result of this change is that when you squeeze the brake lever (or press the brake pedal) the brake pads will experience less "bite" (a lower coefficient of drag) as they sweep over the small (brake pad size) re-tempered area of the brake disc.

I didn't want to cut away material. I gave some consideration to going the Dremel route but decided to keep all of the original strength that the fairing chin insert had. I just wasn't in the right mood to start cutting on things (in the past I've done a lot of Dremel modifications to motorcycles, but so far I haven't done any to either of my 5th Gens, maybe that was a factor in today's choice). My opinion on the Dremel vs. heat-bending situation is that neither solution will leave the chin insert "speed holes" looking as good as they did in their OEM profile. So definitely go with your personal preference. Either way the fairing chin insert isn't something I notice when I look at a VFR, it's pretty much out of view from almost any angle. And if someone does notice the bent area it'll give me the perfect opportunity to bore the pants off them by telling all about my totally bitchin' stainless steel performance exhaust system.

As others have already said, I like the "new header" enough that I'm willing to live with a little inconvenience. Here are pictures of my work to provide clearance for the header from the #4 cylinder. I imitated sfdownhill's solution to the problem, I used a heat gun to soften up the plastic so it could be re-formed with an outward bend that gives the #4 cylinder's header about the same amount of clearance as the #2 cylinder's header pipe. Installed on the bike you can see that I've managed to achieve the same amount of fairing-to-header pipe clearance on both the #4 and #2 headers. I happened to have some high temperature heat reflecting tape on hand so I added it to the work I did. I figured why not, regardless of whether the situation really needed this amount of protection Maybe I got a little carried away with the heat reflective taping...

Yeah, sorry, you know how it goes, when you've decided on the solution you're going to use it puts the finish line in sight and you start looking forward to test-riding the bike. I definitely preferred the results I got with the 41mm copper gaskets over what happened when I tested the 42mm copper gaskets. This is still very much a situation that's "in play", it may turn out that another New Header purchase forum member will come up with the discovery of a completely different gasket solution that would be better than the 41mm copper gaskets from Delkevic. But at this point I firmly believe in the 41mm as the best solution I had available. I was very impressed by how neat and easy it was to install my New Header. I used a "spreader" type clamp to ease the header around the center stand crossbar (which is slightly smaller than the center stand leg), this worked great. My New Header matched up to the exhaust ports just as others have described, so I used a couple of Thule Rack cargo straps to put some pull force on where I needed it, like having an extra pair of hands.

Not sure what you mean by "match." I can tell you that I noted a very slight difference in the diameter of the New Header mid-pipe exit. The New Header exit is just a tiny bit larger than the original 5th Gen exit. When I had my Vance&HinesS4 mounted on the original 5th Gen exhaust I was able to slip it onto the exit using the standard Honda OEM carbon+mesh gasket. When I installed the new header I discovered that due to the New Exhaust's ever-so-slightly-larger exit there was no way to use the Honda OEM carbon+mesh gasket, there just wasn't enough room (the carbon+mesh gasket is pretty delicate so you can't force it into a space that's too small without destroying it). So I ended up using a do-it-yourself custom sized wrap of high-temp aluminum tape (stuff that's good to about 700 degrees F). I don't know if I'll stick with this solution, I had the aluminum tape available at the moment and I wanted to take the bike out on a ride to hear what the New Exhaust + Vance&HinesS4 combo sounded like. Let me know how your install goes, and if you can think up something that's a better substitute for the Honda OEM carbon+mesh gasket.

Depending on what you mean by "after" I might be able to show you something. So what do you mean?

I just finished the final install of the header, it's midnight here in Denver but I went ahead and rolled the bike outdoors to run it. The install is a success, no leaks, sounds great. I let the bike idle up to about 170 degrees on the temp gauge then shut it down and pushed it back into its parking spot in my garage. In the end I decided to use the 41mm copper gaskets from Delkevic. They are just a little less than twice as fat as the 42mm copper gaskets that Delkevic sells. Because they are fatter I knew that during the installation "crush" they would probably end up spreading inward to about the same inner diameter as the original Honda OEM gaskets. I didn't like how much the OEM gasket protruded into the exhaust flow and wanted my install to be better than that, so I decided to experiment a little. I purchased 8 of the 41mm copper gaskets directly from Delkevic at their location in Littleton, CO. Got to meet and chat with Matt (at Delkevic), he was very friendly and helpful. I modified the 41mm gaskets by "pre-pinching" them inward, only by a little bit around the outside perimeter and then by as much as possible around the inner perimeter. I did this so that when the crush of the install occurred the gasket would have a smaller starting point from which to spread. The results were pretty good. I practiced installing a couple of my "pre-pinched" 41mm copper gaskets on the front cylinders and after the crush they ended up with an inner diameter that was noticeably wider than the original Honda gaskets (although they do protrude slightly above the inner edges of the exhaust ports). So I'm satisfied, the modified 41mm gaskets provide a very good, generous footing for the end of the header to bed into and their inner diameter is better (wider) than the OEM gaskets. Good enough for me. On to other maintenance items...