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How to mount a Magna 500 engine in an Interceptor


Tyy

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I have recently mounted a Magna 500 engine in my Interceptor because the original engine blew up. I am going to make a quick guide about the differences in mounting the engine and how to do it. To swap the Magna engine in, you are going to need an Interceptor engine for parts. Hopefully if I make this knowledge publicly available it will lead to more VFRs being revived. Before I start it should be said, any maintenance is easier with the engine out. Get any tune ups and refurbishing done before you put it in.

 

Step 1

The water pump covers need to be changed because they are infact different.

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The one on the left is the interceptor and the right is the magna.

The angle of the magnas pipe is such that the rubber hose joiner will not connect it to the aluminum coolant pipe. This part is on the left side, down low. On top of making the coolant hoses connect you get a drain bolt too! Make sure you wipe down the surfaces of any debris to prevent a leak. There is a rubber gasket in here which if its in good shape you can reuse. You can not do this with the engine in the frame. I found this out halfway through putting my engine in and believe me it sucked redoing all that work. (The lower left bolt is trapped behind the kickstand once it is mounted in the frame.)

 

Step 2

The wiring loom is different. The neutral switch and its connectors are different between the two bikes.

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This is located on the lower right hand side of the engine. You will need soldering tools and a length of copper wire.

The interceptor looks like the picture above. It has one wire which joins into a loom which consists of 5 other wires, ending in a six pin connector. The magna has two wires coming from here and ends in a two pin connector. Although, the 6 pin connector which is present on the interceptor contains only 5 wires on the magna. There is nothing on the interceptor wiring harness to plug that connector into, so you need to take one of those two wires and make the 5 pin connection into a 6 pin. At this point I suggest you take a look at your wiring diagrams to see whats going on here. This wire on both of the bikes is the neutral switch wire(Red and Green). The magna comes with a redundant connection similar to the two wires you will find at the front of an interceptor. The redundant wire is green and orange. DO NOT MIX THEM UP

 

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Here is the interceptors wires that come off the engine. You will need one of the square connectors inside that pin connector. I took the red and green wires connector. You can fold the tab over with a very small flat head screw driver and pull it right out.

 

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Here is the magna engines neutral switch wires. Chop it. Yes do it. Trust me do it. At the tip, not the base.

 

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Now you should be looking at a bunch of stuff like this. Say good bye to that 2 pin connector you wont be needing it. You just need exposed copper to solder onto. Remember to slide your heat shrink on before you start soldering. I am using a length of white wire to extend the red and green wire. You need enough to reach the junction of pin connectors on the left hand side of the bike. You will also notice the magnas wiring loom is shorter and barely reaches that spot. I had to take the receiving end out of its clip to get extra slack.  You can see the square connector there too.

 

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Close up of the connectors you will be needing. The red and orange wire will be connected to something like what I have on the left to ground the wire for safeties sake (No the wire is not hot). I tested and it makes no difference whether its connected or not. I am fairly sure it does nothing. The red and green wire will connect to the square connector on the right. You will need to put a length of copper wire in the middle so it can reach its destination.

 

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Red and green wire done. Yeah its blue for me now.                                                                                Orange and green wire done.

 

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There it is in action. Just push your newly made square connector into the empty space on the magna engines 6 pin connector. Make sure you fold the metal tab back down or glue it in place. Now when you turn your electrics on the bike will be able to see its in neutral, and more importantly START because of that!

 

Step 3*

The front exhaust headers connect differently on the magna than they do on the interceptor. On the interceptor there are two studs that you thread the nuts onto. With the magna there is one stud and a bolt hole for a bolt.

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This is what the magna engine looks like. You are going to need to find a long bolt that fits into those threads. I ended up using an alen head bolt, but the nuts that go on here are ten millimeter, so try that. Simply thread a nut onto your bolt first and then put it through your header and into that hole on the right. Tighten down the bolt first so it doesnt interfere with anything. Now just tighten the nuts as you would on your interceptor. The mating surface is further inside on the magna as well, so you are going to need to ditch the stock nuts that are capped. Be sure to test for exhaust leaks once you get your engine fired up. Mine was leaking like a sieve.

Turns out part of this was a misunderstanding on my part. All the 500 engine exhaust studs can be removed. Something to remember if you are missing some like I was, thank you jeremyr62*

 

Step 4**

The magna comes with gravity fed fuel petcock. The interceptor needs vacum to pull a diaphragm open. You will need to unscrew the vacuum nozzle that is on the interceptors engine and put it on the magna. Just trade the vacuum nozzle for one of the phillips head plugs in the magnas engine. Those plugs cap off the outlets for synchronizing the carbs. 

Picture of this soonTM**

 

You are done

I ran into no other major differences when I was installing my engine. Everything else is identical when you install the engine. From what I have been told and read. The magna engine has longer gear ratios and different lift cams. This results in a slightly different preforming engine, for better or worse depending on how you see it. Good luck

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Well done for documenting this. 

On the exhaust studs. They are the same. They are all studs, and they all come out. You just had one out and one in.Sometimes the stud comes out and sometimes just the nut comes off.

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4 hours ago, jeremyr62 said:

Well done for documenting this. 

On the exhaust studs. They are the same. They are all studs, and they all come out. You just had one out and one in.Sometimes the stud comes out and sometimes just the nut comes off.

Hmm, I would never have known. I assumed the pattern on my engine was not a coincidence. I will make note. Thanks for the appreciation!

 

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