Duc2V4

ust like "missing" a step, what mechanical project be complete without a minor mishap with tools? Well, not to miss out on that opportunity, I decided to drop my SSSA wheel stand onto my middle finger when I was trying to move it out of the way. Well, with that out of the way I had only a few more things to do, one was get my 2 Bros mid-pipe end expanded to be able to fit the "WyLD" headers. Took it over to a local muffler shop, asked the guy down in the work pit if this was something he could do and how much. He said "Do you have it with you?", "Yep", "Give it here, I'll do it right now". "Cool, how much?". "Nothing, it'll only take me a few minutes". I ended up handing him the last $10 I had in my wallet and went home with the modified mid-pipe. For some reason can't find the video of her running, so I'll have to recapture that and post it later. Thanks for following along. Cheers!

As we all know, when things go too smoothly, there has to be something we forgot or missed, right? Right! Seems that rather than terminate the VTEC spool valve, I just removed it. Well, that little oversight will trigger the FI light to stay on. Well, a call to fellow VFRD member Christian, he pointed out what he did so, I had to do some slight disassembly and get that spool back in and mount it somewhere. Yep, somethings missing... ...This! OK, now let's get this more put together...

With the original motor removed and all of the coolant hoses put on the replacement motor, I went to work getting that installed and tightened up.

After doing some more stripping and investigating, I was surprised to find a rather new and "full sized" K&N air filter. Once the 5 Gen engine was out and all the other parts and pieces set aside, I put the 6 Gen onto the Abba stand and got to work there too. Started by draining the fluids and removing vital bits to be reused, like the throttle bodies and coolant hoses.

So yeah, I did a thing, that was put a 5 Gen engine into my 6 Gen frame. For the most part, I was really loving my 6 Gen, got it setup for my comfort and was really enjoying how it was running. Well, up to a point, seems that I had a coolant leak and it wasn't external but rather internal and after every ride, mostly commuting at this point, I'd be low on coolant. After several searches for where the coolant was leaking from, it was determined, it was leaking into the combustion chamber! Yeah, not cool, no pun intended. So what to do, repair the motor? Replace the motor? Sell her and get a new one? Well, as luck would have it, someone on a Facebook forum was looking for a buyer of his 5 Gen. His son bought it and was going the "stunter" route when dad stepped in and said we are either going to build this right and for normal use or we're selling it. Well, looks like the latter ended up being the choice. I reached out to him and had a couple of conversations, mostly to get a read on him and the situation and I felt comfortable with both so agreed to buy it from him. Luck would have it he was in California too, albeit a few hours North of me, but no out of state travel or concerns (California plated). Anyway, got my friend to help me go pick it up using his van and company to go grab it. All went well, got up early, hit the road, stopped for breakfast, met the seller, stopped for lunch and home just after dinner time. I think we might have stopped for dinner too, don't remember though. One of the first things I did after I got the bike home was throw it on my Abba Sky Lift and did an assessment of what I got. One of the first things was to inspect the stator. That turned out to be almost brand new! Then I took compression readings of all 4 cylinders, again good to go there too. Then I pretty much stripped it down to the motor.

Hi VFRD folks, long time no post, you probably might remember me from such post as, "What did you do to your VFR Today?", the "VFRD Golden State Rides", the numerous "Palomar-Borrego Springs" and "Malibu Ride" posts and probably the most watched, "New 5th/6th/8th gen performance header now in production in USA post". Well, sorry for the lack of anything substantial or interesting in such a long time but somehow life got in the way of a lot of things, fun rides being part of them. So what's being going on during this hiatus, well apart from the pandemic? Really not much, at least in terms of rides go. I sort of took a break from riding public roads in favor of doing some track time. I was able to get onboard with the California Superbike School's corner working group. In exchange of my time monitoring and reporting on student riders, I got a load of track time as compensation, how cool is that? Unfortunately, on my last session with them, 6/2020, I ended up crashing my 5 Gen at about 100MPH! Last look at my speedometer coming out of turn 9, I saw 110MPH, then saw the ground, the sky, the ground, the sky, the ground, the sky...you get the idea. Ended up with some bruising, tore up gear, a dislocated pinky and two fractured vertebrae (Ouch!) All in all, it was more detrimental to my bike than me but the cost of Dr. visits still seems to be lingering on but the bike and I are all healed up and doing well now. Since it took a bit of time to heal and restore the bike, I decided to just hold off the fun riding and work on all three of my bikes. The 5 Gen was first, then my Ducati 900SS/SP. The latter was kind of leaking oil out of the cylinder heads, so a top end rebuild was in order. That went well and even had a few friends come over and let a hand, if not a beer. So she's now looking and riding as good as ever. Then, had to address the real issue, my 6 Gen. She has given me many miles, a little over 106k to be more precise but she was doing something a bit more sinister than the Duc. She was losing coolant and not in the typical way of leaving some here and there any time she was parked, she was burning it! Yeah, somehow, there was coolant disappearing and no trace of it being expelled externally. So, decision time, rebuild like I did the Duc or just swap in another motor that doesn't have a leak???? Well, decision was made, find a 5 Gen engine and put that in instead of a 6 Gen motor...Hmm, good idea. Why this instead of another 6 Gen motor. Well considering it was time to do a rebuild of the top end, I also figured it was getting near time to also change out the cam chains, as the number of miles would suggest they were getting long in the tooth and there is only so much the tensioner would take up as slack. No such issue with a 5 Gen motor, got to love those gear driven cams! Well, I was lucky and found a gentleman on a Facebook forum looking for someone who wanted to buy a 5 Gen. Me, me, me, I PM'd him and spoke with him over the phone. Turns out he was in Northern California only a few hours’ drive for me, so deal was made. I was able to secure my friends van and he and I drove up to a little town just outside Stockton, where met up, exchanged money for vehicle and away home we went. Since I was mainly in it for the engine and had a few friends who wanted or needed some 5 Gen parts, I was able to extract the engine and lose some of the extra bits to those in need. So, took some time, figured out what parts and pieces I was going to need from Honda, like O-rings, gaskets, seals, etc. and that's where this pandemic really intervened! Took a long time to get some parts and even some orders got cancelled because the dealer only holds the order for so long and will cancel the order if they don't get the parts in that time frame. Oh well, eventually all the stuff I ordered came in but took a lot longer than I was expecting. So what was the plan entirely, remove the 6 Gen engine, replace with 5 Gen engine and finally install our infamous "WyLD" headers! Along with that, replace some seals and bearings that probably, if not for grins, should be refreshed with new. So anytime I had no family or work obligations I went at it. Took my time with this beauty as she is my main "Squeeze", my commuter, tourer and yes, even my track lady once in a while, so that's what I did. So after several months and many hours, I completed my mission. A beauty who not only looks lovely but runs very well and not only has a lovely voice but a little whine to go along with it! Standby there will be more to come...

Hi Duc2V4, Thank you for your donation of --. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

The minimum is still 15. There was a misunderstanding with the builder but ultimately the builder's pipe supplier is the culprit here. That being said, sfdownhill and I are taking a little break from this for the moment. Never say never but probably won't be for a while, if we do go again. This last run seemed to take forever just to get in the orders and then to get them completed seemed prolonged as well. I'm glad to be part of it and can't thank everyone enough for being patient and even purchasing them. Also like to add a big thanks to CornerCarver, his loaning us his 2 Bros headers helped this all get off the ground. Cheers

OK all, if you had ordered your headers on this last run we did, you'll be glad to know that all but a few (The International orders) have left the building. FedEx typically does a 3-5 day for ground shipments and they should be going on the trucks on Monday. So be on the lookout for your headers. The box is 36x16x16 and weighs about 16 lbs. Thanks to everyone who has bought from us and thank you even more for being so patient, this last run seemed like it took so much longer to get going and done, so thanks again for hanging in there with us. Cheers, D

Sorry to have such a long delay between your post and this response, I personally haven't been too active on the forums and for some reason, I'm no longer getting emails with update from the forum. That being said, sfdownhill and I talked about this on Saturday as we were boxing up the last order we took. Unless there is an overwhelming demand for these, we are thinking this last run was in deed the last run for us. Sorry, if this is not what you want to hear but we had a heck of a time getting this last run through. Seems the demand for these is much less than the first two runs had for them.

Wow! It feels like I haven't been on this thread in decades! Anyway, for those who have opted to buy a set of headers for your VFR, please check your PM folder as I just sent out a bunch of PMs for you to review and get back to us. If you did not receive a PM from me and did place an order, please send me a PM to let me know. I'm pretty sure I got to everyone but sometimes a few can slip through the cracks. Cheers, D

Yes. Myself and sfdownhill are the two main members involved with this project, so if the thread was created by either of us, then it could be considered as "official". Although there are a few other members who hand a hand in getting this to come to fruition.

It works really well IMO, although being behind the fairing does muffle it a little bit but it's definitely louder than the OEM horn, it has caught the attention of a few motorist though. I thought about relocating it in a more open area but in all honesty I don't use it all that much, only in the rarest situations that calls for it and/or an evasive action. The size of it definitely makes it easier to find a possible mounting location.

Although not the full size Stebel, I put a Sound Bomb Mini inside the left had side fairing where Marooncobra mentioned. I used an aluminum bar and bolted it to the fairing sub frame. Here are some pics. The specs for the Sound Bomb Mini... Size comparison with a GoPro Hero 2 The Aluminum bar mounting location and final results

Sorry for any delays folks, I've been actually getting work lately and that has higher priority at the moment. As for how many currently on "order". My spreadsheet shows 11 deposits but 2 of those are 8 Gens, so 9 5/6 gens at the moment. I've been doing my best at getting the message out there, even been on the FB VFR forums but most of those guys seem happy to go with the Black Widow or Delkevic headers... Cheers, D

PM sent

Hey folks, just heard back from sfdownhill, he has been traveling for the past few weeks, so that is the reason for any delays in responses to PMs to him (us) and any post on this thread. Although not traveling, my work has picked up at a much needed time, as my bank account has been getting real low! Anyway, SF said he would be back at it in a couple of days and should be able to update us all. Again, many apologies for not getting back to anyone in a timely manner. Cheers, D

I believe we hit the minimum number of deposits so Wade should be gearing things up. We'll post up as soon as we have an update.

According to my spread sheets a total of 61, 26 for the first run and 35 for second run, the latter of which had 8 Gen and 5/6 Gens.

OK folks, getting near go time, we are one deposit away from making this happen, if you're sitting on the fence or know someone who might want in, please step up and join the fray!

Not sure if this info was ever posted and since we did receive an inquiry regarding weight, here is what I was able to gather using a luggage scale. Not sure of the accuracy i.e. +/- X% but seems to be pretty good for shipping stuff. Anyway, here are some weights I gathered. Replica Headers: 9.42 lbs. 1999 OEM Headers: 10.56 lbs. 2009 OEM Headers: 13.94 lbs.

Just refreshing this info into the thread...

I think all but one asked for no pasivation, maybe 2... The passivation is more for "curing" the welds than for protecting the actual whole headers. I believe that sfdownhill had posted what the actual process entails somewhere here on this thread.

Just to give an update. We currently have a new list going and are at the minimum number we need, just waiting on confirmation of the deposits. Most likely we will be there to move forward within the next week or so. If you are thinking about getting a set, now would be the time to chime in. Send me (Duc2V4) and sfdownhill a PM and we can get you sorted out. Cheers, D I thought I'd add pricing here just to make it easy. Headers: $830.00 Passivation: $90.00 Gaskets: $20.00 (set of 4) PC Map: $50.00 Shipping: TBD (Based on your location) Prices range from $50-$90 within the lower 48.

Yes, we are taking orders now and have at least 3 confirmed on the list. You can add your name to it if you like. I will be sending you a PM shortly with ordering details.