GreginDenver

Sounds like you've got 2 "wants" that are pretty much mutually exclusive. You want to own/ride a well-sorted motorcycle, but it also sounds like you might be on a tight budget. I'm also very OCD about only riding a very well-sorted motorcycle and I've refurbished 2 5th Gen VFRs. I can tell you that bringing a 5th Gen (a bike which is now 20 to 23 years old) up to a good standard costs a pretty good amount of money, which leads me to say that maybe a newer year model bike would give you a situation that wouldn't require as much maintenance and thus cost less in the aggregate (cost + maintenance costs). (Here's the forum thread that I created while refurbishing my first VFR800: https://vfrworld.com/threads/refurbishing-my-99-5th-gen.52488/)

I'll never understand the unwillingness to do a valve check/adjustment on a 5th Gen. I enjoy doing this bit of maintenance. With its gear-driven cams and the shim-under-bucket clearance method the 5th Gen presents a very straight forward and hard to mess up situation (unless basic math is truly not your friend). And there's no cam chains to fight with, and no cam chain tensioners to worry about. Just mark the gears so they can be reset and re-torque the camshaft hold down bolts in the correct order when you're done. And getting down through the bits that block your access to the cam covers is a great opportunity do a few other things: to check/replace the spark plugs, to replace a 20-year-old thermostat unit (and all of the O-rings and associated hoses), maybe go ahead and pull the injectors to send them out for testing/cleaning (as a 2nd or 3rd owner you just don't know what quality of gasoline the bike has seen over the years) and maybe replace that 20-year-old fuel filter while your at it.

What I meant to indicate was that the sound might be related to the intake flapper not operating properly.

If I remember correctly, on a bike that is otherwise fully functional, that sound might be related to the intake flapper.

You may notice that those of us who are previous customers of Daugherty Motorsports will mention "rebuilt" rear shocks from other Honda models (929 and 954). That was how Jamie Daugherty used to operate, rebuilding and modifying these shock to new (better) specifications to be installed on other motorcycles like our VFR800s. Now Jamie has moved on from the 929 and 954 shocks. He's offering his own new, custom built rear shock under the name "BD40" which he is producing to customized specifications for a number of different motorcycles, including our 5th Gen VFR800s.

Here's a short video somebody made explaining the wax unit on a 6th Gen VFR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4oVVbzTvVo

Terry, doesn't the wax core expand when heated, and contract when cold? Unless you're skipping part that in your explanation and jumping forward to the part where the contracted wax core pulls on the starter valve control mechanism which holds it open, and when the wax core warms and expands it relaxes its pulling on the mechanism.

I'm out traveling right now, won't be back in Denver until late Thursday night, hoping that Aurora Honda takes really good care of you and your VFR (they've alway been good to me). Let us know how the maintenance goes.

I didn't know you were without a Service Manual. There's an electronic copy of the Service Manual available here on the forum. The MAP sensor is attached to the bottom right-hand side of the airbox. The white sensor on the bottom of the airbox is the IAT (intake air temperature sensor).

Those two holes admit air into the Starter Valve system. Nothing cosmic going on there, just make sure you get them reattached as you're putting the airbox back on. After you get things reassembled you're gonna need to do a Starter Valve Synchronisation, see the Service Manual on page 5-67. That will help to sort out the stumble in your off-idle acceleration. When you're putting the airbox back onto the throttle body you want to be very careful to make sure the MAP sensor is connected properly.

wow, that '01 5th Gen is beautiful.

Before you blame the wax-core warm up unit as the (sole) cause for your bike's poor start-from-cold you should ask yourself: Have the non-VTEC valve clearances ever been checked/adjusted? Tight non-VTEC valve clearances can cause poor starting characteristics. What is the condition of the spark plugs? Are they original to the bike? Old spark plugs that are in the last half of their useful lifespan can cause poor starting characteristics. As part of my refurbishment efforts on my '01 VFR800 I replaced the fast-idle wax-core unit, just opened up the assembly that the unit goes inside of, removed the old unit, installed the new one and put things back together. No need to change any of the factory "white paint" marked items. Yeah, wax-core units don't live forever, they slowly lose their original range of motion, there's a lot of variation in longevity with something like a wax-core unit, some individual examples come off the production line at the high quality end of the spectrum and they last longer than others produced right along with the good ones, but there's a reasonable lifespan you can expect from this sort of thing and it seems like 20 years is "great" and slightly less is "good" and less than that is "fair". But whatever, the wax-core unit isn't hard to replace.

People who buy classic cars always say, "Buy the best example you can find." It sounds like you may have found a "best example." The 5th Gens are now at 20 years and older, even a super low-miles 5th Gen will require some work to bring it up to standards. Starting this effort with a low-miles "Garage Princess" instead of somebody's daily-driver is a great way to go.

I don't know if you're doing it on purpose, but you're quoting the California-only VFR800 idle speed setting.

Did you download a copy of the Service Manual? Page 1-15 in General Information gives the specification for the Denso spark plugs that most of us use. If you want to go Iridium all you need to do is cross reference from the original spec Denso plug.