I really love the stacks Oliver has designed for individual K&N filters but........

I want some right now! I don't have a lathe so I decided to assemble my cheap version with a little Southern Engineering (aka Presidential Innovation).

Here's the easy way: Go to your local aluminum supplier and have him cut 4 pieces of 2"o.d. x .063 aluminum tubing 2" long (about $2.00 ea). Be sure to de-burr these aluminum rings on each end and with a small rotary stone and driver/drill "sharpen" the inside of the tube on each end to remove the step. Mount a K&N filter #RD-0510 on each one ($30.95 ea plus shipping). Remove the YCCI uppy downy thing from the air box--just snap up the instrument cluster, remove the center bolt that the air box screws down to and that will allow you to move it slightly right and off.

Now just push the filter/tube assembly you have made firmly into the bottom stack(s). They fit exactly. The K&N's are 3.5" dia. x 5" tall. When you replace the instrument cluster, that will fit directly on top of the filters, holding them in place. When you put the hood back on that also serves to hold the filters in place. This won't work with shorter filters.

Caution: If you look closely you'll see tiny holes in the stacks at the bottom of the pan, probably to suck in the small amount of moisture or oil that might collect in the sealed pan. Removing the air box opens the filter area to the elements. In the event you are caught in a heavy downpour or in the unlikely event you might leave your Max out in the weather you could collect water in the filter pan which could then drip down into the intake--not good. I put a small dab of silicone on the outside of these holes and also drilled 4 drain holes in the bottom of the pan.

You now have almost 12 times more filter area than stock--and when Mr.Max winds up the sound is awesome!!

You have not lost the ram air effect because THERE IS NO RAM AIR on this bike. That's just another Yamama sales pitch. Look behind the scoops at all the stuff that is crowded in there. To have ram air the scoops would have to be sealed from the front openings to the air box and you'd probably have to reach 200 mph to have any affect. Now you can hide stuff in there like a relay, a Glock, etc.

You have not lost anything when you removed the YCCI. Another fake sales promotion. When it is installed it just restricts the air flow and when it "electronically opens" it has a servo that raises the top venturi abruptly at 6500 rpm allowing the kick in the butt that replaces the Gen 1 V-boost. If you like that little kick, then leave it on and use an airbox filter. I want that kick at 3500 rpm and up.

I don't yet have access to a dyno but the bike feels more responsive at all speeds with the individual filters. Next comes a pipe and fuel manager.

The Answer in short Words is ...

The Air traveling the long Way produces Torque, short Intake Lenght produces hp. By having a 2 Position Intake Lenght combines the best of both Worlds.


But this is only the short Version.

There's a Lot more involved and when Folks like fxstein, evolutione and T. Nash, Jon Cornel find that shortening the Lenght doesn't harm the lower End it is not contradicting to the upper Theory in first Place. A well desinged Intake Horn with the right Form and a therefore designed Lenght may be as good as the YCC-I or probably better. We're dealing here with very sophisticated Ideas and one's best Soltution might not be the best for the other Guy.

Opening up the Airbox Intake won't harm the overall Mappings, because Oliver determined in early Dyno Stages that the stock Mappings are on the richer Side, to say it at least.

Opening up Intake AND a better flowing Exhaust might bring the stock Mappings to the lean Side. I'm not sure about how much too lean, but the preliminary Findings are implying it will too lean when both Mods are done.

Of Course, when your constantly riding at and above 7k RpM, the longer Horns are useless for you.

Hey Guys & Gals, different strokes ya know.

Not everyone will like the big bore sound of the intake when you open it up. That's your choice--I love it.

As Squeeze said, Yamama had to compromise to suit all buyers but I don't. All I have to do is please myself (which I do regularly).

I'm not a Yamaha engineer, just a tinkerer, but here is my thinking:
If you get a little kick at around 6,500 rpm when the tall horns raise up, where does it come from? It comes from letting air into the short horns. Now you have turbulence with air coming from both the tall and the short horns. Removing the tall horns and running with no filters at all absolutely makes the bike hit harder and you don't have to wait for 6,500 rpm. You might run like that a couple of times at the strip but no good for everyday riding. So the logical solution is individual filters that provide almost no restriction to the short horns. I believe individual filters are actually better than none at all because they reduce the turbulence in the air box and direct the air flow into the intake.

I was pretty impressed with the YCCI when I first read about it. My understanding was that the tall horns would progressively raise as demand rose and provide a precise air mixture for better running at all rpm's. When Tim Nash showed us how the tall horns raise abruptly at around 6,500 rpm and that's all you get, I realized it was just another Yamama hoax like the old Gen 1 V-boost (and REAL RAM AIR}.
We took the V-boost off every Gen 1 we owned over the years.

I checked the plugs after a 20 mile run and they look good so I don't think I am running too lean--yet. When I get an exhaust system, soon I hope, I will also do some kind of fuel management to keep from doing that.

The safe route is the air box mod with a larger filter and you won't have much additional noise--and it costs less that the 4 K&Ns anyway.
But if you get a cat eliminator you'll still need more intake to take advantage of it. I do believe Oliver's machined intake horns will probably perform better than the aluminum sleeves and I expect someone to offer that in the near future.

I will have access to a dyno within the next couple of weeks and if I have a pipe by then I'll test the dif between stock and the K&Ns.
I'm also thinking of a test of different lengths of exhaust pipes AFTER the cat eliminator.

No matter what you do to your 09 Vmax, leave it stock or mod it up,
it's still the greatest overall bike to become available in the last 20+ years.

Hey Guys & Gals, different strokes ya know.

Not everyone will like the big bore sound of the intake when you open it up. That's your choice--I love it.

As Squeeze said, Yamama had to compromise to suit all buyers but I don't. All I have to do is please myself (which I do regularly).

I'm not a Yamaha engineer, just a tinkerer, but here is my thinking:
If you get a little kick at around 6,500 rpm when the tall horns raise up, where does it come from? It comes from letting air into the short horns. Now you have turbulence with air coming from both the tall and the short horns. Removing the tall horns and running with no filters at all absolutely makes the bike hit harder and you don't have to wait for 6,500 rpm. You might run like that a couple of times at the strip but no good for everyday riding. So the logical solution is individual filters that provide almost no restriction to the short horns. I believe individual filters are actually better than none at all because they reduce the turbulence in the air box and direct the air flow into the intake.

I was pretty impressed with the YCCI when I first read about it. My understanding was that the tall horns would progressively raise as demand rose and provide a precise air mixture for better running at all rpm's. When Tim Nash showed us how the tall horns raise abruptly at around 6,500 rpm and that's all you get, I realized it was just another Yamama hoax like the old Gen 1 V-boost (and REAL RAM AIR}.
We took the V-boost off every Gen 1 we owned over the years.

I checked the plugs after a 20 mile run and they look good so I don't think I am running too lean--yet. When I get an exhaust system, soon I hope, I will also do some kind of fuel management to keep from doing that.

The safe route is the air box mod with a larger filter and you won't have much additional noise--and it costs less that the 4 K&Ns anyway.
But if you get a cat eliminator you'll still need more intake to take advantage of it. I do believe Oliver's machined intake horns will probably perform better than the aluminum sleeves and I expect someone to offer that in the near future.

I will have access to a dyno within the next couple of weeks and if I have a pipe by then I'll test the dif between stock and the K&Ns.
I'm also thinking of a test of different lengths of exhaust pipes AFTER the cat eliminator.

No matter what you do to your 09 Vmax, leave it stock or mod it up,
it's still the greatest overall bike to become available in the last 20+ years.

let me throw a little info in here based on what we've found so far. the biggest difference between keeping the air box or going with individual filters is the loss of the mid range resonance without the air box. this resonance basically helps to better fill the cylinders by using the reversion pulses from one cylinder to help fill the other. at higher rpm this effect goes away.

now, i can tell you in one test we used our billet velocity stacks (no air box, no filters) and picked up about five peak horsepower. once we added filters (which weren't the right inside diameter and eliminated the bellmouth shape of the stacks) - very similar to the modification done in this thread - we ended up losing seven horsepower. but, riding the bike it "felt" stronger due to fact that we picked up "sound horsepower" from the open system.

as to the ycci system, the idea is that you use smaller diameter, longer runners at lower rpm to help induce a "ram" type filling of the cylinder. there is no doubt that that this works - no gimmick. the problem is that yamaha needed to meet drive-by noise requirements which means they had to muffle the air intake noise. this was partially accomplished by the air box insert. the other way was to leave the longer stacks in place until they were above the drive-by test rpm. i'm guessing this made the yamaha marketing guys happy because it also contributes to the "v-boost" feel. unfortunately for us, the riders, the stacks remain in the lower position too long because the real reason you feel the "boost" is not so much as a "power adder" above 6k rpm but a "power restrictor" below 6k rpm (i hope this makes sense).

we are working on a way to keep the ycci system but move the activation rpm lower (say 3k-4k) where then we will truely have the best of both worlds.

i hope this information helps.