I purchased a new foreman s model a couple of weeks ago..its in the shop now for a cv boot replacement. I guess i have too much time on my hands since i am not riding it at the moment so i have been surfing the net for accessories and such. Yesterday I ordered the k&n performance kit for it..the kit consist of the carb jets, air filter and sock and the exhaust system. The kit is advertised to raise the horsepower up to 20% or better..Just wondering if anyone out there has installed one of these kits and if it were worth the money. Any response will be appreciated.

 

Honda has done a very good job on all their quads in providing a good foam air filter that protects your motor. Sure you will get more air flow with a K&N but you absolutely will also get more dirt flow into your motor. I have K&N only on Quad that I only run in the sand and in sand because the particles are so large the K&N does OK. Do your motor a big favor and look elsewhere for power gains or get a more powerfull quad.
I am in market for a Honda utility quad and the Rancher will do everything I need but I may go up to the Foreman to insure that I will have enough performance without compromising Honda's good designs.
It will be very easy for you to find lots of riders with K&N's who will say BS to this and that they have been running K&N's in dust for years without problem. The Honda will run for decades if maintained properly.

 

Triplelstroker,

Contrary to what oldturtle say's about K&N filters, "Sure you will get more air flow with a K&N but you absolutely will also get more dirt flow into your motor". I must say that this information is absolutely FALSE!

I've run K&N filters on all my rig's/toys with admirable results for years and have had nothing negative to say about these fine products.

When in doubt utilize the grey matter and educate yourself.

Inthewoods

 

I did add the performance kit with the K&N air filter and sock, the jet and needle kit , and last but not least the hmf slip on muffler. They together as a kit really improved the torque in the Foreman. It seems stronger everytime i ride in the low end area. Yesterday we rode a trail that came out on a long hilly road with curves that was very smooth and small gravel. First time I have had the opportunity to stretch it out in fifth gear. All the way up through fourth gear I could stick right with everyone but when it got fast enough for me to shift to fifth, it was all over. The Foreman really falls on its face. On the least grade it really looses it. Top speed I could ever get on a downhill grade was 38 by the speedo. I know that with the 26inch bigfoot kit the speedo is registering slower that the actual speed , but when i reached a slight incline it would drop to 28 or so fast and I would have to downshift to fourth again.. I am very impressed with the machine at the lower speeds. Sure would like to find a way to get the same kind of torque out of it in fifth gear though. I was left in the dust by a 200 pound guy on a sprortrax250 and a full grown man and woman riding double on a suzuki 500.

 

Unfortunetly this is the way a 450 is. Its designed for low rpm torque, and is almost a pure utility machine. It will outpull both of those other quads ...put together. Thats why it stll has drum brakes too...its not designed to be a hot rod.
The only way to get more high rpm hp out of it, is to change out the cam shaft for a more agressive pattern.
foreman graph
If you look at this hp graph for a 450 honda, youll see , that the pipe and jetting helps to fill in the low range rpm, but doesnt do much for the upper rpm. And dont be too depressed when you find a stock 450 is 12 hp. And even with 500 dollars of mods...itll be lucky to hit 14 horse.

 

Well then you need to go back and check your jetting, because on a stock rancher 350 With 26" mudlites I could still break 48mph on the speedo.

 

Inthewoods has fallen into the trap of using K&N air filter to get more air flow without understanding that more flow of air also allows more flow of very fine dust particles. Now he is understandably trying to defend what he has done without having benefit of all the true facts. Dual stage foam filters such as Twin Air, Uni, or even OEM stock foam provide the very best protection from the smallest dust particles.
Here is a test you can try for yourself. Carefully clean out the inside of the airbox from the air filter to the carb and apply a light coating of white grease. Now run in lots of dust with K&N and you will see how much dust has passed thru K&N and became stuck in grease. You can also check inside carb throat and slide and see a big difference in dust levels with correctly oiled foam vrs K&N. Another test is to install a clean white piece of foam between K&N and carb and see all the dust the K&N has passed that stops on surface of foam.
Here are two good sites that explain the benefits of dual stage foam if you don't want to do tests and see facts for yourself. Reading these web sites will give non-believers opportunity to claim that Dirtwheels is wrong more than right and Uni is biased due to conflict of interest.
http://www.dirtwheelsmag.com/detail.asp?id=66

http://www.unifilter.com/performance-facts.htm

I run K&N with outerwear on dune Banshee because it will never be operated in the dust and because sand particles are too large to pass thru the K&N.

 

Oldturtle, Good info, you havent fallen for the propaganda( otherwise know as marketing).

 

20% is HUGE gains. That is cam and pipe territory. Not that I don't believe a company like K&N.......................Ok..............I'll say it..........If they said it, I don't believe a 20% gain with just a filter; not unless Honda is running cardboard for and aircleaner!!!!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

The performance kit I installed cosists of the k&n filter, jet kit and needle, and the hmf exhaust slip on muffler. Combined together they are suppose to raise the hp 20%. The dyno chart on the 04 model shows 16hp stock, and increased to 20.5 after the kit. I dont know how much power it really makes, but you can feel it in the seat of the pants riding with no problem. When you hit fifth gear its all gone though.