TE/TC Drilling holes in airbox cover

God forbid we drill holes in our graphics..... lol

I dont like holes on the top or leading edge where theres a chance of water.....

This mod isn't going to work in the wet Northeast....

I would agree slower splashes, Not good, or going through deep river crossings could present a problem but water is going to infiltrate the seams on the cover panel anyway. If you swamp stall the bike you will have some problems either way.

"Deep Mud" Maybe not so much. Depending of course what would be considered mud, or even deep mud, or should I say, thickness of that mud. Like can that mud be scooped up and poured? Or is it thick enough that it has to be shoveled?

Thinking more about how we will ride and race in pouring rain back east. Water running off the edge of the seat, right onto that edge full off holes..... I'm going to try some holes, but I'll put them on the flat side of the cover.

This will probably come out wrong, so no offense intended.... I'm not sure a guy in Arizona, can fathom (pun intended) what we ride in..... We get wet!

think physics.
In regards to rain, really picture and think what's happening with rain water getting in to some holes in the side cover.....I'm not talking about snorkel depth water.
your body is blocking a lot from the get go, but most with "bounce" down and drain to the bottom of the airbox, some will sit on the well oiled foam and some may sit on then roll down and off the oiled foam (the heavy rain day we viddeod was like that) and fact is some small amount really may enter the intake tract with minimal impact anyway.
Think about the actual area of the foam compared to the size of the carb mouth and way the vacuum finds the path of least resistance through the foam.

But of course after all this just do what you feel most comfortable- the OEM did not have screened holes in the side cover----reasons can be plenty, from the obvious (our water intrusion discussion) to sound considerations, dust entry and everything in between.
There is no right and wrong here.

OEM is probably the best compromise/consideration for everything/all conditions/regulations- that's what OEM stock production bike engineering designs and builds.

But fact is , those holes do improve the performance of the machine by opening the airbox for better airflow. And for me the big surprise was the bottom to mid chug/torque factor improvement. The great thing is that its an instant tuner- I can throw on an OEM cover and immediately softens the power just like all the mags said about the Husaberg TE300 compared to the same 300XC-W engined KTM models, and I may use this for some rides we do to keep my fatigue factor low..

Havig lived on both side of the country..... the amount of water and mud we ride in is insane..... Over half the races in Ky and Indiana are mud races and not like Adelanto Gp mud hole jump and splashed I'm talking start to finish mud... the mud splashes on you body and rolls down onto the bike... even without holes theres mud all the way up under tank and sitting in the bottom of the airbox.... a lot of races space between pipe and engine and behind engine by carb will be packed solid of mud.... I run tank across the back of the seat to stop mud and water running doewn the bottom of the seat and into the box.... and massive amounts of WD40 on the bike

Oh yea the simple duct tape over the holes gives you that water seal option as well.
(gorilla tape is the shizzle for all my duct tape needs.) when I wash my bike when not using my hard cover for the filter spot I just tape over the holes and always use a acerbic butt plug for the exhaust or if I forget use some rags or tape over the outlet.

Ron that bike is sooooo covered in muck it looks like a quad.

I think what Ron and I are trying to say is.... This looks good for eastern conditions.....



This doesn't.....


Not that drilling holes, is a bad idea.

I like these Twin Air vents, with covers that snap back on when you want to close the airbox up.

Norman,

No offense taken buddy.

Remember I'm at 4000 ft. and higher elevations. Foothills everywhere and the water runs off them.

If you visited here in AZ during our 4 full months of Monsoon season in the Sonoran desert during the Summer months alone. It is capable of easily giving off enough water to cause floods like you wouldn't believe. Like looking at the statistics for the 100 year flood we had in Sept. of 2014. If you were here then you wouldn't even believe you were in AZ visiting. I've gotten more soaked than that pile of wet riding gear just riding my Harley home after work in the monsoon rain and I only have to go 1.6 miles to get to my house. LOL.

Some of the ranchers East of my town had to use boats to get to a vehicle to make it into town for over a week. During the 2014 flood in Sept. mentioned above. A basic County owned and maintained 40ft. long bridge over the 15 ft. deep "Silver Creek" got washed out on 1 dirt road alone, because the top of it was 10 ft. under water and the water was over 1/2 mile wide.

The many 15 to 20 ft. deep x 150+ ft. wide drainage ditches I ride fill all the way up flash flood style. Just one of these local ditches, that leads to "The Whitewater aquafer" is huge and trust me, it wasn't dug out with no shovel.

Learned something.... I thought that kind of floopding only happened in Cali!

I understand peoples concern if they ride in really wet conditions. issue is that the bikes run so much better with a few extra holes.
If I would ride in really wet conditions I would try the reversed air scoop thing.
Something like a smaller version of the bonnet scoop of a drag car but pointing backwards or downwards depending on finding a suitable position so it doesn't touch the inner leg neither.
Still get air in but less chance of sucking in water.

Ya I like the holes lower even when I did it in nevada....

I also do little duct tape scoops to guard against direct water input and leave the back open...

would you call it holey water?

I don't like the little 1" diameter "Uni" vents either. It reminds me of the 70s. Whether they work or not. Pretty cheesy, "Green Acres, Mr. Haney".

The one's Robert showed above from Twin air are a nice alternative. How large of a diameter are those Robert?

more food for thought for your own personal engineering solution using the R&D from the premier top tier Dutch filter company.

http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Air-177764-150mm-50mm/dp/B000GTZS02

http://www.twinair.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Twin-Air-177764R-Round-Vent/dp/B00CM75FSG

I posted the Twin Air pic.... Rob did find them on Amazon though!

a real graphics guy can work around that stuff..... and if you see my bikes I get graphics 3-4 times a year and run 2 series so I understand the sponsor deal....

personally I'd go open hole over uni things.... just have 2 covers....

Sorry Norman.

This is such an important and crazy subject all about what we do to a $17 dollar side cover that I wasn't paying close attention.

I had fun riding today though. So here's todays story of more air flow. Not to derail this thread to far but this is something we were thinking about while riding today.

I had to loan a 8mm socket and the Husqvarna hexed end 90degree tool from my FE 501 toolkit to a buddy who had left one or two of his side cover screws loose, while doing a 280cc Athena big bore kit on his 2009 CRF 250F. He had to pull the left stator cover off to fish up the cam chain that he dropped down while doing this upgrade and fish the magnet out too he tried to use to get to that chain and he dropped it in there too. Once he had done that he had to pull the left cover off. LOL!

He apparently and hastily reused the old left side cover gasket without any gasket dressing. It was leaking a puddle in his skid plate. Although we were taking it easy all day as he hasn't jetted it for this extra 30ccs of displacement. I tell him more air in, means you need more fuel with that air. That's 30ccs more air getting squeezed into the same size heads chamber too with no extra fuel. Noticeably harder to kick and noticeably harder to electric start. He already has a pretty good size Shorai battery. I told him that an increase in static compression can easily lead to detonation. Not knowing if he actually used a thicker head gasket or not doing any chamber work, or any work on the head to result in reducing the increase in static compression nets nothing if the new parts are scorched and back up on the work bench a week later. Sucking more air is great. If you add fuel to it too.

Detonation is not good and spring and summer is on its way. He has a FMF mega bomb full system. I told him if that alone didn't allow the bike to pull at least 3 or 4 main jet sizes bigger. Then all you have achieved or actually done is make it louder and you might as well put the stock exhaust back on as the neighbors will like you better.

He assured me he did re-jet it after he put the pipe on. It now needs re-jetted again not just for the pipe but for the new big bore kit. I told him he better do that quickly. Get a New Plug, Go down the road Full Throttle, Clutch it, Shut it off, coast to a stop and look at the plug after bombing down the highway at top speed. He thought he could just pull the existing plug right there in his living room and take a look at it after putting it around the neighborhood for half an hour a few times.

Anyway while we were out riding. It turns out it kind of quit leaking after tightening the side cover screws down. It just had 2 screws loose. He hands me my wrench and socket all oily. I told him to throw the T-handle wrench and socket off into the bushes now that it had been used on a Honda. He didn't like that. So just to give him more of a hard time. I told him I would piss on it later to rinse it clean of the soy sauce and proceeded to wipe it myself with an old bandana in my rear fender pack I carry just for this type of stuff.

Its funny how some people are actually prepared to go ride and others just plan for a ride, this was his own planning. When I got to his house his bike was in the house 6 ft. away from the kitchen counter with no mat under it and just sitting directly on the tile floor with now mat towel or nothing even under it. He still needed to clean and oil his filthy air filter. Which he had not done doing a new big bore kit without doing any additional head work other than checking the way off "he told me" valve clearances. He did this work in the living room and said "that garage is cold". Yah! it was 13 the other morning and about 26 this morning when I got there to ride. I was glad it took him another hour as we waited for him, it warmed up to about 35 degrees and finally got probably about 50 degrees today.

He said he was ready to go last night because he had ran it for a few days to check it all out and do a break in. I said its good to let it thermal cycle a few times running it through the gears moderately.

Don't really know what he was thinking, around his neighborhood. In one block you hit dirt within 100 ft. or so.

I think he has a few loose screws in his head, holes too, brains vented out his ears and a few leaky holes in his side cover too.

Myself and my other buddy who went riding with me too. We were laughing our asses off all day while he was in a Tirade.