Better not to know ???

[Iconic944ss]

I phoned a well respected tuning house the other day after details on if I should change the inlet manifolds on my 944ss.

I read that a company called Malossi:

http://www.malossi.com

not only do they make a 40mm Delorto carb conversion for our beloved carby 2V's but they also do a straight inlet manifold that apparently does wonders for the bike's torque curves.

Sadly, I was gutted to be told that I would never be able to tune my bike properly as long as I was running the big bore kit and that my first step, if I was planning anything major - should be to return the bike to a standard 904cc.

Apparently - the heat load on the rear cylinder is too high and the pistons are poorly made and have been known to crack, if its the brand of kit we suspect it is.

Well, even though I do have the old barrels and pistons - I 'aint gonna change em yet. So, I'll just continue with my plan of uprating the suspension as best I can.

Fingers crossed.

(sadly - an RSV is looking more and more likely, time for a test ride I think).

Regards - Frank

[Jools]

And there I was thinking that dropping a 944cc water cooled ST2 engine into an SS frame might make an interesting (and relatively cheap) project

tuning it such as:

Basic engine 83-85 bhp
Exhaust & chip + 4-5%
Hi-Comp Pistons +4-5%
Bit of porting and valve work +4-5%

Might end up with something knocking on 100+ Bhp with loads of low down grunt and not compromise reliability. Being water cooled you don't suffer from the heat load problem on an ST2 lump.

Now that would make an interesting 748 alternative....

Neil Spalding at Sigma reckons that the ST engine responds really well to porting mods and gives you loads more of everything without changing the engines grunty characteristics - he prefers the ST2 to the ST4 for that according to the chat I had with him at Mallory. I'm loathe to spend loads of money on something that will still be an ST2 unless I'm gonna keep it forever (which I might) or that will take pennies out of my 'monoposto savings plan' but being the contrary sod that I am the monoposto may well be something that is a bit more unusual than the 4 valve route

[Edited on 9-9-2003 by Jools]