Thunder Air Kit
Well why not pick up 10-11 more horsepower. It's easy to do and it works well AND you will be happy!!!.
Power is increased in all respects, well I don't know about top end....
Thunder Cover......
Stock cover.... which I like the best....
TFI Settings
I recommend 2:15-2:00 1:00-9:00. (Based off using my Colortune Plug in the process and by "feel".)
Air Channel removal
OMG. What a complete pain in the butt and my poor hands. If you have a 1600 and want a Thunder kit you have to remove that air channel under the bike. People with 1500 Nomads must have had it easier, that's all I can figure. The included instructions indicate that by merely sawing off the left driver side end flanges on the channel, it will slide out the right side. Wrong Wrong Wrong. No way. I suggest the method of taking a thin steel bar like from Home Depot and getting a cheap butane blow torch and heating the hell of that bar till it glows and cutting the channel in half from left to right so to speak. There is a procedure on Gadgets page for this which I endorse whole heartedly. Procedure here. Save your self hours of unwanted agony and use this procedure. I wrestled with that Satanic designed piece of plastic for 2.5 hours bending and flexing and twisting and tearing at that channel until I could break the hump in the top of the channel unit which, you can not get to to cut, so I could collapse the channel and pull it out. My hands hurts and are blistered. It's like trying to shred a big plastic trash can with a pair of pliers. But finally it came out. I have twisted plastic everywhere...LOL. If I had felt more comfortable with tank removal I would have popped it off and that might have helped. But tis ok.
Installation Issues
None installation of the new kit is easy and straight forward, just follow the instructions. But, I would be using loc-tite on the screws if I were you. Got every thing back on and plugged up and fired it right up, idled a little and revved it up to 3000rpm and gunned it up to about 4500rpm and let go. No pops, gurgles.
So what can you expect out
this mod? Here's the dyno paper.... click to enlarge
Even though I bought the round air kit with the insert cover plate, I also like the stock look of the dual filter covers and the wolf in sheep's clothing look. I spoke with Thunder this AM and asked them what performance loss could I expect using the stock Nomad cover instead of the Thunder Cover and they said probably maybe 1hp. Hummmm... not too bad.
So now that I have an empty left side air cover on the bike, I guess I have additional storage area for small items. If I elect to keep that dummy cover on there I will seal the back side up so it really is waterproof.
Your probably wondering how does the air kit compare to the Caddman mod? With the Caddman mod, the gain in performance is pretty amazing for such little work. Midrange response and torque are unmistakably increased. But with the Thunder Kit, It's the steroid version of the Caddman for sure. The bike stomps!!!! Simply amazing in my opinion.
