Triumphrat

Bratman · 05-11-2009, 01:44 AM

Just opened my air box to look at/change the filter (to a K&N) and noticed a small hole (approx. 1/8 inch diameter?) in the front of the air box facing down. It's to the left of the larger tube that sticks out forward and conects to the SAI solenoid.

The small hole has something that resembles a tube fitting on the under side of the air box but no tube or plug there, just a straight pass through that appears to be letting in unfiltered air over top of the filter and straight to the throttle bodies.

I had the SAI plugged by the dealer. He plugged the down tube after the solenoid, just before it splits into three and goes into the valve cover. Maybe there was a plug there and it came out/got blown out (because of the SAI being disabled)?

How should I plug this small hole? I don't want to risk anything coming out and into the throttle bodies/engine. I'm paranoid that something could have gone in there already, if not some sort of plug, then debris, dust, etc.

The bike seems to run fine. I put about 1k miles on it after the SAI was plugged and the non-SAI tune downloaded for the Arrow 3-1 low boy. The only symptom is quite a bit of popping still noticeable - I posted about this earlier and it seems to be fairly common. Other than that it seems to be ok.

Any suggestions? Your help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Martin_R · 05-11-2009, 03:04 AM

The smaller hole is a water drain for condensed moisture (due to SAI hose routing hot air to cold front edge of airbox). I was puzzled by the same thing and asked from Hinckley a few years back. I have plugged this on my 05 and 09 at the same time as I blocked SAI (best put the plugs on the outside of box so there is 0 chance of it ending in the throttle bodies).

Also if you are worried about dirty air routing direct to clean side of airbox: I think the left back corner oil overflow tube does not have any valve/filter on it either and it ends up at 1 foot from the ground.

Bratman · 05-11-2009, 03:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin_R

The smaller hole is a water drain for condensed moisture (due to SAI hose routing hot air to cold front edge of airbox). I was puzzled by the same thing and asked from Hinckley a few years back. I have plugged this on my 05 and 09 at the same time as I blocked SAI (best put the plugs on the outside of box so there is 0 chance of it ending in the throttle bodies).

Also if you are worried about dirty air routing direct to clean side of airbox: I think the left back corner oil overflow tube does not have any valve/filter on it either and it ends up at 1 foot from the ground.

Thanks Martin, that makes me feel somewhat better.... The left back corner I believe vents from the crankcase, doesn't it? I could have sworn it's the crankcase breather pipe coming up and snaking from the righ rear side of the crankcase to the left rear of the airbox, but I could be wrong... Thanks again.

Martin_R · 05-11-2009, 04:03 AM

Looks like crank is breathing to the right back corner:

The airbox itself is draining excess oil from the back left corner, directly to dirty ground. The schematic pic above has some sort of plug/filter at the end of the hose, but I do not think I have seen one installed on any 1050. It would make much more sense to have a plug on the hose and to drain only after a spill or when airbox is suspected to be flooded with oil. But in practise it looks like the plugs do not get installed at the factory.

Sounds so stupid that I have to doublecheck next time when I am on the bike. Maybe I remember the setup wrong.

Bratman · 05-11-2009, 08:15 AM

Thanks again, please let me know once you check. My 09 seems to only have hole at left rear of airbox (nothing at right rear) and it seems to be connected to the right rear of the cranckase via thicker hose and no PCV valve.

Martin_R · 05-11-2009, 10:44 AM

Checked my '09 and the setup on my bike is like the one on the above pic. Crankcase labyrinth breather is breathing via thicker tube to airbox and left back corner of airbox has a direct tube to atmosphere in the same bundle of hoses as tank and coolant overflow tubes.

So definitely one more place where dirty air has direct path into engine intake. Looking at the pic the overflow should have a plug at the end, but neither my current 09 or my old 05 had this.

I'll probably either plug the overflow or fit some sort of inline filter onto the airbox overflow tube. I don't like the idea of roadgrime being vacuumed into the engine.

Darkhorse · 05-11-2009, 10:48 AM

dirty air through a tiny hole?

guys, between a difference of two pressures air will generally take the path of least resistance. A tiny hole wont flow much in the face of the two snorkels.

Martin_R · 05-11-2009, 11:47 AM

Snorkels are on the dirty side of the airbox. The front and back drain holes on airbox are on the clean side. By your logic the paths of least resistance are the drain holes, not the snorkels which still have to route through the paper air filter.

True, that it is not much more than an ant's piss worth of dirt that can enter via these holes, but still 100% unnecessary contamination of intake air. On a bike that sees 50000 to 100000km I'm sure any small difference matters. How much, nobody knows without comparing two bikes that went the distance.

I have seen the same drains on Jap bikes and on these they are plugged and draining them is part of scheduled maintenance. They probably had a reason to include the plugs in the design. As did Triumph, judging from the schematic drawing.

Darkhorse · 05-11-2009, 06:44 PM

interesting, to tell you the truth i was lookin at the wrong part of the picture.

i'll take a look later today. ...with the cam.