SuzukiSavage.com - head swap

dustin1455 YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 12	head swap 04/25/15 at 10:15:40 hs anyone on here tried swapping the head from another bike onto the savage? i would like to upgrade from the standard two valve setup to a four valve setup for greater efficiency. what would i need to consider if i were to try to find one on my own? any help is appreciated. thanks
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: head swap Reply #1 - 04/25/15 at 10:28:17 Im pretty sure it HAS 4valves..
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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28754 L.A. California Gender:	Re: head swap Reply #2 - 04/25/15 at 10:45:03 have you even adjusted your valves?
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Kris01 Serious Thumper Offline Eat, sleep, RIDE! Posts: 3767 Tennessee Gender:	Re: head swap Reply #3 - 04/25/15 at 11:27:08 Yep, already has 4 valves.
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justin_o_guy2

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Re: head swap
Reply #4 - 04/25/15 at 12:25:08

Hey,Dustin, how about a bit of a rundown on you, your bike, knowing how old someone is, their experience with riding, wrenching, year and mileage on the bike, what mods done, etc.. We might be more able to know how to help you if we knew a bit more.
That said, if the bike runs, I would suggest ride it. Figure out how it acts and what you can do to get it tuned and running as good as it can without any big work. Tuning the carb,intake,exhaust, that is the start point. Cam Chain check, depending on miles..

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Gary_in_NJ Serious Thumper Offline LS650 Cafe Racer Posts: 2625 Amongst the Twisty Roads	Re: head swap Reply #5 - 04/25/15 at 17:19:26 Yamaha makes 5 valve heads...that has to be better. I'd put one of those on your bike
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dustin1455 YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 12	Re: head swap Reply #6 - 04/25/15 at 17:20:32 sorry guys i feel retarded. i saw this picture somewhere else on this forum and had assumed there were only two valves. i dont even currently own a savage but i am planning on doing a ryca kit whenever i can get mt hands on one and i want to upgrade the bike so it will perform as it looks.
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dustin1455 YaBB Newbies Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 12	Re: head swap Reply #7 - 04/25/15 at 17:22:35 Gary_in_NJ wrote on 04/25/15 at 17:19:26: Yamaha makes 5 valve heads...that has to be better. I'd put one of those on your bike i might have to look into that. any leads on one that might fit?
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justin_o_guy2

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Re: head swap
Reply #8 - 04/25/15 at 17:39:15

dustin1455 wrote on 04/25/15 at 17:20:32:

sorry guys i feel retarded. i saw this picture somewhere else on this forum and had assumed there were only two valves.

i dont even currently own a savage but i am planning on doing a ryca kit whenever i can get mt hands on one and i want to upgrade the bike so it will perform as it looks.

Okay, now that we know you don't have a Savage yet, you can leave those bits out. We still don't know hoot about you and your grasp of the word upgrade.
What are you wanting?
A Dyna muffler and a proper carb tuning and a Stage One cam on a
lightened up Savage ridden well by a 150 pound man will yield six second zero to sixty times. It will hop across town.. they are a hoot outside of town, out in the boonies.
Until you explain what you really want nobody can tell you how to achieve it. Everyone knows the word upgrade. It means It works BETTER..

now, what's BETTER to me might be quite far from what someone else calls better.

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verslagen1

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Re: head swap
Reply #9 - 04/25/15 at 17:53:35

dustin1455 wrote on 04/25/15 at 17:20:32:

sorry guys i feel retarded. i saw this picture somewhere else on this forum and had assumed there were only two valves.

i dont even currently own a savage but i am planning on doing a ryca kit whenever i can get mt hands on one and i want to upgrade the bike so it will perform as it looks.

Unless you've ridden with the dragon bunch, you don't even have a clue to what the savage will currently perform.

If you can't currently ride, then don't try to ride with us. Shocked

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Gary_in_NJ

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Re: head swap
Reply #10 - 04/25/15 at 18:20:21

dustin1455 wrote on 04/25/15 at 17:22:35:

Gary_in_NJ wrote on 04/25/15 at 17:19:26:

Yamaha makes 5 valve heads...that has to be better. I'd put one of those on your bike

i might have to look into that. any leads on one that might fit?

I think your sarcasm filter may be broken.

Rather then re-engineering a wholesale head swap, you may want to investigate more mundane modifications such as a high compression piston, hot cams, head porting and a high flow exhaust. This will yield a 50% power increase.

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A life-time student of motorcycling.
LS650 Cafe, DRZ400SM, FZ6N, SV650S, CB900C, Ducati ST2, CB550F-SS
My LS650=> http://suzukisavage.com/yabb2.2/Attachments/Left.JPG

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dustin1455

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Re: head swap
Reply #11 - 04/25/15 at 18:33:11

so ive been riding for about two and a half years on a Harley Fatboy. so im fairly used to riding on a large bike with quite a bit of power. so i have almost paid off my Harley and i want to get another bike. preferably one that is smaller and more agile (the opposite of my Harley). i don't really like the look of modern sport bikes so i decided i want to build a cafe racer and found the ryca cafe conversion kit. i think this will be perfect for me because this will be my first "bike build" so with this kit being mostly bolt-on it will be great for me to "get my feet wet."

so my understanding is that the savage is really "torquey" and that's a big part of why people love it. for the engine, im wanting to shorten the 0 to 60 time and maybe increase the top speed as well. i know i cant have both but i can try to find that sweet spot in between that works for me.

also with engine upgrades i will need to mod the brakes and suspension accordingly.

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gizzo

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Re: head swap
Reply #12 - 04/25/15 at 20:08:15

IMO, the best performance upgrade you can do to a low power bike like the Cabbage is to Lose Weight. Doesn't cost much, and if you do it to yourself as well as the bike, you might live longer, too. My Savage is bobbed out and stripped down somewhat and I weigh 60kg and it goes like s..t off a hot shovel. I did the experiment some years ago with a friend 20kg heavier than me on my DR250 vs his XR250. I'd hose him in a drag race on either bike, despite him being the better rider. Same capacity bikes, same power, just the weight difference mattered.
IMO, YMMV, FWIW etc.
And good luck

.

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Dave

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Re: head swap
Reply #13 - 04/26/15 at 03:41:10

The head cannot be changed with anything, and it is not designed to make high horsepower and cannot be modified a lot. It can be made a bit better - but not great as the exhaust valve ports have a weird hump where the valve springs seats are supported.

My RYCA-ish Cafe bike has a Wiseco piston, Stage 1 cam, carb and exhaust upgrades, and some mild head porting.

It runs really well and goes as fast as the chassis can handle. It is not a drag bike - but a very fun bike to ride. It is about as fast as an 883 Sportster up to about 85 mph...and given enough space it can go 100 mph.

Stick with proven engine upgrades if you want to ride often and want the bike to be reliable.

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