I just bought a 99 F4 a couple days ago and everything on it is working and good with the exception of the right side ram air intake tub is missing. I plan on finding one off of a salvage bike from someone but was wondering if it is something i need to replace right away or if i can still ride without it doing any damage?

 

im pretty sure it wont Damage anything but you wont be running at full power (?)...
i see fighters with no ram snorkels all the time.
im running my f4 with no plastics so i built some little scoops that face foreward but havent ridden yet as were under several feet of snow and ice here..
ill tell you how it goes once i get to try em ot.

 

Dunno the F4s but it sounds like you're talking about the low speed air intake tube, similar to the one on the F3s. On the pic attached it's #13. That the one (or similar in location)?

I've bypassed the low speed intake system with no side effects because the solenoid is out on my bike.

 

i was talkin about the black plastic tubes that come out 1 on each side from the fore of the tank and come foreward under the bars to an intake on each side of the headlight...
are those not the ram air intakes?

 

yeah i was talking about the tubes that are on the sides. I'm stuck in snow too and i'm just working on the bike trying to figure out what i need. Thanks for the help!

 

You can run without the ram air intakes just fine.. The only side effect is highway speeds. The bike will try to spit and sputter and probably won't go very fast. The air intake components work in conjunction with the secondary air intake and help operate the 2nd stage portion of the carburators. Still best to put it back together as factory if you can, especially for street riding. Without the ram air, if I remember right, my bike never went past 75mph, just started sputtering like it was running low on fuel.

 

That's why I included the pic. But I'm not clear on whether those are the intakes in question.

The intakes on either side of the headlight are part of the low speed air system. They can be safely bypassed. I did it on my F3 in order to get the ram duct intake working right. Air solenoid wasn't switching so my bike was doing exactly what you describe (where were you that month I cleaned my carbs 3 times and rejetted it??? ). I haven't noticed any change in performance since doing so, as the system when working properly only uses those ducts up to about 15 mph. Then the solenoid switched to the main ram duct

 

I never had the ram air tubes hooked up on my bike and it ran fine. And i've had it up to 130 mph without sputtering. Acutally when i sold it i still hadent put the tubes back on even after converting it back to an f4.

 

Hummnnn .. must only effect the 98's then, my 98 wouldn't go past 75 without the ram air hooked up. With everything hooked up it scoots nicely up to 173mph + or - .. :-D .. my speedo is off a bit ..

 

I posted this when I finally fixed the same flat spot https://cbrforum.com/forum/showpost....30&postcount=8. Prior to bypassing the solenoid, my bike barely held 70 mph.

On the F3 the low speed intakes are #8 on either side of the headlight. At a certain speed (according to the Hayne's manual 12 - 15 mph), the solenoid (#15) switches from those two small tubes to the intake directly off the ram duct (connected by hose #2).

The instructions for doing this was actually part of the Dynojet stage 1 installation instructions. I gave them a toss after 3 carb cleanings and rejetting the bike didn't do squat for fixing the flat spot.