Well I finally made it up to EB Mods shop Thursday to finish all my testing on the .21 Ninja motors. We must have pulled at least 50 runs on the .21 .....LOL We then broke in the Ninja .28 and were really impressed.
The first thing I wanted to test was the TKO ceramics I installed after the runs we took back in November. I ran the motor twice since then to get the balls seated in the races. The dyno graph is pretty impressive how the ceramic engine bearings improved the torque and power.
This graph is of the Ninja B01 .21 off-road engine with the stock bearings versus with a front & rear TKO ceramic bearing:
We then tested a ton of pipes & header combos. The Novarossi 9853 pipe and short Novarossi header still yielded the best torque curve. The MSR1005 pipe and header still yielded the most peak Hp, but the bottom end was a bit softer and the top-end fell off quicker. The MSR1005 should yield a little bit better run time though due to how the pipe & header flows. The tune on the motor was 1/8 turn leaner for optimum performance with the MSR1005 compared to the Novarossi 9853. When I last ran my MBX5T at HobbyHut last year, I was getting 12 minutes of run time with the Ninja 2053 pipe and Ninja long header. Two weekends ago I ran the MSR1005 pipe & header on the .21 Ninja and was still getting a bit over 11 minutes run time in the truck. The power though was off the hook. I was running down most trucks down the front straight and had to let off the throttle on many occasions. The truck would also come out of the corners and would just rip!
The Novarossi 9886 worked great on both of the Ninjas as well, but there was a slight studder in power in the very upper RPM range of both motors (more so on the .21). It wouldn't stop me from running the 9886 on the Ninja's if I already had one, but wouldn't be my top choice if buying a new pipe. We spent a lot of time trying to tune that studder out, but couldn't. The biggest problem is if the tune is off, that studder gets worse.
We also tested several carburetor venturi's (restrictors) on both Ninja motors. The Ninja B01 that I've been running and tested with comes with a 7.0mm carb restrictor. The carb restrictor by itself flows much more than any other OEM carb restrictor. After putting the carb, motor and pipes on the flow bench we calculated the maximum RPM's the .21 Ninja could turn and the 7.0mm restrictor is right on the money. Interestingly enough the new Ninja .28 comes with a 7.0mm carb restrictor as well and couldn't be a more perfect match on the .28 Ninja. Considering the .28 Novarossi comes with a 9mm restrictor, we hope the .28 Ninja gets better run times than the fuel thirsty .28 Nova's. We also tested Ralph Walter's Innovative Design carb restrictors on the flow bench as well. These restrictors flow better than any OEM carb restrictor out there, but unfortunately they are too long for the Ninja carb. Ed is going to dyno a stock V-spec with the Innovative Design venturi's and is going to email me the dyno graphs and flow bench stats next week.
We tested several headers on all the pipes we dynoed on the Ninjas. The old style Novarossi short headers with two bends in it was no different than the new rounded style headers. They both flowed the same on the flow bench and the dyno graphs could be laid on top of one another. We also tested the Werks Medium Conical header on the 9853. After tuning in the motor to perfection, the results confirmed our torque and horsepower guess-timate. We only wish we could have had a short conical header to test as well. The medium conical boosted low-end torque and peak Hp quite a bit, but the top-end suffered with the long center line on the medium conical.
This graph is the Novarossi 9853 pipe with the short Novarossi header versus with the Werks medium conical header:
Finally we broke in the Ninja .28 on the break in bench. The break in was painless and it didn't take long to get the motor tuned. We took a quick measurement of the bore and stroke on the .28 and it comes out to .2728 cubic inches. After all the testing was said and done, we still liked the Novarossi 9853 or MSR1005 on the Ninja .28 the best. As for the Ninja 2053 pipe & header on the .28 Ninja, it just simply does not flow enough CFM's for the large displacement of the .28 Ninja. On the .21 Ninja, it makes less power than the 9853, 9886 or MSR1005, but can be used with a smaller restrictor to get even further fuel mileage.
This graph is of the .21 Ninja versus the .28 Ninja:
Hope you all enjoy the data
Tony P.