Can I just trim my pod filter lip?

[Briggs&Stratton]

Howdy, can't I just trim the inner rubber lip of my pod filters in the area that would touch the carb bell?

When I bought my carb boots on amazon, I saw these cheap pods and ordered them, too. My bike already had pods (and without the lip), but they are dirty and I believe one is cracked. I've read here about making stacks using parts of an original airbox, and also T.C.'s method of using PVC couplers. I am just wondering if doing this is necessary if I'd instead trim that rubber lip. I don't have anything against the other methods, but I'd rather keep the pods closer to the carbs, rather than space them outwards and lose room.

Sorry my first post is a question. I've been lurking several times a day for a few weeks getting lots of info. A good friend of mine is a member here and that's how I found this site. I was planning on doing an intro of sorts first but these filter pods have me perplexed.

Thanks, Chris

[natemoen]

I don't think trimming the lip is all that possible. You can see in the pic that the filter media is slightly sticking out of the rubber in the lip so you couldn't completely remove the lip. You could bevel the lip, but I don't know if that would completely clear the path for the air to smoothly enter the air jets in the carb intake bells.

Doeant hurt to try. You could always still add the velocity stacks after trying to trim them.

[Briggs&Stratton]

The above pic shows an old pod that doesn't have the lip (left) and the new pod with the lip (right). So the protruding filter media you see is actually on the old pod that wouldn't need to be trimmed.

The new pods' lip looks like it could be trimmed down 1/4+". I'd only trim it in the areas on the bell with air inlets. Btw, the new pods have a taper to the filter. From what I've read here, they could be EMGO but I don't see any markings on them or the box.

Maybe this pic shows the lip area better. The one on the left is the new one.

[natemoen]

Guess I didn't scroll over and see the other pod...

Trim off all the excess rubber on the pod and see where that gets you.

[Briggs&Stratton]

Well that was my question. Trimming that rubber seems too obvious/easy. I thought there was a problem with trimming them, and that would be why everyone makes a stack adapter.

[natemoen]

I don't know if trimming it get enough clearance for the jets, but you can try.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Chris,

Look more closely at the new pods, and pull the filter out of the rubber mounts. You'll see the groove that the filter media is mounted to the rubber mount in, and trimming the lip can also remove some of that groove, so that the filter media will be a bit loose...it's not terribly tight to begin with. You'll also want to MARK the outside of the rubber mount so that you can properly position them after the trimming to get the trimmed parts so that they are allowing clearance of the ports. You may need to use some RTV or such to secure the filter elements back into the rubber lips/mounts....to help keep them from spinning as well as preventing leaks.

T.C.

[jwhughes3]

I tried it on EMGO pods and ruined it.

John

[drshankles]

I have the same pods take the clamps off, pull the boot out of the metal housing, put the boot on your carb mark areas that are blocking the pilot air inlet and cut that section out put your filter pods back on the boots and back on your bike. hope this helps. topcatgr58 has the same solution let me know if u want pics i can pull one off my bike real quick.

[Rettic]

Pod Mod

I got the same pods, didn't like the lip. I figured it would be best to have the stacks to help out. So I was looking at the stacks from the air filter box and noticed the outer diameter looked about the same as the air pod opening. Well here is what I did:

[Schming]

Good job, nice clean functional install.

If you're goin with pods take notes, Rettics bike is the way to do it.

[fredintoon]

I got the same pods, didn't like the lip. I figured it would be best to have the stacks to help out. So I was looking at the stacks from the air filter box and noticed the outer diameter looked about the same as the air pod opening. - - -

Hi Rettic,
that looks to me like what you did took far too much careful work and, because you cut up it's rubber parts, you can't go back to using the stock airbox if you change your mind.
What I did was buy the oval tapered pods from MikesXS. They don't have the lip and they do have XS stamped into them.

[TADracer]

OR, if you want to solve the prob without tearing up your OEM air box you can do this.

Get a few strips of 24-ga stainless steel 1" wide. Cut them to the EXACT circumference of the carb bells and clamp them on to extend the carb bell. Mount your filters and the problem is solved. Been running this war for many, many years and never had a filter fall off into the street (which might happen fastening directly to the carb bell).

[jazzrat2000]

Pod extension

Just did Rettic's solution, worked great!