I was just wondering what sorts of engine upgrades can be done to the GS, i see people adding different exhausts and front forks from GSX-Rs all the time, but never anything to the actual engine.

Kinda depends how much you want to spend. Can do a port and polish to the heads, get a beefier camshaft, bore out the cylinders for larger pistons, etc, etc.

The best performance upgrades are to the rider. I can get my GS500 around the track faster than a lot of riders can go on a 600. No amount of engine modifications could produce the same result.

With that said, there are a lot of relatively common engine internal mods

- Race cams
- Overbore
- Port
- Polish
- Shim-over-bucket retrofit
- Rods
- Pistons
- Springs
- Valves
- Ignition
- Compression increase (via shaved heads)
- 4 Valve Heads (GSX-R Head modification / swap)
- Rebalance
- Removal of balance shaft (only safe with rebalance)
- Conversion to total loss
- Pumper Flatslide carbs
- Turbo

Probably other things.

You could drop $10000 into a GS engine. Or you could spend a couple grand on yourself. The good news, is that rider training will never throw a rod or blow up in your face. Plus, if you sell or crash the GS, you'll still have the training when you pickup your next bike.

Practically speaking, the only cost-effective upgrade to the GS motor is a different bike with a different motor.

People do things. They spend money. Sometimes a lot of money. And get, perhaps, 5 hp for their money.

Suspension - there's a lot of room for improvement, in both the small and large dollar ranges.

Exhaust - mostly appeals to the louder is better crowd. In combination with intake, if done right, can result in most of the 5HP you're ever going to squeeze out - often done poorly so there's more power here, less power there, bike runs worse overall. Mine runs much better since I un-modded it with the soup can in my avatar picture.

The more extreme mods come up against the fact that the motor is not massively detuned, (there's not oodles of extra power just waiting to be tapped) and if you succeed in making a lot more power, the bearings won't hold up to it for long. You can do whatever you want to do, but it will not make economic sense - and it doesn't have to - but you should know that going in, if you are going to choose to go in anyway.

Ride more, take classes, learn to ride better - far more effective use of your money, IMHO. Sell GS, buy something with more power if you really need (think you need) more power - double or triple the HP is available stock on bikes of similar weight, some of which we grab forks from to upgrade GS forks, etc... But you'll do better there if you put the time, money and miles into being a better rider first.

Quote from: burning1 on September 07, 2010, 12:59:59 AM
The best performance upgrades are to the rider. I can get my GS500 around the track faster than a lot of riders can go on a 600. No amount of engine modifications could produce the same result.

Couldnt agree with the above statement more.  I learned more about how to ride in 3 days than I would have ever learned on my own in 3 years...a fast bike doesn't automatically make you a fast/good rider...I'm quite confident if you took training like the below you would have a renewed appreciation for your GS as well as its (and your own) capabilities....

http://www.fastridingschool.com/index2.html

This is your best engine mod....

yeh the gs engine just wasn't built to be a performance monster.  just upgrade to a better bike if all you're looking for is more power.

Dont forget you can strip off as much weight as possible - same motor trying to move a lighter bike (and rider) will help performance.

thanks for all the info, it was more of a curiosity question more than anything, i do plan to change my bike over to the naked look for next season (could not resist ) and was not planning any performance upgrades but now... maybe...

Beside a pipe and filter I think you would be best learning to ride better then upgrading to a different bike for more speed. The motor in these 500 is not intened for performance. with out spending more than the faster bike is worth you would be hard pressed to push the 500 motor to the power levels needed to keep up or go faster than said bike and then reliability would be compromised.

We got my wife a 500 to learn on before we got some thing she would be terribly upset to lay down or some thing that is very unforgiving and lethal with one wrong twist of the wrist. Not saying the 500 is peice of crap we just bought hers and got it road worth in under a 1000 dollars so when she dropped it twice in the drive Saturday she wasn't mad at her self. would be very up set to drop my brother in laws bought brand new 007 gs500f.

After we dusted her off I asked my wife no how would you feel if we had gotten that lighting you like so much she replied I would have gave up. She wasn't agaisnt the idea of the cheap fixxer up just really wanted the 7k bike we looked at a few weeks ago. we'll get one next year.

[rant] I think everyone looks at performance upgrades the wrong way. It should never be about how much PEAK HP you can get. If I'm doing sprints (track days/ circuit racing/ etc) I will gladly take the car that breathes easier, revs easier, and makes its power quicker and longer then the same car that has 40 extra horse power peak. I would think bikes would want to rev quicker, breathe easier as well. So from that point of view I much prefer low HP engines that are balanced, clean reving and breathing engines. [/rant]

Right back on topic. Learning to ride seems to be the best improvement everyone recommends, followed by suspension. Err I've got nothing really to say now.

Some of the guys/girls I ride with had their bikes Dynoed for free. Little contest. Guess the HP Before and the person who guessed closest wins. Bike shop promo.

The C50 and M50 Boulevards came out at 45hp. A VN900 did 54, GT650 48. So our humble non EFI 487cc bikes do alright. 

Michael

Quote from: Twism86 on September 07, 2010, 08:01:28 AM
This is your best engine mod....

Just be careful not to get one that was thrashed by some squid that should have started out on a GS500.