What's up with the very peculiar air intake setup on the Z-Force?
There's nice tight connections and slick plumbing from the throttle body to the well mounted and well sealed air filter box, and from that box up to the intended intake screen that's located behind and between the seats, but between that intake screen and the intake plenum there is no connection at all! Not only does it draw no air through that screen, if the operator has come back from a dusty ride so that the motor has a lot of dust on it and he watches while revving the motor in neutral, it can be seen that dusty air actually comes OUT of that screen!
The intake sucks combustion air from the hot and dusty motor compartment.
When the V shaped air intake screen between the seats is removed it can be seen that the top end of the intake tract piping that is secured to the frame by a tab and single bolt, has a flimsy looking mesh bag pulled over it that doesn't even seal all the way round via its elastic collar due to that bolt. And the upper intake pipe, flattened to fit into the narrow space and to allow a round port for air, has this hole on it's back side, not the front where it would at least face the intake screen. No connection!
With the rest of the intake system being so well engineered and well made, why would CF Moto fall down on that last connection? That thin mesh bag that's pulled over the intake orfice, hey no competent engineer would have called for such a crude measure as a part of his design. Looks like something a 12 year old would have put on his go-kart.
Why on Earth would CF Moto go to all the trouble of providing a neat looking air intake screen that's molded right into the panels on the rear of the cab and pipes from the air cleaner box up to that intake screen, and then not connect the two but rather have the hole on the
back side of the plenum?
My best guess would be that someone on the plastic accessories production line read the blueprint for that connector wrong, and before anyone caught the error a thousand plenum adapters had been run off and put into stock that all had the hole on the wrong side.
Remaking proper versions of this part would have been expensive and would have delayed production goals.
They must have pondered this dilemma in an office and some executive would have made the decision to just make the model run anyway, without the grill-plenum connector.
Objections might have been raised pointing out that this would now mean the engine would pull hot combustion air from a dirty compartment with its exposure to road dust, but he was overruled and in a gesture to compensate for the intake drawing air from a dirtier spot than intended, the managers decided to supply an Outerwears style mesh bag overtop the intake plenum's upper end.
That mesh bag is an obvious afterthought and because of the plenum's mount bolt, doesn't even prevent dusty incoming air from bypassing it at that spot!
All CF Moto would have needed was a flexible boot connecting the intake grills inner surface to an intake plenum that had a hole on the front side instead of the back, and they'd have an intake system that made sense. With the intake hole on the back side of that piece, this connection is pretty much impossible. (I'll bet that in a storeroom somewhere there is a big pile of these now un-useable connectors gathering dust).
I hate to think how many CF Moto top ends have been wrecked as a result of this presumed shortcut, but we can't expect them to correct it now, as that would make it obvious there was a screwup in the earlier models. Owners of older Z-Force's would be clamoring to get the improvement.
Owners who have lost a top end from abrasive matter getting through to the motor would be clamoring even louder. D'ya think?
In not correcting this issue properly right at the start CF Moto have painted themselves into a corner where in the effort to avoid outrage by owners, they'll have to stick to their story, "Nope, there's no intake problem in the Z-Force line, never heard of it, no matter how many of you people report dirty air related problems."
Just a theory, based on what we can see.
What do you think?