[NMKawierider]

Good. The #1 killer of these engines has been particle ingestion. The #2 has been heat.

Have you tried heat foil barrier on the intake system?I have a bunch and was thinking about that,i used on my turbo diesel and helped alot.

No..not much heat there. I meant from letting them over heat...like when the thermoswitches (controls fan relay) fail and no one notices until it's too late. Installed a bypass on mine so if I ever see it get to 4 mars..I just flip a switch and on cones the fan...and it will stay on until I shut it off.
But..you should know that where the factory puts the engine air intake, it gets all the dust from the wheels throwing it up in there as well as all the hottest engine heat. That's the #1 reasons we move it out of there...and you won't believe how much better that engine runs with cool outside air -V- air so hot it can cook an egg.

[Davydo]

Has everyone switched to a uni filter?? 
Just curious on everyone's 2 cents, power gains? Throttle Response?

I just ordered one yesterday,my original cfm filter did allow fine dust into the intake system.I only have 97 miles,but i am not chancing it,cfmoto on my 500 trail put a fine mesh black sock over the intake,but it still got through anyway...

Installed the unifilter UP-6229AST to replace stock, had 120 miles on my z500 when I purchased it used, one ride of about 50 miles ,,and the new filter was a dust saturated mess. I bought a 12 x 24 30 PPI unifilter 3/8 black sheet off amazon and fabricated a pre-filter to slip over the intake neck between the seats. Cut to size and used hot melt glue to seam together, oiled, removed the stock sock bag, and installed. My first ride was about 50 miles and semi-dusty conditions and the new pre-filter was kind of dirty, so I spun it around 180 degrees so the clean side was over the intake hole on the neck. We rode another 60 miles last weekend and this time I removed the pre-filter, cleaned and re-oiled for the next ride. I haven't taken the a look at my primary filter yet with 110 miles on it since last cleaned, but I suspect it and the inside of the housing is pretty clean. No power issues as far as I can tell. I hope Cfmoto will have redesigned their air intake on the zforces when I decide to upgrade to a z800 or z1000 in a few years.

[Motoduner]

Has everyone switched to a uni filter?? 
Just curious on everyone's 2 cents, power gains? Throttle Response?

I just ordered one yesterday,my original cfm filter did allow fine dust into the intake system.I only have 97 miles,but i am not chancing it,cfmoto on my 500 trail put a fine mesh black sock over the intake,but it still got through anyway...

Installed the unifilter UP-6229AST to replace stock, had 120 miles on my z500 when I purchased it used, one ride of about 50 miles ,,and the new filter was a dust saturated mess. I bought a 12 x 24 30 PPI unifilter 3/8 black sheet off amazon and fabricated a pre-filter to slip over the intake neck between the seats. Cut to size and used hot melt glue to seam together, oiled, removed the stock sock bag, and installed. My first ride was about 50 miles and semi-dusty conditions and the new pre-filter was kind of dirty, so I spun it around 180 degrees so the clean side was over the intake hole on the neck. We rode another 60 miles last weekend and this time I removed the pre-filter, cleaned and re-oiled for the next ride. I haven't taken the a look at my primary filter yet with 110 miles on it since last cleaned, but I suspect it and the inside of the housing is pretty clean. No power issues as far as I can tell. I hope Cfmoto will have redesigned their air intake on the zforces when I decide to upgrade to a z800 or z1000 in a few years.

Awesome Davydo, appreciate your ideas