Posted April 22, 201014 yr Hi, i have an '81 xs400h and found a nice xs650 engine on craigslist. is this swap possible, or would it require a lot of modification?
April 22, 201014 yr Moderator Hi, i have an '81 xs400h and found a nice xs650 engine on craigslist. is this swap possible, or would it require a lot of modification? 650 engine too tall so is not feasable without frame mods
April 23, 201014 yr Author how drastic of frame mods?...the engine is super clean and $290 on craigslist. thanks
April 23, 201014 yr Moderator how drastic of frame mods?...the engine is super clean and $290 on craigslist. thanks no idea mate, nobody I know of has tried!
April 23, 201014 yr I think they would be very drastic frame mods as the engine on the 650 is pretty big. If you do the mods (cut the frame and extend along with height) it would probably compromise the frame greatly. Unless you have a engineering background or something like that I would stay clear away from altering the frame. Instead I think you should get a xs650 frame for the engine, even though you would be spending some money for the frame you would at least have peace of mind that your bike will not split in half riding while on the freeway!
April 24, 201014 yr In which case you might as well buy a complete XS650! Trust me it would be a whole lot cheaper then what you are planning. Plus no one will thank you for putting such an iconic engine into .......well.......a somewhat less iconic commuter hack that was over shadowed in its day by the CB400 Superdream (which was a far better motorcycle in terms of handling, reliability and speed- they did a genuine 110mph out of the box)
April 26, 201014 yr Hey bud. I have tried this swap.... In my experience with this, i found that altering the frame that much and the light weight suspension, makes the bike nearly imposible to ride as a normal motorcycle. All though very fun and quick, it make for a very scary ride. When i chopped up my xs400 frame, i damn near made the frame the same size as the original xs650 frame, there for the xs400 suspension was evan worse acting then before. I found it was just easier to just buy the whole xs650.
April 27, 201014 yr Author Well thanks everyone, i guess ill just use the original engine in my restoration.
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