Hello Seca Turbo Junkies!
First I want to say I just happened to come across this sight while looking for another bike after all these years and I love it! I have owned (2) Seca Turbos both '83s. My 1st was an incarnation from Hell! It was bought brand new in early 1984 as a left over on the showroom floor, but almost immediatley upgaded to something pretty wild (For 1984 anyway). Next I want to say that you/we are missing some I think important things that as far as I can tell/read and remember have gone somewhat unnoticed. Now I am no motorcycle expert so bear with me and my memory on this, I am 40 yrs old and this all happened when I was a wild a$$ 17 year old. Anyway, I have kept track of the various motorcycles that Yamaha and Kawasaki have made over the years. (My first bike was a GPZ 550, I also had a GPZ 750 Turbo in the mix somewhere along the line and my last bike was a 1990 ZX-10 that I bought right after Desert Storm) but I have owned a couple of Yamahas in between. A Yamaha Fazer 700 and another Seca 650 Turbo while stationed in Maine. Anyway, back to my first Yamaha Turbo. The bike was different and unique back in the day, but lacked wheel standing power on the bottom and the turbo wouldn't come online until about 6k. Being the "Jack of all Trades" that my Dad is, he said "Hey it should make more power than that on the lower end". (Background- Marine Gas and Diesel Engines all of his life, also road motorcycles all of his life) He said that he could get the bottom end torque to come online with a little work?!? Little did I know what was about to happen. He started looking for HP! He found some in the air filter assembly. It is a restrictive POS! He took it off completely and replaced w/ a cone type filter, nothing compared to todays K&N, but still better than what was there. Now before anyone starts saying "rejetting" remember that the carbs are synced after the turbo, so who cares where the air comes from. Next he said "Lets try this!?!?" (Oh damn! Whats next?) He aquired a header from a regular XJ650. He said the "fingers" on the stock turbo exhaust flattened out and had a real small input into the turbo housing and was choking some potential it may have had. He welded a flange from the stock exhaust (I think he ported it to match the collector, there may have been an elbow in there too) onto the new header. Now I thought, this going to be great!!! He wasn't done! He also had a larger turbo that was leftover from a boat motor, I think? (Please don't ask the size of turbo as I do not remember. This was his creation 23 yrs ago.) Anway, I do remember it was larger than the turbo that was on the bike. He said "I just wanna see what it will do." He used the muffler side of the exhaust that hooks to the collector to mate to the exhaust side of the turbo. He also welded an adapter for the waste gate to the exhaust side of the header. Well it paid off. After some tuning here and there, the bike ran like a beast! The bikes topend would definitely outdo the stock suspension. He did get his hands on a smaller front wheel from a wrecked Yamaha Vision, he had to mahcine the wheel to accept disc brakes on both sides though. This stabilized the bike a great deal at the higher speeds. It would scream from bottom end to top end and not miss a beat. I sold it when I bought the Kawasaki Turbo. Dad wouldn't mess with the Kawi though because of the complex fuel injection. I have not owned a bike since the ZX-10, that was in 1993 when I sold it. I am going to have scheduled mid-life crisis here in a few months (LOL) so now I am looking at buying yet another bike. I have too many kids at home to afford a new beast, so I am going old school. Well, how cool did it sound when you said "TURBO" then, it still rings out now I think. So I will be purchasing another Yamaha Seca Turbo, I hope!?!
First I want to say I just happened to come across this sight while looking for another bike after all these years and I love it! I have owned (2) Seca Turbos both '83s. My 1st was an incarnation from Hell! It was bought brand new in early 1984 as a left over on the showroom floor, but almost immediatley upgaded to something pretty wild (For 1984 anyway). Next I want to say that you/we are missing some I think important things that as far as I can tell/read and remember have gone somewhat unnoticed. Now I am no motorcycle expert so bear with me and my memory on this, I am 40 yrs old and this all happened when I was a wild a$$ 17 year old. Anyway, I have kept track of the various motorcycles that Yamaha and Kawasaki have made over the years. (My first bike was a GPZ 550, I also had a GPZ 750 Turbo in the mix somewhere along the line and my last bike was a 1990 ZX-10 that I bought right after Desert Storm) but I have owned a couple of Yamahas in between. A Yamaha Fazer 700 and another Seca 650 Turbo while stationed in Maine. Anyway, back to my first Yamaha Turbo. The bike was different and unique back in the day, but lacked wheel standing power on the bottom and the turbo wouldn't come online until about 6k. Being the "Jack of all Trades" that my Dad is, he said "Hey it should make more power than that on the lower end". (Background- Marine Gas and Diesel Engines all of his life, also road motorcycles all of his life) He said that he could get the bottom end torque to come online with a little work?!? Little did I know what was about to happen. He started looking for HP! He found some in the air filter assembly. It is a restrictive POS! He took it off completely and replaced w/ a cone type filter, nothing compared to todays K&N, but still better than what was there. Now before anyone starts saying "rejetting" remember that the carbs are synced after the turbo, so who cares where the air comes from. Next he said "Lets try this!?!?" (Oh damn! Whats next?) He aquired a header from a regular XJ650. He said the "fingers" on the stock turbo exhaust flattened out and had a real small input into the turbo housing and was choking some potential it may have had. He welded a flange from the stock exhaust (I think he ported it to match the collector, there may have been an elbow in there too) onto the new header. Now I thought, this going to be great!!! He wasn't done! He also had a larger turbo that was leftover from a boat motor, I think? (Please don't ask the size of turbo as I do not remember. This was his creation 23 yrs ago.) Anway, I do remember it was larger than the turbo that was on the bike. He said "I just wanna see what it will do." He used the muffler side of the exhaust that hooks to the collector to mate to the exhaust side of the turbo. He also welded an adapter for the waste gate to the exhaust side of the header. Well it paid off. After some tuning here and there, the bike ran like a beast! The bikes topend would definitely outdo the stock suspension. He did get his hands on a smaller front wheel from a wrecked Yamaha Vision, he had to mahcine the wheel to accept disc brakes on both sides though. This stabilized the bike a great deal at the higher speeds. It would scream from bottom end to top end and not miss a beat. I sold it when I bought the Kawasaki Turbo. Dad wouldn't mess with the Kawi though because of the complex fuel injection. I have not owned a bike since the ZX-10, that was in 1993 when I sold it. I am going to have scheduled mid-life crisis here in a few months (LOL) so now I am looking at buying yet another bike. I have too many kids at home to afford a new beast, so I am going old school. Well, how cool did it sound when you said "TURBO" then, it still rings out now I think. So I will be purchasing another Yamaha Seca Turbo, I hope!?!
