The Royal Enfield 650s Have An Incredible Tuning Potential!

The Royal Enfield 650 Twins are one of the best engines to tune which can be found in the Continental GT, Interceptor, Shotgun as well as Super Meteor. There are practical mechanical advantages to modifying and upgrading a 650 Twin. Let’s dive deep into the uniqueness of this end-of-an-era engine, and how you can extract proper juice out of it.

The main reason why the 650 Twin cylinder is a sought-after option for tuning is because of its old-school nature. It was built to last long. This is why it isn’t a high compression engine meaning there is space between cylinders which can be exploited to extract more performance. Then, there are durable components and metals used in the construction of the motor that make it an appealing option. Also, most of the mods include bolt-on performance parts and don’t require the use of revolutionary technology to get the engine to a serious performance level.

Firstly, we should talk about the most common upgrade one would do to their twin which is intakes and exhausts. For this, there are multiple options such as SC-Project which may be quite expensive or Gursevak which happens to be a good middle ground for some added growls and drama. One of the best high-flow air intake eliminator plate kits is made by S&S. That name will be heard quite a bit as we move into the serious category. These high-flow intakes can easily increase airflow by 95%. To reach that level, our advice would be to switch to a performance air filter!

One of the major modifications would be to change the camshafts which would help to build power sooner in the RPM range and hold it for a longer duration. These kits should include Shins and cost around Rs. 25000 to Rs. 30000. To increase the compression of the twin-cylinder engine, a high compression which would have a 7cc raised dome to achieve a compression of 11:1 from the stock 9:5:1. This is a key factor in increasing performance but can also be a ticking time bomb if the line for modifying is stretched too far. In terms of making the engine, structurally rigid, forged connecting rods are crucial. Most of them use 4340 billet steel and an “H-Beam” design which makes them much stronger than the original connecting rods. The use of ARP 2000 fasteners in some cases, gives them a longer life courtesy of the shot-peened finish. Some forged connecting rods also feature bronze wrist pin bushings which help them hold it to higher tolerances. The floating style wrist pin also helps the connecting rods to be more adaptable to the 650 twin-cylinder engine.

We were talking about all the mods you can do to your Twin cylinder which can increase the power by 15-20%. If you want to go the extra mile, you will need to get a big bore kit for your 650 twin. Many companies like S&S produce the kit and you can purchase it with cylinders, pistons and head gasket or choose to bore your stock engine. If you look at just the kit alone, it may seem relatively cheap to get an 800cc bike. The supporting mods are a whole different story as you need to upgrade the camshaft, exhaust, dyno tune and various other bits which are possible but cost a lot of money. These conversions regularly cost somewhere between 2.5 to 3 Lakhs! The result would be somewhere around 70hp and 30% more torque. But the difference felt is night and day in many cases. For pure statistics, we wouldn’t advise you to do this mod but emotionally it should make a lot of sense.

We didn’t even focus on the stylistic rabbit hole where you can get bubble fairing for the café racer Continental GT or the LED rear light strip which would futureproof the retro design. But, the mechanical modification for this particular engine is plentiful as we bid adieu to a truly great engine!

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Ojas Vadke
Ojas Vadke

A Person who loves cars and a regular guy with big dreams of owning his dream cars. Working as a Blog Writer with absolute lads at The Driver's Hub.

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