DIY headlight delete using stock parts

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 18, 2014

I did this headlight delete over two evenings using all stock parts and about three dollars worth of bolts, washers, and nyloc nuts.
All it required was a lot of creative work with a dremel cutting wheel, and the willingness to sacrifice OEM parts in order to advance the cause of science.

I had a few initial ideas on how to do this, but I wanted to do it inexpensively and with the ability to put the headlight back on later. Ultimately, I had the choice to have it reversible and go back to stock, and look like ****... or hack up parts and make it look legit. So I hacked up parts.

Chewy22 · Nov 18, 2014

Looks good. What are you doing for intake?

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 18, 2014

Still uses stock intake. The gauge is bolted through the top of the intake box where the baffles are. I drilled holes smaller than the actual bolts so the bolts thread into the plastic, are held in place with nyloc nuts, and **** shouldn't be able to leak down through. I don't believe for a second that the intake where the hood meets the front of the sled is water tight anyway.

I will use SLP Flow-rite inserts in the stock intake inlets (2 3/8" holes).

Snowedunder · Nov 18, 2014

Looks great, thanks for sharing that.

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 18, 2014

On the sled...

n2otoofast4u · Nov 18, 2014

Very cool. I'll be attempting this very thing over the holiday weekend.

samsquatch47 · Nov 18, 2014

Looks awesome thanks for sharing! Would you be able to do a write up of what you had to modify and how you did it?
Thanks

Gxf800sphc2012 · Nov 19, 2014

I have also been wanting to do a headlight delete, well because it looks sweet!!! I'd love to know what u Did to accomplish this

PC800SP · Nov 19, 2014

A write up and some more pics would great. Defiantly going to try this. Looks really nice

polarisfornow · Nov 19, 2014

Can you get some better pics of around the intake? Not trying to be debbie downer but I've managed to get an intake bog on deep days with the stock intake that can pull air from all directions. I would be a little concerned about it with just the 2 holes at the top.

Gxf800sphc2012 · Nov 19, 2014

for the guys wondering about intake decisions... D&D makes the Power Breather intake that comes with a BIG filter that goes down on your intake and you REMOVE your intake plenum... this is what ill be doing this season I have a friend that has been running one for two seasons so far and he says it works great, they are 130$ cheapest aftermarket intake setup and weight loss ive seen yet.

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 19, 2014

polarisfornow said:
Can you get some better pics of around the intake? Not trying to be debbie downer but I've managed to get an intake bog on deep days with the stock intake that can pull air from all directions. I would be a little concerned about it with just the 2 holes at the top.

That's a pretty good point that I hadn't considered, dude. Good call. I will give this a few runs and see what happens, and if it sucks, there are some aftermarket options I can do with intake. Thanks.

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 19, 2014

A write-up on headlight delete. I’m a little bit sketched to endorse this process until it’s been battle tested. I mean, it’s on there and it’s solid, and it looks legit in my opinion; but there could be unforeseen issues that I haven’t thought of yet. Like the above user who mentioned that the intake holes would easily get covered in snow resulting in a bog. It’s totally possible.

…And there’s fact that once you start cutting up your parts, there’s no going back. I don’t know how much the headlight housing and the main portion of the hood (airbox) cost, but I bet they aren’t cheap, and if you eff this up, it’s effed up. I went into this project with a little trepidation, so I’ll give you a basic run-down on how to do it… but I highly recommend evaluating the pros/cons, your ability to make this work, and giving this some thought before you bust out the dremel and start cutting things away.

I totally winged this process. I took the hood apart and looked at all the parts and came up with a few ideas and went with this- which I will recall from memory the best I can. I messed with a lot of sh*t, so… forgive me if I don’t get every screw and clip 100% correct. This is going to be subjective as f**k, because I didn’t do photos or take specific measurements. I didn’t even know if it would work. So, like I said… this is your warning, do this at your own risk and only if you feel confident in your ability to make things fit properly. It’s not entirely simple, yet not complicated either. It involves a TON of cutting, test fitting, cutting, test fitting, messing around with wiring harnesses and test fitting, so be prepared to spend way too much time doing it.

The basic premise is that you need some type of platform to mount your gauge to the top of the airbox. You could make one from plastic or aluminum… or you could use the perfectly shaped one you already have: the headlight housing, which the gauge and windshield are already mounted to.

Unplug the gauge and do all the pre-requisite things that are required to remove the hood.

Remove the windshield and gauge bracket from the headlight housing.
(When I say headlight housing I am referring to the plastic piece that holds the gauge and has the two intake screens)

You need to completely disassemble the entire hood. There are two screws that hold the headlight housing onto the rear of the hood, and the front just pops up and off. The headlight housing hooks under two metal brackets on the bottom of the headlight. They’re kind of a pain in the *** to unhook. Once you get them unfastened, the headlight housing comes off. Remove the stupid 12v plug-in thing and the ignition/key.

The headlight itself is held in with two screws that hold it to the airbox. Remove those and unplug the headlight bulbs.

The wiring harness is fastened to the airbox with a screw. Pull that off, too. And the other screw next to it.

Remove the L/R side cowlings from the airbox.

Remove the bottom of the airbox.

At this point you should have the bare airbox. Now you need to cut the headlight housing to fit flush with the airbox where the headlight used to be. I used a cutting wheel on a dremel tool. I pulled the frogskinz intake vents out of the headlight housing, and cut along the lines from the top of the intake vents. You will also need to trim along the area that goes over the front of the headlight and make it a straight line. You should be left with a piece of plastic that generally fits the lines where the headlight used to be.

This piece of plastic, however, will NOT fit flush with the airbox yet, because of the plastic tabs on the airbox that the headlight was mounted to. You need to cut/grind those tabs off. It sucks. Be careful… don’t cut up your intake sensor wires or cut a hole through the airbox.

Once those things are ground down and look pretty, the former headlight housing will sit flush if you trimmed it properly. If it’s not perfectly flush, that’s fine. The plastic is tough and will flex a bit once you bolt it to the airbox. I recommend you trim it as flush as possible though.

The former headlight housing has four holes in it where the guage was mounted. Use those holes as a template to drill holes into the top of the airbox. I guess you could put them where ever you want - Forward/Backward depending on where you think the windshield looks best on the sled… which is why I said earlier that these instructions would be pretty subjective. Keep in mind that you’ll need to accommodate the wiring harness and ensure you leave yourself enough slack wire to plug the gauge in. The placement of the windshield on the airbox and ultimately the look you desire on the sled will depend on where you drill these holes. Drill the holes slightly smaller than the bolts your plan on using, that way the bolts actually thread into the plastic, and you won’t have to worry about water/garbage/ leaking into your airbox.

Put your wiring harness back in. You will have to play with it and test fit it to ensure the harness reaches the gauge. I zip-tied the headlight harnesses out of the way of all the things I actually needed.

Place the ignition/key and 12v adaptor back in the gauge mount… unless you want to do some more cutting and delete both of these worthless items. I just left them because I was sick of cutting things. But if you really wanted to, you could delete those as well.

Place the gauge on your new, cut-down gauge mount, which used to be the headlight housing; and bolt this whole assembly through the top of the airbox, using the four holes you drilled.
I used two 2”x ¼” bolts with washers and nyloc nuts to fasten the rear two holes, and 3 ½”x ¼” bolts with washers and nyloc nuts in the front two holes.

Tighten your bolts, and your gauge is now mounted to your airbox along with the key/ignition and the stupid 12v adaptor that I never use.

You can now screw the windshield back on, and put the L/R cowlings and the bottom of the airbox back on.

I used SLP Flowrite inserts (2 3/8”) for the intake holes. They holes are actually 1/16” smaller than that, so you can just take a round file and remove a little plastic to fit them in. ***Do this before you put the bottom of the airbox back on so you can clean up plastic shavings.

That’s pretty much it. Um… that sounds pretty complicated after reading it. It’s not, but it is. Like I said – it’s not just a simple “bolt-on.” It’s a lot of measuring, cutting, and test fitting. There isn’t one technically challenging aspect about it. It’s just a lot of trial and error.

If you do it and take your time, you’ll be fine. I am pretty proud of my job, but this could easily get effed up if you don’t pay attention to what you’re doing, or make sure your wiring reaches, or whatever.

The only thing I don’t like about it so far is that my gauge location doesn’t allow the gauge to tip toward the rider as much as I would like. The gauge harness runs into the top of the airbox and won’t allow it full range of movement. It’s not awful, but it’s not optimal. I could pretty easily build some brackets out of sheet aluminum to extend the gauge a bit, and I probably will.

On the up-side… it looks badass, and the hood is much lighter.
If you do this, post a picture of your results. Good luck.

* Edited because the Snowest server sh*t the bed in the middle of my post and now I'm sick of typing this whole thing twice.
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catothom · Nov 20, 2014

Or you can fab up a big block of plate to put on top of the big hole where the headlight use to be, like the one on the BDX hood.
Then you don`t get that big area full of snow

Then move your sensor down to the intake in front to get better throttle response. I did the SLP relocate kit so I don`t have to cut any stock cables.
Do some venting in front so you get enough air

samsquatch47 · Nov 20, 2014

Awesome write up thanks SillyRabbit! Very cool. Going to try this for sure.

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 20, 2014

I thought that write-up was about as clear as mud after I read it. Hope it helps to give you an idea at least.
The intake kinda chaps my a$$ after giving it some more thought. I think it will work as well as the stock set-up... unless it gets covered in snow.

I have some experience with various intake setups on supercharged Mustangs (non-intercooled/air/air to water which I'm currently running) and the intake is only as effective as the most restrictive part.
That happens to be the stupid two 2 3/8" holes in the dash, and I can't imagine all the baffles in the airbox help either. Then again... I haven't read much info on the flow rate these engines are capable of.
I've seen some of the aftermarket filter setups that have been fitted on sleds, including K&N conicals and sh*t like that. I have a hard time believing those flow any more air actually. Especially since I've seen flow rate tests of various conical filters (K&N included) that have been shown to flow drastically less air than stock paper filters in automotive applications.

Anyway, like I said... I'll give it a run and see what happens.

F**k BDX hoods. It's $400. I dumped 5-6lbs of weight for $3.
Find a commercially available weight saving mod that remotely comes close to that price/lb.

If I wanted to drill holes in the front of the airbox, and cover it with frogskinz and call it a cold air intake it would be too simple.

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 20, 2014

I didn't do it this way because I'm a cheap a$$, though. My wife would kill me if she knew how much I've spent on the sled this summer.
Just not a fan of the aftermarket options, and best ones I've seen are the guys who built their own stuff.

Plus... built, not bought = win.

Thanks for reading my thread. Thanks for your replies and suggestions. I'm gonna go see what else I can mess with.

polarisfornow · Nov 20, 2014

Maybe contact reaper motorsports on here and get his intake kit. Its the cheapest around and is great for a diy'er. I did it to mine and couldn't be happier.

sillyrabbit0420 · Nov 20, 2014

polarisfornow said:
Maybe contact reaper motorsports on here and get his intake kit. Its the cheapest around and is great for a diy'er. I did it to mine and couldn't be happier.

I will look into it. Thanks, man.

j hoalst · Nov 20, 2014

just did the bdx hood tonight on my buddies rig. im pretty sure that bdx hood is just a cat hood all vented out with a plastic cover to have a flat top. anyhow i dont see why you couldnt vent the hell out of your stocker just like they did and throw on frog skinz. probly could even order a replacement set for a bdx and copy it exactly. we did relocate the air temp sensor rite into the airbox in front of the throttle bodies as they instructed, which gives a more accurate read to whats going in the tb's. i think its going to be a great setup there is just so much venting its gotta help it breathe better. :noidea:

also we tried to get reapers kit and he was apparently so busy that he couldnt notify us that he couldnt come through with his kit and wasted our time for 3 months. the last thing i want to do is bash on anyone, just not cool getting yanked around and having to ask whats going on with the kit 3 times.

DIY headlight delete using stock parts

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