[one_evil_monkey]

NO to the pods.
The EX doesn't respond well to them and IF, after a fair amount of tuning, you actually get it to idle and rev smoothly... you still will have wound up losing HP. Just the nature of the game with this bike.

The CVK carbs on the EX need the airbox.

And that whole... "Well my buddy put them on his such-and-such and was fine." thing...
He may had but he wasn't riding an EX either.

O_E_M

 

[one_evil_monkey]

Not neccesarily.
Although too much changing of the exhaust can have some negative impact.
The bike needs some back pressure to scavenge properly.

The best thing to do with this bike and get the most/best performance out of it is to leave the carbs stock jetting and airbox in place.
Add a K&N (or UNI if you're in to those things) drop in replacement.
Do the airbox mod... It's either in Wiki or the "Mods and upgrades" section as a sticky for instructions.

Put the ST cans on... then go to the Wiki... Carb Maintenance... Cleaning... Scroll all the way to down to TASK 9.1 and follow my write up for dialing in the pilot mix.

O_E_M

 

[one_evil_monkey]

Thanks OEM. Will do.... I'm glad I can use them. The stock ones are rusted through.

NP
You should be able to with no performance issues.
All the "real fun" will be with fitting them. Haha

Just do the K&N stock replacement, airbox mod, install the cans... and then dial the mix per my write up and you should be good to go as long as the cans weren't gutted out or something funky.

Good luck
O_E_M