Ion trys his hand at exhaust.

Time for another update. Made some exhaust pieces as par the instructions on how to make you're own muffler. i don't know if i like them though.



bear in mind the whole pipe will be black with 1 inch of red tips upon completion.

 

Those are mufflers? Man, they are way non-existant. Your sound is going to be raspy. I'm sure the neighbors will be very aware of your presence. They will make a nice finish on your bike though. Red tips, any chance you'll flame the red? Sigh, wish I could weld.

 

How do they fit on the bike Ian?

From the pic they look like they have too much downturn and may affect ground clearance.


Where they as per MY instructions????? 8O

No offence meant Ian but the bends look cheap. Looks like a standard over the car axle bend cut in two. Never designed to be seen.

You need to get some nice professional looking bends to get it looking shmicko.

 

Gonna be LOUD, but very interested to see how it turns out. Got any more details on how you made the mufflers?

 

Eh... kinda cheesy, but at least its an attempt. Ive made a couple exhausts before, and a couple good tips to know. Did you buy those turn downs or make them? If you made them with a PIPE bender, which it looks like then try stuffing sand down into the pipe and welding the ends shut. When you bend it will keep its shape better. If you bought it, they make 40* turn downs at autozone/discount auto that dont have kinks in them. And to me the 40* turndown will look better than a 90*, and they ends are cut at angles that look pretty neat to.

Youll need to weld in a baffle or two right before where the turndown attaches to create backpressure or that thing will be kinda useless.

And lastly where did you get that 2-1 center piece? Is it true those come stock on some secas? Cause Id like to get rid of my seemingly inefficient collector box.

 

that's jsut the way it came, with the center cross link and two 2 into ones, just cut the horn portion off. I thk it's safe to say the metal parts are heading for the scrap pile. Failure! the car bent pipe looks terrible and really has got to go.in fact the whole system is no good, when i put it on the bike it looked realy tacky. it really difficult to come up with a design that's appropriate for this bike.

 

na man dont get discouraged I think thats the right direction for the bike. Try replacing the ends with the 40* smooth turndowns i think it will look good. Just be sure to weld in little tabs of metal inside the main pipe to block some flow and create backpressure

 

I appreciate the support Fox +everyone else. After staying up all night(it's after 5am here and i'm yet to sleep) trying to come up with a design that looks good, and coming up with a big sack of... well nothing anyway, The bike seems to look best with just the headers and nothign more @$%%@#$ so tomorrow im going to start thinking of ways to make the headers quiet and apply back pressure on thier own. maybe end caps with some packing inside them or something to that effect, then slash cut the headers. The only other idea i could come up with would be a hidden exhaust under the frame. Much akin to a newer "Buell" type set up. However, space is kinda tight anywhere close to the ground on this particular machine. also this would require much fabrication, at a level i'm not yet confident with. since exhaust systems have to be flawlessly welded, and generally i have this annoying habit of burning through the pipe, then it takes twice as long to fill it in, still leaving pinholes. i.e. like the slip ons i made pictured above. those pinholes translate into extra noise and bad flow. i would like to invite anyone forward with ideas for exhaust systems that would match the lines of my specific bike at this time. Something simple and cool looking, veering towards retro looks with modern tech. All ideas will be considered, and failing finding anything, good ideas could jump start the creative process.
thanks

 

Exhaust design can be a personal choice. Attached is a Pic of a chopper with an XJ550 engine. Nice crossover design with very simplistic pipes.

Photo courtesy of choppershack.

Even welding a couple of washers six inches apart inside the tube will increase backpressure and reduce noise.

As for the welding, what are you using. I'm guessing an arc or stick welder which is not the best for exhausts. Regardless of the welder if your blowing holes then the heat is turned up too high.

Best way to do exhausts is with a TIG welder or oxy/acetylene set.

Keep at it, we've all had our failures in the creative process, learn and move up. :wink:

 

A couple more ideas:





Keep in mind that since you're hardtailed, you don't have as much to worry about with ground clearance at the rear of the bike. Still need enough to clear driveways and such, but I'd rather have them tucked under the frame if possible, that way you have more lean angle and don't have to worry about dragging the pipes when cornering. We used to take round tubing and crush it into oval tubing using a couple of 2x6's and a 4-post, drive-on car lift. Just an idea... :wink:

 

hey ian, you want to keep it simple and still have a muffler... Why not use the stock 4-2 collector box? Paint it all black and leave those chrome covers on it. It makes a double purpose, adds backpressure and acts as a resonator/muffler.

Its low profile and hides right underneath the bike and you can slip on 2 tips at the end to finish it off.

 

Love the suggestions everyone, they're all beautiful in their own way. And as predicted jump started the creative process.. Had an idea. It breaks away from the straight pipe thant many of the examples used.


thoughts comments critisism welcome.

Also a thanks out to Hired goon who taught me how to turn the heat down. I did a few practice welds on some scrap pipe and found that big holes burning through are no longer an issue. For a person that just learned how to weld on their own for the first time last week, I think I made good. This pipe set will hopefully teach me lots too.

Like Alfred says: "Why do we fall down, Bruce?"

 

wow, lots o pics since last night! cool!...i cant save pics here at work but i pulled a couple links from my favorite exhaust...

http://www.spaehn-racing-shop.de/themes ... parentId=0

http://www.spaehn-racing-shop.de/themes ... parentId=0

theyre in german....but i love that exhaust!!! streetfighter or not! :lol:

 

interesting idea Dude, but i think my seat's a little too low for that one.

 

Wow, looks like we have an artist among us!!! I love that idea, Ian, one question though. Is it a 4-2-1, or would it be dual on each side like that? Either way, it would look awesome if you can pull it off, definetly take some time, and a lot of cutting of mandrel bends!!

 

Wow...you guys are just too imaginative for me. I'd have never thought of any of this stuff. This site is such an education for me, and not just in the "fixing the bike" way I assumed...

 

Sno, i use an arc welder with a 5/64 rod and between 30-40 amps. As for bending the tubes, i reccoment the old school method of getting them almost red hot, then dragging them over a template like this:


for those ones i made earlier, they were just scrap pieces from an '88 mustang's exhaust.

 

A 4-2-1 exhaust ( also known as a try-y ) can be the most effective type
for exhaust flow up to about 8500 RPMs. If done properly ( pipe lengths etc.) the power increase can be large. My XJ1100's exhaust was not designed for max flow! Connecting the cylinders 360 degrees out and then connecting those two collectors into a single pipe of the correct diameter is
the best way. Figure out the cross sectional area of your head pipes ( each ) and multiply by 1.75 to find the x-section of your secondary ( same formula Flomaster uses ) and then do the same for the final pipe.

Figuring out pipe length is harder. One solution is to go to :

www.performancetrends.com and download the free demo of engine analyzer pro ( work fast it locks up after 10 days ) . Enter ALL of your engines specs and play with primary ans secondary ( collector ) lengths.

I used the combination of the primary and secondary lengths as my primary and the final as the collector.

If you are doing a 4-2 setup just use two of your cylinders for the program.

Connecting the two center cylinders together and the outer ones together will give proper scavenging. going one step further by connecting those two pipes together will further improve scavenging.

Four into one headers are great at top end power but a proper 4-2-1 helps evrywhere in the powerband but even more on the bottom and midrange where we do most of our riding.

If you dont want to re jet just clog up the outlet until it runs right.

Sorry about the babbling and please feel free to post corrections as I'm still learning too

 

Ian, have a look at my gallery. I made similar shorty pipes like you initialy were trying to do. What I have isn't pretty either but I had intended to wrap everything with exhaust wrap. Just haven't got around to it yet.

 

If I was to design my own exhaust I would try to copy an aftermarket exhaust and tweak it to your liking... I admire your commitment and drive to complete a custom setup though... Sometimes it's best to step back and re-think it slowly, take measurments a few times and try to visualize each bend and weld before you do it. I'm sure that's what you already did but maybe ou should take some more time in the design part. Great attempt though! R&D takes years in a lot of cases so this could end up being a long project but when you finally make something that looks great, make two and sell me one!