PuTwAcKi
Member
It's time to do something about the exhaust on my 1981 GL1100i. The mufflers have both rusted almost completely off right at the headers.
Here are the "on the cheap" options I have thought of:
1. Reattach them by welding a band of steel around the gap between the head pipes and the muffler and then just paint the ugly away (Seems like too much effort when you add in the ugly factor).
2. Custom bend an adapter to weld onto the headers that will allow for the attachment of generic or Harley slide on mufflers (Should be able to get a pair of OEM take-offs from a Harley for dirt cheap).
3. Same as the previous option except with with straight pipes (tuned) rather than a muffler. I'd want to maximize the flow if I was to do this. Apparently, if you use the proper diameter pipe you'll be able to get a bit of back pressure whilst taking advantage of decent flow rate. Apparently the optimal diameter will have a decent tone that doesn't sound raspy either. I'm pretty sure 1-3/8" or 1-1/2" pipes would do the trick although might look a little odd being that they would look so skinny. It might be worth it to trade a little style for performance.
As far as the headers go, they both have split seams to be welded shut and the heat shields are a little mangled. Since I'll likely be removing the shields to sandblast and paint the headers I'm considering using header wrap rather instead of replacing the heat shields. I don't mind sacrificing pretty for performance as long as I don't evolve the bike into a rat!
So here are my questions!
Has anybody taken any of the above mentioned routes? If so, what positives and negatives have you noticed?
Does anybody know of anywhere I could buy a chunk of pre-bent pipe to go from the headers to a slide on muffler? Anybody want to bend me some who as made them before?
Thanks for any and all your help!
Here are the "on the cheap" options I have thought of:
1. Reattach them by welding a band of steel around the gap between the head pipes and the muffler and then just paint the ugly away (Seems like too much effort when you add in the ugly factor).
2. Custom bend an adapter to weld onto the headers that will allow for the attachment of generic or Harley slide on mufflers (Should be able to get a pair of OEM take-offs from a Harley for dirt cheap).
3. Same as the previous option except with with straight pipes (tuned) rather than a muffler. I'd want to maximize the flow if I was to do this. Apparently, if you use the proper diameter pipe you'll be able to get a bit of back pressure whilst taking advantage of decent flow rate. Apparently the optimal diameter will have a decent tone that doesn't sound raspy either. I'm pretty sure 1-3/8" or 1-1/2" pipes would do the trick although might look a little odd being that they would look so skinny. It might be worth it to trade a little style for performance.
As far as the headers go, they both have split seams to be welded shut and the heat shields are a little mangled. Since I'll likely be removing the shields to sandblast and paint the headers I'm considering using header wrap rather instead of replacing the heat shields. I don't mind sacrificing pretty for performance as long as I don't evolve the bike into a rat!
So here are my questions!
Has anybody taken any of the above mentioned routes? If so, what positives and negatives have you noticed?
Does anybody know of anywhere I could buy a chunk of pre-bent pipe to go from the headers to a slide on muffler? Anybody want to bend me some who as made them before?
Thanks for any and all your help!
