Member Contributer Mohawk Posted May 21, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted May 21, 2019 2 hours ago, Marvelicious said: So... I'm just throwing this out there. Forget kleenex and roach clips. If you're looking for leaks, bubble solution is your friend. A spray bottle with some dish soap and water will find leaks that won't stir a breeze. On a cold engine 🙂 My bike had a rough idle when I added the TBR & was fine once I balanced the starter valves & adjusted the idle speed. Also check the idle speed using your PC, my rev counter reads 150-200rpm high ! So if I set it for 1300rpm, then I’m really only getting 1100-1150 rpm ! I only discovered this when checking things with the PC attached to my RBR with the engine running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marvelicious Posted May 21, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted May 21, 2019 2 minutes ago, Mohawk said: On a cold engine 🙂 My bike had a rough idle when I added the TBR & was fine once I balanced the starter valves & adjusted the idle speed. Also check the idle speed using your PC, my rev counter reads 150-200rpm high ! So if I set it for 1300rpm, then I’m really only getting 1100-1150 rpm ! I only discovered this when checking things with the PC attached to my RBR with the engine running. Good point... don't want to crack the new pipes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer sfdownhill Posted May 21, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted May 21, 2019 I’m late to the party, but this thread is probably the best example I’ve ever seen of our community in action. It’s like carlgustav has more than 6-7 experienced guys in his garage w him, and they can instantly run out to their own bikes to check stuff, then return to his garage. I don’t have much to add regarding fueling - I take good care of my bike, but still feel luckier every day that my 2001 w 60k miles just runs and runs. I can offer a bit of supporting evidence about possible leaks from Delk 42mm crush gaskets. When I’ve installed the new headers w Delk 42mm gaskets (seam side toward the head), they’ve always resulted in a crush and seal like the one in the photo below (photo is of a 5 gen) so I never kept close track of which gasket did what on which cylinder. It’s visible that the gasket seated further from the port at the lower right of the photo - that’s the part of the gasket that was last to go into place and really really didn’t want to go there without a fight. One thing that was clear was that the Delk 42mm gaskets are a bitch to get started on a 5 gen - on about 30% of 5 gen cylinders I had to let the headers do the final insertion. On the one 6 gen and one 8 gen where I’ve used them, the gaskets went into place with only a little wrestling and fewer curse words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlgustav Posted May 22, 2019 Author Share Posted May 22, 2019 SF is right, lots of good folks out here. So I decided not to offend Marvelicious any further with talk of roach clips/kleenex . Using his suggestion, and an idea from youtube, I set this up: Blasting air thru the system, and using the soap solution ... well: And ... a little harder to see but center of pic slightly left of shock ... And also ... I have a small leak around one of the O2 sensors as well ... very small. The sensor just needs tightening, or maybe a new washer, we'll see. Looks like a bit of re-assembly is in order. I'm still considering returning exhaust to stock to see if things return to 'normal'. Then move forward with new headers again. ACE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marvelicious Posted May 22, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted May 22, 2019 Nice... I mean, not ideal overall for you, but nice to be homing in on the problem. The head leaks are probably the big part of your problem. I don't know what the general consensus has been on the slip joints. Personally, I've always come down on the side that a little (very little) high-temp permatex helps a good seal and allows the joint to come back apart the next time. Just make sure you use something that stays flexible, and if it's squeezing back out of the joint, you're using too much. Opinions on that may vary, so take it for what it's worth. I also firmly believe that virtually all metal-to-metal joints need to be treated with something. Threads either need Anti-seize (that O2 sensor for example...), or threadlocker or even pipe dope. Electrical contacts get contact enhancer and the plastic connectors get dielectric grease... you get the idea. I won't claim to be absolutely religious about it, but it's my rule of thumb. They make all these different compounds for a reason, and they all have their place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer sfdownhill Posted May 23, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted May 23, 2019 cargustav, great detective work with the pressurizing mechanism and bubble factory. I sincerely apologize that you are having to wrestle with these problems. I’ll ask Wade about the leaking at several places on your headers. A friend of mine is the owner of a local automobile exhaust shop, motorcyclist, and long ago built headers for a VF500. Side note: a year or so ago, I approached him about building our headers, but he declined. He uses the copper silicon in the photo below on all slip joints and potential exhaust leak spots. I’ve got to get my bike back together and check my production headers for leaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Contributer Marvelicious Posted May 23, 2019 Member Contributer Share Posted May 23, 2019 That's the stuff... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlgustav Posted May 23, 2019 Author Share Posted May 23, 2019 Thx SF. To be fair, my headers are one of the prototypes so some issues are possibly expected. My header leaks that you refer to are quite small, and maybe can be sealed with the Permatex stuff. Not sure if the stuff will stay in place though. Center of pic up top: And in joints: Once I seal the large leaks, these may have a negligible effect at idle, and maybe no effect at running RPMs? ACE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbanengineer Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 damn those leak in a ton of places. To be honest, I'm amazed they don't have exhaust gaskets at each connection. What is a good alternative to that header gasket then also? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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