Best Exhaust Ever! 3/4 of the way Installed...

[afpreppie04]

So I have been a busy boy this week. Started with replacing my FZ6 rearsets with R6 ones (swap info here). Then I got Christmas in March when my package from Skooter65 arrived. I have pictures of that but I'm sure you don't want to see them. Of course the box contained a very sweet exhaust. One of my all-time favorites, and I have never seen it on an FZ6 until now.

Here is a teaser of it, I have it up and running but need to trim my underseat panel a little and figure out how to mount my license plate before I test ride it.

Any guesses on what it is? I can take a video of it in the garage once my neighbors wake up.

 

[Taku]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Isn't that the Jardine exhaust that skooter intended to install?

But we need moar pics of this beauty!
And video too!

 

[skooter65]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Details man...details!!!

 

[afpreppie04]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

It is indeed Skooter's Jardine! I took a quick little video with my phone but for some reason it didn't record the sound. I can still post it if you want, it has a walkaround of the exhaust. Here are some pictures in the meantime.

When I was figuring out how to mount it I took the stock exhaust off, along with the cat pipe. Mocked the Jardine in place, but found that the Honda pipe didn't work (duh!). However, it was roughly the right shape, just too short at the bend. I really wanted to use the Jardine pipe if possible because of the way the muffler mounts to it with springs. If I had used some other pipe I would have to get someone to weld little hoops onto the new pipe, making sure they were in just the right spots, and also the pipe is a slip fit into the muffler so I didn't want to risk having it loose and leaking there.

Since the honda pipe was somewhat close I was able to cut it before the bend and hook it to the existing cat pipe. However, the Jardine pipe is a good 1-2mm larger diameter than the stock stuff, so it was a little loose. I copied Jardine's method of mounting it and made some relief cuts and then clamped it onto the pipe with the T-bolt clamp they included with some high-temp RTV in there. So far it seems ok but there is a little leak from one of the relief cuts. If any problems come up I plan on getting a little step pipe like the exhaust shops use as a shim to take up that 1mm gap and make a tighter fit.

Here is what the Jardine pipe ended up as:

You can see how they had the cuts on the original ones as well to allow for clamping. In this picture my cuts were pretty small as I didn't have the cat pipe with me and didn't want to make them too large and go over the flange making leaks. When I put it on I ended up making them larger.

Something I still need to do is get a new bracket welded onto the cat pipe. It is made to be bolted to a hanger coming off the frame but I had to twist the pipe a little to properly meet up with the new pipe, and this made the bracket crooked so it won't currently bolt in. I will probably use some generic hanger temporarily then get a real bracket welded on when I replace the cat pipe with Arrow's.

To mount the muffler Jardine supplies a large padded clamp that bolts to something on the subframe of the Honda. Since we don't have that something I had to figure out how to make it work. When I took the stock exhaust off there was a little plate that bolted to the subframe underneath the passenger seat. It was just two bolt holes with a gap in between them. Since this held the stock muffler on I don't need it anymore. I took that off, cut a little off the side of the very top of the Jardine clamp so that it fit through the gap, and bent the tabs over so they lie flat over the now vacant bolt holes. Tonight I am going to do a little cutting and what are now holes on the clamp will become slots which I can bolt to the subframe using the bolts that used to hold the stock muffler on.

It is probably hard to understand what the heck I am talking about from my crappy descriptions, so here is a picture. You can see the tabs I am talking about at the furthest point back on the subframe. They aren't bolted down yet in this picture.

Here it is from the side with the clamp on, grab bars off.

And here is with grab bars on, clamp on.

You can see here where it is clamped to the cat pipe. It is a little close to the shock but it doesn't hit, and it is also not yet hung back to the right side bracket. I will need to cut up my underseat area to fit it back in here since the pipe goes more through the middle than the right side like the FZ6 one did. I will be able to keep my tools and regi/insurance paperwork under there still though. The only thing I will be losing will be my caliper lock that I never use anyway. I will have to figure out where to put the power commander once I get it though.

Yes, my garage is very very messy.:ban:

 

[afpreppie04]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Actually looks like my quicktime is just messed up, I uploaded my video and now it magically has sound. Granted the sound is not the greatest, it sounds deeper in person, but at least you know I am not lying about it running now! :BLAA:

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/9081/ak4.mp4

 

[Taku]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Please marry me and have my children!

And while we are at it you wouldn't mind making me on of those too?

 

[dturpen]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Awesome! Be sure to post pics of the finished project; I'd love to see what the ole FZ looks like with a single undertail exhaust.

 

[afpreppie04]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Did a little more work yesterday. Cut up my storage compartment to fit the pipe. Doesn't look very good, but it is not visible with the seat on and it still holds my toolkit, so I'm ok with that. I decided to pull the exhaust and remount it a little different. Like I said before I simply clamped it onto the cat pipe. While this worked, there was a little exhaust leak coming out of one of the relief cuts. It wasn't big enough to be heard but you could feel it if you put your hand over it. I know it would have bugged me in the back of my mind so I just decided to fix it now.

I measured the ID of the stock pipe where it slides over the cat pipe at 1.75". I got a small piece of exhaust pipe that is a neckdown from 2" OD to 1.75" ID at my FLAPS. The 1.75" portion fits snugly over the cat pipe and into the Jardine pipe end. I will be cutting the 2" OD portion off in the morning and using the 1.75" ID part as a sort of shim so the Jardine pipe doesn't have to clamp as far, and eliminating the exhaust leak.

I also started work on the rear body portion. I am just doing some rough stuff to get it back on the road for now; I can make it nicer later. I had already cut the pointy tip off the bottom of the taillight which left a rectangular hole, roughly 4.5cm by 2.8cm. I cut a piece of plastic from my pile of cut out underseat storage and beveled it to better match the contour of the taillight. Then I RTVed it to the light. It is only on the bottom so it should not affect light output by being opaque. I don't have a plastic welder yet so most of the plastic stuff is just being RTVed for now. It should hold it ok since there is no load on it, and it matches the black plastic color fairly well.

For the black plastic can surround I started by cutting off the portion that goes between the dual cans since it obviously won't fit. This left me with the point still in the middle though. I put the taillight and can surround in place on the bike and marked where they met up with the new flat-bottomed taillight. I then cut vertically a few mm out from where the corners of the taillight met the can surround. This took the "V" out but it still needs something holding the two sides together. So I flipped the "V" over since I cut it vertically; now instead of a "V" it is flat on top with an arch on bottom.

I have an idea of how I am going to mount my license plate as well. I previously had a fender eliminator that mounted to the two points on the stock muffler as well as the two points on the bracket coming off the subframe. I plan on shortening the bracket since I no longer have the forward mounts, and mounting it solely on the rear two points. I will have to bend it slightly more as well to keep it from rubbing the tire on bumps.

I will put up new updated pictures in the morning once I can cut the pipe section and the RTV has cured.

 

[afpreppie04]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

OK I got it all back together. Still need to modify my fender eliminator and wire my turn signals back in but that is minor stuff.

Here is my underseat tray reinstalled with my tools secured.

The two inner bolts hold the muffler bracket down. The outer two hold the tail. The allen bolt in the center of the plate just holds the plastic cover on. For some reason Yamaha put a long bolt there when it really isn't needed. In my case it would hit the new can if I tightened it down all the way, so I shimmed it up with a couple washers so it doesn't hit. It does not affect the seat latching at all.

Here is the butt shot. There is more gap on the sides than there was stock with the huge muffler, but short of a tail swap or learning how to fiberglass a new piece back there, there isn't much I can do about it. I do have an idea for something fun that will fit in there.

Right 3/4 shot:

Left side shot:

All in all I am very pleased with it. If you look closely at the behind shot you might be able to see I had to change my design for the black plastic part. I previously had cut the middle section out and flipped it, but when I put the tail on with the pipe I saw there was simply not enough room in there for it. I ended up cutting it back into two pieces, cut level with the flat portion of the taillight. Once my new mirrors arrive (just left New York, no idea why they go Hong Kong -> New York -> New Mexico) I will give her a good wash and find somewhere to take some good non-garage pictures.

Now I am out for the test ride!

 

[afpreppie04]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

My doorbell just rang and my maillady had more presents for me! Mirrors are finally here, will get some new updated shots once they are on. Mods feel free to rename the thread since it isn't halfway installed anymore.

 

[fergie.g]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Great project, very unique...my only beef with this retrofit of the exhaust is the gap...it doesn't look right looking at it from behind. Good job on the retrofit though, way to work out a solution for it. I wanted to retrofit a Yoshimura CBR pipe but glad I did not go that route now looking at your rear shot, no offence.

 

[afpreppie04]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

I have an idea to fill in those side gaps, but it is a secret until I get it done. I agree though, I wish the gaps were not there, but I knew they would be going into it.

 

[BamBam77]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

Thats where the fun comes in figuring out what to do next:Flash:
And what a rush when the plan comes together:rockon:

 

[The Toecutter]

Re: Best Exhaust Ever! Halfway Installed...

My doorbell just rang and my maillady had more presents for me! Mirrors are finally here, will get some new updated shots once they are on. Mods feel free to rename the thread since it isn't halfway installed anymore.

Hows the new name ? :BLAA: :thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[fergie.g]

Can't wait to see it all come together brother!

 

[oso2k]

You do any suspension work yet? That Jardine is one of the sexier underseat designs.

 

[Geoff]

Way to go man, thats good stuff to watch. I like all the shots you took.

 

[BamBam77]

I came within a key stroke of buying that muffler and doing this project:spank:
It's going to look so nice or should I say it's all ready starting to look great:thumbup:

 

[afpreppie04]

Hows the new name ? :BLAA: :thumbup: :thumbup:

I like it. Much more accurate now, thanks!

You do any suspension work yet? That Jardine is one of the sexier underseat designs.

Suspension-wise all I have done is the R6 fork/brake swap so far. Dropping a little money here and there is easier for my brain to handle than the $800ish rear shocks are going for.

I came within a key stroke of buying that muffler and doing this project:spank:
It's going to look so nice or should I say it's all ready starting to look great:thumbup:

Thanks, it was good timing on Skooter's part posting it for sale around tax return time so I had plenty of bike mod money.

I installed my mirrors and modified my license plate bracket and turn signals today.

I have mixed feelings about the mirrors. I got some of these. Rizomas and the like are so nice, but $300 for mirrors is a bit out of range for me, so I got some cheapies. They look much better on the bike, they are small and the arm is angled, instead of large and curved like the ones I had. However, when riding I see a lot of elbow. I need to adjust them some more, maybe I can get them better. Also the lock-ring is orange, the only orange thing on the entire bike. Oh well, one of these days I will have to get all my random-colored bits anodized to the proper blue color (that would be the color of the insets on my R6 calipers).

For my license plate bracket I took my old one (the same one Skooter reviewed here), cut it off about 1cm after the first bend, and drilled two mounting holes. I then mounted it to where the rear two holes used to bolt. Then I bent it to match the angle of the wheel.

Too bad its dark outside now so I can't take pictures.:BLAA::ban: