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Congratulations! I remember putting headers on 11's at the Yamaha shop I worked at back in the day, and some did take a little tuning to get right; A few were just a step up on the pilot jet, and others required the needle brought up (given all was clean inside). If you can change the idle by winding on the mixture screws, chances are the pilots are not clogged (easy to find a single offending cylinder that way too).
Yamaha had BIG problems with gummy carbs back then too; they put in some kind of preservative from the factory that turned out to be more like embalming fluid, and many required a carb rebuild right out of the box. I ruined the skin on my hands using the solvents they supplied to clean them, but the Warranty work was gravy once you did 5 or 10 and got really fast :-). I hope your carbs are not of the problem lot, because some of them never did tune out right (as per the EGA numbers). Yamaha would not approve replacements even for partially clogged & uncleanable internal passages. The dealer I worked for ate a few to keep the customers happy, but there are still a few lemons out there from less generous shops.
I always liked the Kerker for street use myself. I lived in a very high traffic area and had people lane changing in front of me and cutting me off all the time with the nice quiet OEM system - that is until I put the Kerker on. I let the packing blow out, and it had a secondary effect similar to riding with the horn blowing all the time. When passing through peoples (car's) blind spots, I could see them looking in their mirrors to find out what all the noise was about; now they knew I was there, and refrained attempts to turn me into road pizza.
As far as the noise pollution factor goes, I think a Kerker with NO baffle is still much quieter than many Harley's that ring my ears as I pass them. And if you are light on the throttle, a loud Kerker is still very bearable. I do agree that the best performing pipes are the stockers, but hey, unless you are looking for low E.T. go with what you have.
Cheers,
Warren
P.S. Most people that went with headers bought the black finish; those chrome tubes are very handsome and much less common!
Yamaha had BIG problems with gummy carbs back then too; they put in some kind of preservative from the factory that turned out to be more like embalming fluid, and many required a carb rebuild right out of the box. I ruined the skin on my hands using the solvents they supplied to clean them, but the Warranty work was gravy once you did 5 or 10 and got really fast :-). I hope your carbs are not of the problem lot, because some of them never did tune out right (as per the EGA numbers). Yamaha would not approve replacements even for partially clogged & uncleanable internal passages. The dealer I worked for ate a few to keep the customers happy, but there are still a few lemons out there from less generous shops.
I always liked the Kerker for street use myself. I lived in a very high traffic area and had people lane changing in front of me and cutting me off all the time with the nice quiet OEM system - that is until I put the Kerker on. I let the packing blow out, and it had a secondary effect similar to riding with the horn blowing all the time. When passing through peoples (car's) blind spots, I could see them looking in their mirrors to find out what all the noise was about; now they knew I was there, and refrained attempts to turn me into road pizza.
As far as the noise pollution factor goes, I think a Kerker with NO baffle is still much quieter than many Harley's that ring my ears as I pass them. And if you are light on the throttle, a loud Kerker is still very bearable. I do agree that the best performing pipes are the stockers, but hey, unless you are looking for low E.T. go with what you have.
Cheers,
Warren
P.S. Most people that went with headers bought the black finish; those chrome tubes are very handsome and much less common!
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