Exhaust headers

[Tat2demon]

My current headers need replacing this winter and Im not sure what will work. At some point someone put on a very ugly set of highway pegs that included a bar that ran across the top of all four headers. THe bar must have worn holes in the headers and they welded them. Now they look terrible.

I don't know what brand the headers are but it has an RC Engineering slip on muffler that I LOVE the sound of.

Will any other headers work with this muffler and stay out of the way of a spin on filter mod?

Thanks

[WMarshy]

Do they leak at the weld at all? If it was mine I would just use some header wrap on the fown tubes...

[bikerphil]

Bro, that is a Russ Collins 4-1 system, extremely rare and make good horsepower. I'd clean them up somehow and continue to use them. Just sayin'.

[Tat2demon]

Do they leak at the weld at all? If it was mine I would just use some header wrap on the fown tubes...

Nope they dont leak. Just look like crap. I didn't think about wrapping them. Im not sure I care for the look of wraps. Any chrome covers that may work?

Bro, that is a Russ Collins 4-1 system, extremely rare and make good horsepower. I'd clean them up somehow and continue to use them. Just sayin'.

Ah nice. I dont know anything about it but the longer I have this bike the more I realize that two owners back really loved it. I dont know how much different this one is as far as power goes but it sounds fantastic. Very throaty at idle and screams under full throttle.

[Tat2demon]

Is there much of a performance difference in different headers or is it all in the muffler? Would it hurt to get something new for the headers and use the RC muffler?

[bikerphil]

There may be a performance loss who knows, both units are designed/tuned to work together. It won't be plug and play, you will end up having to do some fabrication to get it all to fit together, different headers have their collectors in different locations and/or they have a different outlet size. Another problem is finding any 4-1 header to start with, there aren't that many to be found out there. Good luck...

Couldn't you just grind that slag off the header pipes and paint them with high temp paint?

[Tat2demon]

Yeah I think I'll go that route. Would hate to mess something up.

[fredintoon]

My current headers need replacing this winter and Im not sure what will work. At some point someone put on a very ugly set of highway pegs that included a bar that ran across the top of all four headers. THe bar must have worn holes in the headers and they welded them. Now they look terrible.
I don't know what brand the headers are but it has an RC Engineering slip on muffler that I LOVE the sound of.

Hi Nate,
previous posts say that's a good system and you say it don't leak.
Never mind grinding the welds smooth, you dunno when the grinding will make a hole, eh?
Just fizz the pipes over with high temperature manifold paint and be happy.

[Yard Dogg]

I think you should find some donor pipes, cut the header down pipes off and have them welded on to your system. Then wrap or paint them. Filler welds like those on thin metal are a weak spot. Moisture, heating, cooling, and vibration will eventually temper the steel then the weld will fail. It would be nothing to cut and tack weld the new ones in one at a time before they make the bend under the frame, then take it off and have them Tig welded.