Quieter muffler packing?

[Guest]

I have a V&H Supersport exhaust on my Katana. When I first got the pipe it was very loud, it was pretty much straight though and gave me a headache when riding, so I modded it with part of a V&H Megaphone baffle welded onto the rest of the supersport can. That made it quieter. The last packing material I bought was from Drag specialties, and the material was fairly hard or dense. And its too noisy and getting louder.
What brand/type packing would be best? From personal expreience? The only stuff I can get locally is the loose stuff, I tried that once and it just blew out the back, and its messy trying to pack the can with that stuff.

[Steve]

The only thing the packing does is control some of the echo between the baffle tube and the outer chamber.

If your "baffle" has a hole that goes straight through, the only way to really make it quieter is to make the hole smaller. Or you might find a "street" baffle that folds back on itself which really quiets it down. Can't say how much it affects air flow, but it is quiet. Found one of those for my son's 650L, which has a MAC pipe on it.

The muffler on my bike (whatever manufacturer it is) has a plug in the middle of the tube, forcing all the exhaust flow to go through the front half of the perforated tube, into the outer chamber, then back through the back half of the perforated tube and finally out the back. Because the exhaust has to actually flow through the packing, I use the coarsest-possible stainless steel wool. I have not removed the baffle yet this summer to see how well it's holding up, but the pipe is still quiet , so I think it's still doing OK.

.

[rphillips]

I can't imagine where or how you welded part of a baffle to a V&H Supersport pipe, But ,Wrap your baffle, as tight as possible with a layer, or two, of screen wire, tape it tight with masking tape. Then wrap that with fiberglass mat, as tight as you can get it, and all you can get on there & still be able to get it back in the pipe. Use masking tape again to hold the mat on & tight while trying to get it back in. Don't worry about the tape, it will just burn away. Regular house insulation will make it even quieter, with a lower tone, but will need to be replaced a little more often. I don't know with your Supersport, but with an old megaphone, after the first time & the screen got formed to the baffle, about a ten minute job.

[tkent02]

The difference in noise between fresh packing and none is tenfold, or more. If I could find some that would make it quieter than the regular fiberglass stuff, I'd be all over it.

[Steve]

Try stainless steel wool.

.

[tkent02]

Tried it on my old GS1000, don't think it was any quieter.

[posplayr]

Tried it on my old GS1000, don't think it was any quieter.

But it is not going to burn out and get any worse.

[derwood]

Ok my 2 cents.....
the repack kits they sell are a bit spendy, I can wrap it tight enough to get 2 kits into a SS Supertrapp.....and I found they don't last much longer than house fiberglass, which was crap.

Fiberglass mat didn't seem to dampen the noise and was difficult to get wrapped as tight as I'd like.

The stainless steel wool doesn't dampen the noise as well as glass, it does seem to degrsde and get loose in about 3 years.... ( at least the way i pack it)

My preference is the material (fiberglass ?) that is used in thermal blankets for stationary engines. (also, I get it for free out of used blankets)
It is softer and denser than regular fiberglass and easy to work with, it packs tighter than an nun's ....
It lasts 3 years, I like the tone, ( and its free) there must be cheap if not free sources of this material near by, if you hunt around.

ww.extremeheatprotection.com/removable-pipe-exhaust-muffler-engine-insulation-blankets-covers.html

http://www.firwin.com/index.html

[Steve]

As I mentioned earlier, the design of the baffle is what is ultimately going to determine how much noise there is.

If it is a straight-through baffle, the diameter of the hole will determine the noise level. Any packing around the core will just dampen the echoes.

If it's not a straight-through design, any packing has to be loose enough to allow exhaust flow through it. The packing here merely reduces the raspiness of the tone.

The OP says he has a "Supersport" baffle. I'll bet that is near competition-level for loudness. The "megaphone" baffle he installed is probably a bit better, but I think V&H also offers a "street" baffle that should keep (almost) everybody happy.

.

[GSCafe]

As I mentioned earlier, the design of the baffle is what is ultimately going to determine how much noise there is.

If it is a straight-through baffle, the diameter of the hole will determine the noise level. Any packing around the core will just dampen the echoes.

If it's not a straight-through design, any packing has to be loose enough to allow exhaust flow through it. The packing here merely reduces the raspiness of the tone.

The OP says he has a "Supersport" baffle. I'll bet that is near competition-level for loudness. The "megaphone" baffle he installed is probably a bit better, but I think V&H also offers a "street" baffle that should keep (almost) everybody happy.

.

Mine is straight through Kerker megaphone. Packed it as tight as I could. Wrapping the headers and a tuning helps a lot with the tone of my exhaust but that is a whole 'nother set of issues. I think if I wasn't so attached to the sweet sound of my original Kerker, I'd fully retro-fit a different muffler on it. Seems to me any exhaust shop has the wherewithal to hook it up proper at not too ridiculous a cost.

[tkent02]

Mine is straight through Kerker megaphone. I think if I wasn't so attached to the sweet sound of my original Kerker,

Same here, old Kerker, and it's on a 550 so it's wound out all the time. Pretty much redlined or better everywhere you go. Now the 550 is a 675, so you don't need to wind it out quite so much, but it's still loud. And it does sound sweet. Just too damned loud.

[Buffalo Bill]

“Too damn loud.” is my whole problem with considering headers with slip-on.
I've been considering a Yoshimura RS3, and they also make Street insert baffles for them. Very good option list too.
Yoshimura R&D

[gearhead13]

The can is straight through, although with my mod the inner diameter of the baffle is much smaller.
Its hard to find packing material online, they dont show decent pictures or they use a generic pic and dont even list the dimensions of the material in the listing.
Maybe something like this https://fortnine.ca/en/moose-fibergl...r-packing-m701
V&H says this about the exhaust:
QuiTech 1 baffle design reduces noise levels by six decibels over standard supersport baffle.
What a crock, must be someones idea of a joke. Some listing DO list it as "competition only" though.

[TxGSrider]

I usually use stainless wool (good enough for Borla-good enough for me) it doesn't burn out, but I also don't think its as quiet as fiberglass. If quiet is what youre after and youre willing to give up some flow, search around and see if you can locate another baffle that has protrusions that stick up into the center of the baffle. They used to make them years ago and probably still do. They made for glasspack mufflers that were quieter on cars. Also, the dirt track car places used to make little screen cones that fit inside the cores and was supposed to lower the decibels without hurting the flow too much. I doubt they make anything small enough to use on a bike, but with some imagination you could probably fabricate something similar yourself.