What would you do scenario... '80 450L Exhaust

[Guest]

I'll try to make this short. Took exhaust off of 1980 450L only to find out that most of the interiors of the mufflers are rotten, and sitting in a pile of flakes on my garage floor. The headers seem to be pretty darn solid, and while the flanges have surface rust, they are in good shape as well. The crossovers are dented/rusty and otherwise garbage. I was thinking of cutting off the megaphone mufflers at the weld, getting some EMGO slip-ons or some stock harley mufflers for replacements. For the headers, I was thinking just wrapping them and grinding down all the heatshield points, and having a muffler shop plug the crossover holes as I am a crappy welder.

I don't really want to blow a ton of money on a 2-1, but it's likely going to suck no matter what I do. I really didn't want to re-jet, but I think that's a foregone conclusion at this point. I'd love a stock system, but most are worth some serious money. Additionally, the stock exhaust is VERY heavy.

Ideas??

[jeffgs]

Re-jetting is not difficult and the carb and fuel section has a sticking for getting you close on what main and pilot you will need.

I may go 2 to one soon. I am having an issue with my whole system being off the right by at least an inch so it interferes with my rear brake lever. I have not attempted to remove the exhaust as i am affrai the threads on the heads will follow the bolts out.

[holdorf333]

Definitely been looking at that sticky. I still have the carbs on the bench, so starting off shouldn't be too bad. Just need to compensate for the 6700' elevation here, as well. I know this has been brought up before, but I didn't want to bump old threads and I have my own issues...


Of all the constant issues I've had with every single fastener being either rotten or stripped out by no-idea-how-many-POs, the exhaust bolts came out no problem.

[Gorminrider]

Oh, I'd go for the slip-ons. I have some cheapos on my 81 400 and they match the look of the bike. However, they don't sound as good.( Multiple holes versus the originals) and the chrome is awfully thin so I keep them polished....But I'd get some more, if something happens to these.
I've seen some Harley mufflers on Honda 400/450's and they look a bit too long and a bit odd but on your L, you want to "L-ify" to the max, they might look pretty cool. Is the chrome/quality better? should be. and they do sound pretty good. Apparently, they are easy to pick up cheap (as you know!) because so many harleys turf the original exhaust right away.

I'd keep the crossover and cut off behind it.... Not sure of the condition of yours -if you can just cut out the bad part and slip something else on near in size with clamps. It's finicky with clamps to get no leaks so leave as much original pipe on as you can so that trying to clamp one doesn't interfere with clamping the crossover. Just avoid muffler cement you should use real steel as shims (not aluminum flashing-been there long ago and never went back) to make good fits


I don't get the wrap thing. If you ride anywhere near winter, I'd think they'd just be a way to concentrate salt around what's left of your headers. And they might hold heat. I always want to get rid of heat on an aircooled engine. Oh well- it's just an impression.
But BBQ paint works pretty well and is Cheep. an application every so often keeps em ok. Look for the stuff you brush on.It's easier...but Not pretty..kind of a dark grey colour.Better would be some exhaust paint, (which I have but am saving for someday when I get to it)

[81GS850]

Can you get a used crossover on ebay? I'd seriously consider keeping it. I took mine off and put straight pipe so it was 2 (2-1) and the bike ran like crap without syncing them. I was told the crossover helps to even out the pulses across all the cylinders.

[60ratrod]

81gs850, that is the exact reason the cross over is there. It helps to equalize pulses from both banks if you will. Hot rodders have been putting in h pipes for decades because the equalization actually smooths out exceleration and helps with the low end grunt. Xpipes do even better because instead of the pulses having to find each other like in an h pipe, the help because they meet in an x-pipe. So it will run, just not as good as it would with the cross over. Food for thought

[81GS850]

81gs850, that is the exact reason the cross over is there. It helps to equalize pulses from both banks if you will. Hot rodders have been putting in h pipes for decades because the equalization actually smooths out exceleration and helps with the low end grunt. Xpipes do even better because instead of the pulses having to find each other like in an h pipe, the help because they meet in an x-pipe. So it will run, just not as good as it would with the cross over. Food for thought

Yep that's what I've found as well. Also x pipes have a different sound than h pipes. At least on mustangs.

[60ratrod]

Well ford realized their mistake of misspelling fraud twice and circled it, found the hand writting was pretty and said screw it and left it. LMAO. Classy men wear bowties.

Since the exhaust in my kz1000m1 needs work, amongst numerous other items, i've been toying with the idea of putting an xpipe on. I wonder how well that will work

[81GS850]

Well ford realized their mistake of misspelling fraud twice and circled it, found the hand writting was pretty and said screw it and left it. LMAO. Classy men wear bowties.

Since the exhaust in my kz1000m1 needs work, amongst numerous other items, i've been toying with the idea of putting an xpipe on. I wonder how well that will work

So does the Gov't... Since they needed a bail out.

BTW, look up original Ford motor company. Very interesting story. Basically the first company he founded turned into cadillac and the guy responsible, henry leylen (sp?) created a company after he sold Cadillac to GM and that company went bankrupt and was bought by Ford and turned into Lincoln.

[holdorf333]

The dent is in one of the header pipe stubs leading to the crossover. I suppose I could just attempt to pop out the dents and whatnot and paint that area black. It seems that in addition to equalizing the pulses, the crossover adds a bit of rigidity to the system as a whole. I am pretty sold on the slip-ons. That is a popular thing to do with small-displacement British cars and am beyond confident I can source some cheaply. Owning an MG always has you looking elsewhere for help lol.

[wymple]

I like it simple, and have never really noticed a real world difference because of crossovers. They must work a little, or they wouldn't bother with the expense, unless it's a conspiracy to make oil changes harder. I'll cut anything off at the end of the headers to put on something different.

[Phred]

I have an 850L that some scrap metal dealer stole the exhaust system off my back deck early one morning. I found used headers in good shape, cut the rusty mufflers off and had sleeves welded in place. I made a cardboard template of the whole assembly so that the sleeves would be at the right angle. I then bought some Mac slipons with removable baffles and installed these. I was lucky to find some heat shields that I had re-chromed and the nuts welded back on to the pipes. I find that the Mac slipons are lighter than the original pipes and they also run cooler than the stock exhaust. Very quiet as well. They come with a mounting slide bracket and I had to modify the mounting system a bit from the original. From an appearance point of view they look stock. The Mac slipons were $59 CDN a few years ago. All in all, with welding and some chroming the entire system cost me about $500. It would have cost that at least to have the original set re-chromed and there was some reluctance to do it as the oils would contaminate the baths.

[holdorf333]

Well, I think I am def sold on the slip-on idea. The headers weigh next to nothing without the mufflers, so good riddance for sure.