rodan

It's noticeably lighter right now, and I'm sure the packing will be lighter than all the crap that came out of it. I'll weigh both when done and get a comparison.

Some more progress today... got the perforated tube and outlet welded in. Now I just need to fabricate brackets for the decorative outlet cover, pack it, and weld the top back on. Sorry for the slow progress, but I'm trying to cram this in between the rest of my life...

I'm about 100miles from the nearest dyno, so it's not something that's going to happen right away. Eventually I would like to, but I would also like to dyno them back to back on the same day if I do. Easy to swap out, but it will require trailering the bike, or having someone follow me with the 2nd exhaust...

Finally got back to the FJ muffler, after getting several other priority projects out of the way... Attacked it with a combination of cutoff tools and plasma cutter and removed all this: Which leaves it looking like this: Here's the new path mocked up: Still have a bit of fitting to do, then need to start welding things back together... stay tuned...

Tried not to bump or scratch it while putting shocks on the wife's Miata...

Finished up my GPS mount... Details here: http://fj-09.org/thread/1309/over-instruments-gps-mount

So, I've received all of my exhaust materials... 2" perforated tubing, 2" 'U' bend, fiberglass packing, and two types of stainless wool packing. I went a little overboard on the packing stuff (I have more than is in the photo), but I wanted flexibility in how I design the packing, and it was relatively cheap. I want it to last as long as possible, so I'll start with the coarse stainless wool around the pipe, then the fine stainless wool, and use the fiberglass to line the muffler chamber. Since the fiberglass is most susceptible to breaking down from the sound waves, that should be the most durable setup, while absorbing the most sound. Then again, I could be out to lunch! We'll see... Hopefully I'll get some time early next week to work on it.

I'm jealous! I love the IOM graphic Arais, but I have a Signet head... and Signets always get the 2nd rate graphics... Currently in a Signet Q "Zero Red".

That would only really work if you happen to have a Gen 1 Hayabusa Alu-Rack lying around...

I also did some luggage farkling today. I had an SW-Motech Alu-Rack on my 'Busa, and loved it for its versatility. I have adapters for Givi and Coocase, plus a flat platform for strapping down a duffle. I put it up for sale with the rest of my 'Busa leftovers, but then I got to thinking... Stock FJ grab handle setup... I located two holes in the 'Busa Alu-Rack where the rear stock grab handle bolts go and mocked it up... A pair of 1" spacers and longer bolts into the rear holes and I was in business! Now I just had to fab up a set of forward brackets to fit the FJ. First, I made a cardboard template, then broke out the plasma cutter and cut out a couple blanks from 3/16" mild steel (same material as the original brackets - the rack itself is aluminum). After some work with the grinder, they were ready for bending... Mocked up in place... Drilled, tapped and mounted for fit, here you can see the spacers on the rear bolts... Painted, and pillion seat back in place... Here's a shot with the flat luggage plate... And with a small Coocase... I'm sure SW-Motech will have one of these for the FJ at some point, but I'm not the patient type when I can make some minor mods and get things going!

Installed the pigtail for my electric vest and battery tender. Installed a couple of RAM balls on the bars, mounted up my GPS and wired a plug for the 12V outlet to power the GPS and radar detector (for which I still need to work out a mount). Also determined I can modify the SW-Motech Alu-Rack of my 'busa for use on the FJ, which will save me selling it and buying another (whenever SW-Motech decides to make one). I'll post a separate thread when I get going on the fab work.

My intent is to run 2" all the way through, so the diameter remains the same from the collector through the outlet. This should be equivalent to running any of the aftermarket systems, as that is essentially what they are doing. It probably won't be as light, but it will be a little more stealthy (looks, anyway). I'm hoping it won't be too loud.... I can always build a restrictor, if necessary. Hopefully the extra volume of the muffler will absorb more sound than the smaller aftermarket setups and keep things reasonable.

Started the gutsectomy on the stock FZ muffler yesterday. Here's a couple of pics showing the exhaust flow, which we had a good idea of from previous posts in this thread. This one shows the front opened up revealing the cat, which I don't think we've seen before: From the back: As you can see, gases flow out of the cat into a flat plate, find their way to a very small tube into the rear chamber, then to another small tube back into the front chamber, then into a tube that takes them in a circuitous route to the outlet. The plan is to remove most of the guts, and replace them with a perforated tube that routes the exhaust straight through, like most aftermarket mufflers, and fill the rest with packing material. I've ordered most of the stuff I need to get it done, but it's going to take a week or so to get it all in. In the meantime, I'll be breaking out the plasma cutter to go to town removing the guts.

That's very similar to what I'm thinking of... hopefully a little nicer fab work, though. It also looks like he used a typical, cheap packing material. I'm guessing it will be unreasonably loud in less than a year. I don't want to have to cut the thing open to repack it, so I'm thinking of a stainless steel packing material, similar to what Staintune does. For posterity, here's the video: And this one shows what he did inside...

I definitely plan to pack it with some sort of sound absorbent material. What I'm thinking is running a perforated tube all the way through after removing whatever 'guts' I can remove, and then packing around it. I think it might even shed some weight.... I've also considered making it into a reverse flow 'turbo' style. Who knows, it's all a big experiment!! I certainly don't want something ridiculously loud.

Yesterday I received my FZ-09 exhaust, purchased as a new take-off from eBay. I wanted to experiment on a spare exhaust, just in case this all goes horribly wrong, or I just get tired of being noisy and want to go back to stock. First thing, I weighed it on my super-accurate scientifically calibrated bathroom scale: 17.5lbs Then I started comparing it with the stock FJ-09 exhaust, looking for any differences. The first thing to note is that the cosmetic outlet cover is longer on the FZ version, and has an additional bracket forward. This would interfere with the centerstand on the FJ. However, the FJ cosmetic cover fits on the FZ version, with one bracket being slightly in the way. Here is the stock FJ with the cover removed showing the two brackets that hold the cover. And here are the different brackets on the FZ version that will need to be removed. The exhaust itself, and the top bracket which mounts to the frame, appear identical. So, it appears that the FZ version can easily be used on the FJ by cutting off the two unused brackets, and fabricating a bracket for the FJ cosmetic cover, which is already required when increasing the size of the outlet tubing. Easy peasy! So, now we know we have a cheap source for stock exhausts! Next step is to cut the muffler/cat section open and examine the guts. My intention is to do much more extensive surgery than the pioneers here, and perhaps construct a straight through exhaust, with no cat, similar to an aftermarket setup, but concealed in the stock box. Stay tuned....

So, last night on eBay, I scored a complete stock exhaust off an FZ-09. Removed by the dealer at time of sale for installation of an aftermarket exhaust, so brand new! From the parts diagrams, it appears the FZ-09 is identical to the FJ-09 with the exception of the cosmetic cover that goes over the exhaust outlet. My intention is to cut the entire catalytic chamber open, remove the cat substrate, and turn the whole thing into a high flow muffler. I'll be sure to post pics when it arrives and I get going on the project. I really like some of the things you guys have done, and it's given me some great ideas for this!