My exhaust is being delivered tonight and I need an opinion.

[brez24]

I have a '95 600 and am going to put on a 98+ exhaust. I'm not really mechanically inclided. Do you think I'm going to be able to pull off the old exhaust, dent the collector, and put the new exhaust on? Should this be left to the bike shop? I'm worried I'm going to get the old exhaust off and then get stuck and my bike won't be driveable.

[steves]

You should be able to do it... so long as your header bolts aren't rusted out.

To hang the can, I used a 4" insulted pipe hanger I found at Lowes.

[brez24]

I also read in one post, but didn't see it anywhere else, that I need to get shorter screws for the header than the existing ones. Any truth to that?

[steves]

Use the bolts that are in your motor.

[arsenic]

+1

[brez24]

I made the bolts on the headers as tight as I could but it sounds like crap and it also sounds like a lot of the noise is actually coming out of the front (headers). Any thoughts?

[arsenic]

torque wrench, got one?

[brez24]

No, I was using an alan wrench. The screws that were in the stock exhaust came out pretty easy. Great, I'm going to need to get it tow'd to the shop. Will it hurt the bike to let it run like this? I only had it on for a few seconds and didn't let it warm up.

[arsenic]

no, were you just using hand held allen wrenching, or allen key sockets?

[steves]

You didn't lose an exhaust gasket did you?

Sounds like they aren't torqued enough.... I think it's only like 16.5 ft/lbs for the header bolts...

[brez24]

I can try attaching a wrench to the allen key for more leverage. The bolts came off the old exhaust so easy I'm surprised it wasn't an issue before.

[brooder]

It sounds like you lost a gasket. Mine did the same thing until I realized the gasket was still attached to the old headers.

[arsenic]

use high temp anti seize on toughs header bolts too.

[brez24]

I didn't notice any gaskets. I'll have to look. I may also get the pipe cut tomorrow morning so it bolts right on.

[arsenic]

there exhaust gaskets are in the cylinder head, on the engine block side, they may be on your old header, you need to look.