Pleased with my recent purchase and upgrade.
I’ve put near on 80k miles and several winters on my GSX1400 Suzuki, the exhaust system was pretty well shot.
The early Suzuki’s have a double skin mild steel then chromed header system, the collector box is mild steel.
They had both had it, one header had a pinprick leak and the mounts were rusting off the collector.
I’ve replaced them with stainless steel items from Sandy Bike Spares.
I recommend this supplier (fast courier service and good communications) and their products (really nice welds, thick 304 grade stainless with stainless solid mounting flanges).
The fit on mine were as per Suzuki.
An ‘easy’ job that I was expecting at least 50% of the header bolts to go ping (they, Suzuki, are notorious for it, its just an 8mm thread that cold welds into the head).
I got to the header bolts by simply loosening the oil rad and dropping it forward, no need to remove wheel or forks. I got to the headers with a stubby 3/8 extension and 8mm hex socket. That first turn is fun when they go bang and you don’t know if its released or snapped – top fun.
It took me just over an hour and a half to remove the 8 bolts, I literally turned them one degree at a time using a breaker bar for feel before moving to my ratchet. I have a long 8mm hex socket, which is handy but I couldn’t feel when the bolt rotated.
I gave them a little spray with wd40 in-between my micro-turns, but I think it’s the fact my bike is always covered in wd40 (looks grubby but no rust) that saved my ass and has stopped dry corrosion down the bolts like my mates bike did (we lost 5 of the bolts on his, we had to grind off, centre pop, pilot drill then main drill then rethread).
Putting the whole plot back together again was a pleasure with the new stainless parts. I filled the header bolt holes with Copperslip (Suzuki don’t lube or anything, that’s why they weld into the head and snap, galvanic corrosion and English weather just kills em) as I have nice new stainless header bolts going into the ali head. I also put Copperslip on all joints and inside and outside of the header to collector gaskets so they slide in nicely.
I inserted the header bolts slowly, I don’t think the stainless bolts will gall as they are covered in copper grease, but why take chances, I want those threads perfect.
The standard torque is 23Nm, I went in lower at 15Nm. This was enough to crush the new header gaskets and make a nice gas tight seal. I have noticed I can get onto the bolts with my SnapOn 8mm x 120 long hex socket even with the oil rad on, so its an easy check by hand before the exhaust gets hot to check for leaks and just tweak them in a little more if they relax (fyi – I’ve already put some miles on them – they are in fine)
Remembered to put the sneaky hidden bolt in that fastens the collector to the bottom of the frame.
Put the silencers on – damn, they don’t fit, the collector seems to come back about 10mm too far and is holding the silencers off their mounts. Went and had a coffee and think (surely I don’t need to grind the holes longer on the silencer mounts?). Came back after my little think – loosened the header to collector clamps and loosened the hidden collector to frame bolt, slide the silencers on and bingo – it fits perfect. A real amateur mistake of tightening things up as I go rather than wait until the end after its all assembled then tighten everything up.
So a recommendation for SBS headers and collectors. Built well and fits, the lady who answers the phone knows what she is talking about and they deliver overnight by courier.
S | UK | March 2015
