Staintune Exaust Gaskets? What do you use?

[flynfjr]

I have an 06 with staintunes on it and when the dealer installed them I noticed that there was exaust leaks comming from where the canisters slip on to the bikes pipes they are tightend all the way down. They are telling me that staintune does not supply them with gaskets and they do not ever put them on and eventually the leaks will fill up with carbon, this did not seem right to me so I checked the website and they say you have to supply your own gaskets or use rtv silicone to fill or make your own. What is the right way to do this. What can or should I use to properly seal them up?

 

[War Machine]

I have an 06 with staintunes on it and when the dealer installed them I noticed that there was exaust leaks comming from where the canisters slip on to the bikes pipes they are tightend all the way down. They are telling me that staintune does not supply them with gaskets and they do not ever put them on and eventually the leaks will fill up with carbon, this did not seem right to me so I checked the website and they say you have to supply your own gaskets or use rtv silicone to fill or make your own. What is the right way to do this. What can or should I use to properly seal them up?

Do yourself (& your bike) a favor, purchase the exhaust gaskets from Yamaha & re-install the pipes with the gaskets in place. It's worth the extra cost/effort, otherwise valve problems will be a more expensive repair. Any dealer's shop that would do such an installation is the type of shop you do not want to have your bike serviced at. Instead of the lame excuse they gave you the right thing to do was to tell you before the installation that additional exhaust gaskets at an additional cost are needed for the proper installation. Therefore if YOU decide not to go for the extra cost the resulting exhaust leak/eventual valve problems are your fault. Besides even if you aren't very handy with tools, the installation of the slip-on Staintunes is very simple & less than a 30 minute proceedure.

Even though I am not a top flight mechanic, a part of owning a motorcyle that I enjoy is working on/maintaining them (as long as I'm not constantly repairing the beast).

This is just another sad example on why I preach to new bike owners buy the Service Manual & do your own work, rather than pay through the nose & still wind up with poor quality shop work!

 

[Bike Effects]

I have an 06 with staintunes on it and when the dealer installed them I noticed that there was exaust leaks comming from where the canisters slip on to the bikes pipes they are tightend all the way down. They are telling me that staintune does not supply them with gaskets and they do not ever put them on and eventually the leaks will fill up with carbon, this did not seem right to me so I checked the website and they say you have to supply your own gaskets or use rtv silicone to fill or make your own. What is the right way to do this. What can or should I use to properly seal them up?

Unbelievable! Time to get a new shop! Then buy some Yamaha factory gaskets.

 

[doit]

I have an 06 with staintunes on it and when the dealer installed them I noticed that there was exaust leaks comming from where the canisters slip on to the bikes pipes they are tightend all the way down. They are telling me that staintune does not supply them with gaskets and they do not ever put them on and eventually the leaks will fill up with carbon, this did not seem right to me so I checked the website and they say you have to supply your own gaskets or use rtv silicone to fill or make your own. What is the right way to do this. What can or should I use to properly seal them up?

Unbelievable! Time to get a new shop! Then buy some Yamaha factory gaskets.

I don't understand why Staintune don't just supply them with the exhausts, I had to wait an extra 3 days to get my pipes fitted because it needed gaskets.

A lot of after market pipes normally just slip on without gaskets, but the FJR needs them.

 

[ock913]

When I installed my Staintunes on my '05, I was able to reuse the original gaskets. The bike had barely in mileage and after carefully removing the original cans, the gaskets remained in place and were in perfect condition. But I do remember reading on the old forum that new gaskets may be needed if the originals were to get torn during disassembly.

 

[Shadow]

They are telling me that staintune does not supply them with gaskets and they do not ever put them on and eventually the leaks will fill up with carbon.

LOL, that is one huge area to fill with silastic.

I have the Staintune cans on my 06, and the ONLY way to do the job properly is to use original Yamaha gaskets.

You may be able to remove the gaskets from your original pipes and use them but it is best to leave them alone and get 2 new ones.

Some Staintune cans do fit directly on the pipe like other brands without using a gasket, but a thin film of high temp silastic is used to get a seal.

This is not the case for the FJR, you need a gasket.

 

[flynfjr]

thanks for the info I will go tomorrow and get the gaskets and do them myself I hope i did not hurt anything everything sounds fine how would i know if i had damage

 

[Shadow]

Unless you rode the bike at high speed in very hot weather for about 1,000 miles you won't have done any damage.

An exhaust leak is bad for 3 reasons.

(1) Sounds terrible.

(2) Bike loses power due to less back pressure, power loss is dependent of the size of the leak.

(3) The most important one.

Say you are cruising at 70 mph and you throttle off, this creates a high vacuum instance.

Cold air is sucked in through the leak and it hits the valves, do that enough times and you will damage valves.

 

[jestal]

You definitely need the stock Yamaha gaskets to put the Staintune cans onto the stock exhaust head pipe. There is a pretty large gap between the Staintune inlet and the stock pipe. I cannot imagine anyone installing the cans without the gaskets. If they have overtightened the clamps to try and effect a seal they may have distorted the Staintune inlet sufficiently that you cannot slide the gaskets into them. You may have to get a pipe expander and/or take them to a muffler shop to have the inlets re-swedged to make them the right shape and size again. Hopefully not but I would look at the inlets carefully to see if they are distorted or pinched down from clamping without the gaskets in the gap.

Uh....guys......the idea of a burned valve or valve problems due to an exhaust leak is just an old wives tale. Will not happen. How do you think race engines and piston aircraft (among others) run for ages with open exhaust without burning the valves or having problems like that?? I would also be surprised if an engine lost power due to less backpressure due to a leak. The whole idea is to get the back pressure lower to get more power. Reducing the backpressure is not going to cause a power less.

I agree that an exhaust leak is noisy and can be messy due to the carbon track it will produce but it isn't going to hurt the motor. You can quite worrying about that.

 

[Shadow]

Uh....guys......the idea of a burned valve or valve problems due to an exhaust leak is just an old wives tale. Will not happen. How do you think race engines and piston aircraft (among others) run for ages with open exhaust without burning the valves or having problems like that?? I would also be surprised if an engine lost power due to less backpressure due to a leak. The whole idea is to get the back pressure lower to get more power. Reducing the backpressure is not going to cause a power less.

If your engine was rebuilt as often as a race engine then you wouldn't have any valve problems either.

If you fit an open exhaust system you lose bottom end torque simply because you have reduced back pressure, but you will gain upper end power

 

[jestal]

Uh....guys......the idea of a burned valve or valve problems due to an exhaust leak is just an old wives tale. Will not happen. How do you think race engines and piston aircraft (among others) run for ages with open exhaust without burning the valves or having problems like that?? I would also be surprised if an engine lost power due to less backpressure due to a leak. The whole idea is to get the back pressure lower to get more power. Reducing the backpressure is not going to cause a power less.

If your engine was rebuilt as often as a race engine then you wouldn't have any valve problems either.

If you fit an open exhaust system you lose bottom end torque simply because you have reduced back pressure, but you will gain upper end power

Funny....we ran a fleet of ASA race engines that ran for two or three whole seasons with open headers without being rebuilt or even touched and they had no valve problems due to cold air being sucked back onto the valve....LOL...and those engines had standard production valves in them. WWII figher aircraft engines like the Allisons and Rolls Royce Merlins ran exhaust stacks about 6 inches long that were open to the atmosphere. They didn't have valve problems due to cold air.... Face it. It just doesn't happen. Someone's ficticous rational for valve failures that occured for other reasons that acheived urban legend status in the motoring community.

I have seen a LOT of dyno data that indicates that reducing backpressure does NOT hurt "low end torque".......... This is a figment of the import racer's imagination. They worry that they will put a big coffee can exhaust tip on and loose low end due to "not enough backpressure"....LOL LOL

 

[Bike Effects]

Face it. It just doesn't happen. Someone's ficticous rational for valve failures that occured for other reasons that acheived urban legend status in the motoring community.

You just have to go and ruin it for everyone, now don't you! :yahoo:

 

[flynfjr]

You definitely need the stock Yamaha gaskets to put the Staintune cans onto the stock exhaust head pipe. There is a pretty large gap between the Staintune inlet and the stock pipe. I cannot imagine anyone installing the cans without the gaskets. If they have overtightened the clamps to try and effect a seal they may have distorted the Staintune inlet sufficiently that you cannot slide the gaskets into them. You may have to get a pipe expander and/or take them to a muffler shop to have the inlets re-swedged to make them the right shape and size again. Hopefully not but I would look at the inlets carefully to see if they are distorted or pinched down from clamping without the gaskets in the gap.

Uh....guys......the idea of a burned valve or valve problems due to an exhaust leak is just an old wives tale. Will not happen. How do you think race engines and piston aircraft (among others) run for ages with open exhaust without burning the valves or having problems like that?? I would also be surprised if an engine lost power due to less backpressure due to a leak. The whole idea is to get the back pressure lower to get more power. Reducing the backpressure is not going to cause a power less.

I agree that an exhaust leak is noisy and can be messy due to the carbon track it will produce but it isn't going to hurt the motor. You can quite worrying about that.

You hit the nail on the head, I had to take the pipes to my local muffler shop an have them carefully re-sized I had to order the stock gaskets from the dealer, they should be here Wednsday hopefully and I will install that night. I will let you know how it goes. I should have just done it myself in the first place, there is no way that I would have put them together without gaskets. I have checked around and you are right about the potential valve damage. Most mechanics agree that it would have to be a leak right at the exhaust header to cause any problems.

 

[jestal]

I have checked around and you are right about the potential valve damage. Most mechanics agree that it would have to be a leak right at the exhaust header to cause any problems.

Well....if it helps everyone else to feel better and dispell the rumor of valves being damaged by an exhaust leak or cold air getting to the valves then keep in mind that many modern engines have AIR (Air Injection Reaction) systems to pump fresh air into the exhaust ports for emissions reasons. The extra air/AIR promotes an oxidizing reaction in the ports to oxidize excess HC and CO especially during cold starts and decels. AIR has been around for many many years. It disappeared and now has reappeared on many engines to, once again, promote an oxidizing reaction but this time it is not just to oxidize that little bit of HC and CO but to do it specifically during the cold start to get the catalytic converter heated up quicker. The FJR has just such a system. The ports for the AIR are drilled thru the head and dump the fresh air DIRECTLY ONTO THE EXHAUST VALVES. If there was much danger of "fresh air" causing a problem with the valves you would think that these systems would not be incorporated in the production designs. Granted, the air/AIR in these cases is heated a little bit as it is sucked or pumped thru the systems and into the exhaust ports but it is still pretty "cold" compared to the exhaust gases.

One failure that has happened to engines with short exhaust stacks and open headers that perpetuates the myth of cold air damaging the valves is that the exposed valve stems can corrode during shut down periods. the exhaust valves are smoking hot and then the engine is shut down and any valve held slightly open at shutdown exposes a portion of the valve stem that is normally inside the valve guide when the valve is on the seat. That area is pretty dry of oil and pretty warm so it is ripe for corrosion, especially if the air is humid and/or the engine is shut down near the coast where salt spray or excess humidity might be present. The valve stem "rusts", that area tears up the valve guide when the engine is next run and the valve sticks in the guide under worst case conditions and "burns". So the mechanic explains the failure as "cold air burning the valve." Wrong. I saw this exact failure mode happening on an auto engine that was converted to aero power and run with short exhaust stacks. Corrosion was the issue, not cold air.