Hot Pipes!

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Is it normal for the exhaust pipes to occasionally give off a dull red glow (in low light, like in a shop or riding at night?) It's possible that I've never noticed it, or it could be new...

 

My engine has always run really rich, the exhaust always smelled like gas, my fuel mileage was less than stellar, and when working on the exhaust plumbing, there's always a lot of soot inside. Also the head pipes have never been hot enough to turn blue, they've been more of a dull brown.

 

So I just finished ditching the airbox for a set of velocity stacks w/Uni pod filters, and at the same time installed a My15m ECU and an o2 sensor to run closed-loop, also increased the flow by drilling more out of my chopped stock mufflers (why yes, I did check/adjust the valves and balanced the TBs after installing all the new doodads.) I know modding the intakes would make the air/fuel mixture more lean & make the exhaust hotter, but I don't know how hot is too hot.

 

Now that I've run the bike a bit, the pipes now have the same blue as most of the other bikes I've seen on this site. Went out for a ride this evening, and while riding along I noticed a dull red glow on the pipes, probably the first four inches that come right off the head. It also looked like the right pipe was brighter than the left, but that could have been the light.

 

As for engine performance, it's pretty good. It'll take a bit to get the fuel map sorted out, but there's virtually no knocking or pinging as it is, so it doesn't seem like it's running too lean, plus I'm running in closed-loop mode, so the ECU _should_ be sensing if the bike is running lean and should automatically make adjustments...

 

So, has anyone else seen "the glow"? Is it normal? Do these pants make me look fat? Is this post too long?

 

Thanks everyone