Heat Wrap
 

My friend has a 650 V-Strom. The front cylinder's exhaust pipe is a 1/4 inch at the bottom from the oil cooler.

http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/2889/vstrom1.jpg

We decided to wrap the pipe with fiberglass heat wrap. We used gloves to avoid the glass fibers. We put the black fiberglass in water first and then wrapped. What a mess. We used pipe clamps to keep the ends of the wrap from unraveling.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/637/vstrom2.jpg

The next day he took the bike out and the gauge registered hotter. We cut the fiberglass off after that. We're not sure why the bike didn't run cooler.

Exhaust wrap is actually meant to increase the exhaust and header gas temps.

Since an engine is basically a big air pump, the faster you can move the air, the faster the engine goes, (up to a point).

The idea behind exhaust wrap, is to heat the exhaust so that the density of the exhaust decreases. The lower the density, the faster lower temp intake gases will flow towards it. It's like wind at the beach. The hotter the land mass, the faster the wind will blow cooler air on shore.

Problem is, the hotter exhaust gas, means a hotter pipe, which means a hotter head and cylinder, which means you've gone backwards in the cooling department.

JC

...

:lol:

JC

Why are you trying to get it to run cooler?

Have you considered relocating the oil cooler? Many of the skid plates require relocation of the oil cooler to a vertical position at the side. I haven't done that to mine, but know it's a possibility. Touratech sells a relocation kit. Here's a link to the kit on their website. http://www.touratech-usa.com/Store/1...-V-Strom-DL650

Here's a pic of a modified oil cooler that's been relocated as I described.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/l...n/IMG_4972.jpg

Just thought it was bad engineering to have the oil cooler right behind the exhaust pipe. Seems that the cooler was taking in more heat than it was expelling.

Thanks Captain, that looks cool.

That sounds right. He just saw the temp gauge higher. I don't think he noticed if the bike was any faster.

Any gains in performance would be modest at best.

JC

What crack are you smoking? That .05 hp gain from the wrap adds enough go to make rossi run for his money

Youd need to be hauling ass 24/7 to counter the extra heat. Plus shit just builds up on wrap and moisture collects in it and just ruins the pipe.

I still don't get how moisture builds up... I mean, maybe if the thing's sitting forever and/or in the rain... With the wrap on my Buell, I took it out in the wet once and heat burned off all the water immediately...

I guess it depends on the type of wrapped. Turns nice looking pipes in to metal I wouldn't use to make a metal fence out of.

Sure, but would you use that metal to make a wood fence out of?

I use 4x6 post as pickets.