I am thinking of changing the standard exhaust heat shield to a carbon one. I have a few questions: is it easy to remove the standard one, looks ok apart from the bolt near the footrest hanger. Other question, I have heard the carbon heat shield can discolour with the heat. What are people's experiences with this. Also, before I buy one, has anyone got one for sale.
In terms of discolouration, a lot depends on if it has been lined with a decent foil backing. The stock stuff is very thin. (At least the type that Fullsix and Ilmberger use). The other factor, if it's a gloss part, is the quality of the lacquer. Lastly as long as the inner heat shield is retained (if from memory there is one under the plastic outer shield), that will help dissipate a lot of the heat. There is no getting away from the fact that the stock exhust generates a LOT of heat especially the rear headers. Another option would be to wrap that section but you might then struggle to fit the heat shields over it. An aftermarket exhaust, whilst an expensive option, will be free flowing without restrictive valves and depending on the material, will tend to dissipate heat a lot quicker and as a consequence will in general be cooler. Personally my first port of call would be the foil liner. The inner heat shield will be doing most of the leg work but there's no harm in adding some better quality foil to the carbon part. I do it to all my heat shields as a matter of course. It's quite a fiddly and time consuming job to do well and accurately. I have some high quality extreme heat resistant foil I bought from Lieb Speed in Germany (and what Peter used on all his carbon heat exposed parts), which owing to it's cost I use sparingly, taking care to only cut what I need from the roll, so I usually make a paper template first, then cut from that. If you do decide to purchase a carbon heat shield and you aren't happy with the lining, you are welcome to send it to me and I'll apply a decent backing to it, that is way better than the cheap stuff that normally gets stuck on, often in ugly overlapping patches that eventually peel away from each other, as the heat dries out the adhesive. If you are not sure what that looks like, here's a few I did earlier.
Thank you for the useful information. When I sort out a heat shield I may well take you up on your offer of lining it. Thsnk you.
Hi, Me again, I didn’t phrase my question correctly. What I meant to ask is “What brand of extreme heat resistant foil did you use? Sorry for the confusion. I want to line my fairings Thank you, again Scott
I am not sure of the brand. As I said I bought it from Peter Lieb as a large roll of the stuff. It wasn't cheap (IIRC about £50 incl. postage) but he swears by it and I have never had any issues with it. You can always message him direct and he can point you to a supplier. https://www.facebook.com/peter.lieb.50 Then again I am sure the Race Parts stuff will work as well, but I can only recommend what I have used from personal experience.