Repacking the FMF silencers

I won't know if it's solved until I see what this new packing looks like in six months. Rode the original packing that long so now I'll have something to go by. Maybe it'll last longer (or not). Time will tell.

Just the fact you FINALLY got the right length packing is good.

AND the fact that I can ride again!

....of course it's been raining since then!! Murphy's Law wins again.

So you like the DAWG?

mtb wrote:

So you like the DAWG?

Hard to say Gary. We have had Singapore weather this week with nothing but rain to ride in. And you know I melt when I get wet, so the bike has been parked all weekend. There is a little break in the clouds this morning so I might go for a ride later. I did get a nice ride in the other night after I installed the pipe and Dawg. It seems to run real good, but I can't say for sure if it's the Dawg or the new packing. It did run good with the old packing and the Dawg, so the Dawg must be doing something. I would say it's the same as with the old packing but just quieter now. I still think it pulls better on the top end, and throttle response seems to be better in the higher gears with the Dawg installed. I didn't notice any loss at idle or any hesitation in the lower gears. But without a dyno run I can only speculate what my butt is telling me.

i have the q4 and mine leaks from where you screw the can to the mid pipe... i had this problem from day 1 with this pipe and have talked to fmf about it. i feel there customer service sucks. They said that i could send it back to them and they would repack it....1 week turn around they said. that would put me with out a bike. i told them they should send me a new one for exchange. i even offered for them to charge my credit card until they get the bad one back..they did not agree to that. so i am stuck with a leaking pipe.

thanks for the wright up i will have to repack mine soon.

FMF SUCKS!!!

turboedmsp wrote:

i have the q4 and mine leaks from where you screw the can to the mid pipe... i had this problem from day 1 with this pipe and have talked to fmf about it. i feel there customer service sucks. They said that i could send it back to them and they would repack it....1 week turn around they said. that would put me with out a bike. i told them they should send me a new one for exchange. i even offered for them to charge my credit card until they get the bad one back..they did not agree to that. so i am stuck with a leaking pipe.

thanks for the wright up i will have to repack mine soon.

FMF SUCKS!!!

I don't think they do a very good job sealing the can to the mid pipe at the factory. Mine leaked a little too when it was new. I just forced some high temp silicone into the gaps and let it dry over night and haven't had a problem since then. When I repacked this time and had the can completely off, I gave it a good layer of silicone before installing the can, and it hasn't leaked a bit. They just get lazy assembling the pipes at the factory and don't use enough care to get it right. FMF does design some good products, but their QC sucks when it comes to stuff like this.

Well, I've repacked a few pipes. You can just clean the gunk out if its not too bad, squirt gasoline or kerosine on it and squish out the gunk. That pic of your packing material, hell i'd throw it back in without cleaning it.

If you want new packing, personally i'd get it from parts unlimited. I get stuff from there at cost but they are still cheap at full retail. On their site, its part number 1860-0175, 20" long, $26 plus shipping.

http://offroad.parts-unlimited.com/8/61/8080238

Hey Mark, sorry to dredge up the thread again, but between this one and TT I've kind of lost track. Can you please post the 'Conclusion' here?

- What was the milage before you repacked (recognizing from your posts that this may have been a bit early)?
- What eventual packing worked(4-stroke packing (#010590) I think)?
- What was the conclusion on the DBDawg?

Thanks.

I've been putting off my ride report until I can actually get a decent ride in. We've had rain here for like a month straight and I've only put about 15-20 miles on my bike since the end of April. As for mileage on the original packing, I have just at 5K on the bike now. The packing I ended up using was the 4-stroke packing (#10590). Whether it holds up like the stock packing has yet to be realized. The stock packing didn't look bad except for the hole burnt in it at one spot. Not sure why that happened, but the new packing seems to have helped quiet it down considerably.

The jury is still out on the dB Dawg. I don't think it helped much with the noise (except for idle and low speeds), but it still seems like the bike pulls a bit harder on the top end with the Dawg installed. I felt that before I repacked so I know it's not just the packing I'm feeling. If I had to do it again, not sure I would waste the money on the Dawg just to get a little top end. I bought it for noise reduction. It took me quite a bit of work to make it fit the Q4 properly, but without a sound meter, I don't think it lowered the dB's much. The packing seems to be what quited the muffler down more. I noticed how much quieter it was on the first ride on the highway (without a helmet so I could hear better). There was a noticeable difference in noise levels with the new packing at speed.

The way I installed the Dawg allows me to go back to the stock Q4 SA with no problem, so that is still an option. I'd like to get a few 100 miles on this setup first though, so I have a better idea about what to do. At that time I will pull the spark plug and see how it looks after running the Dawg for a while.

I'll update this thread after I have more seat time on this setup.

Right, I forgot you were in the midst of Monsoon-June as well.
Thanks for the summary. Your efforts and posts will help others in their decisions.

Digging up the old stuff, but interesting find, nonetheless. I finally decided to repack my Q4 after having it on for more than 6000 miles (I ran the stock can for a while until could get one at a decent price ), and was pretty surprised to see what came out once I opened it up.



One small burn hole in the entire packing!



The rest of the packing was pretty solid with the exception of that one spot. I talked to a buddy who runs the PC4, and he said his was like that too, and just jammed some loose packing into the hole and kept on riding. Well, I ordered the packing that everyone else ordered (NOT the pillow pack that screwed up others who did a repack), and the stuff I got was loose packing, not wrapped in the mesh. Well, I have spare packing for a repack again when the time comes, and used some from an open pack I had from when I did the White Brothers on my old Honda 250. So I went ahead and did what my buddy did, and put it back together. Go figure that one out.

Lynn, my original Q4 packing looked like that too. Just a little hole burnt in one spot. The rest didn't look too bad, but I repacked the whole thing with new stuff while I had it apart. I've got about another 3K miles on it since then and think it's ready for another packing. Starting to sound a little louder each ride. I am going to be curious how the new packing held up compared to the stock stuff FMF had in there. I like your idea of just stuffing the hole with packing to save some money. May do that if it looks the same this time.

Yeah I kinda couldn't justify tossing out the stock packing with just one burn hole, and the rest was fine. A handful of the pink cotton candy fit nicely into the gap.