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hoffman900
XS650 Addict
Short answer is yes, it certainly is.
I used it to build my exhaust on my SR500. I built the primary to PipeMax specs and used it for the overall length. Compared to the old White Brothers set-up (1 3/4" header with a Supertrapp with an open end cap) I went up 3 main jet sizes and leaner on the needle - it rips from idle to redline. Granted I'm running a real megaphone/reverse cone now and a much better muffler. Since mine is a street bike, I built it a little bit longer than you would for a race bike, but it still pulls great to redline and zero signs of reversion.
A racer I've chatted with bought PipeMax and had success using its recommendations.
Lastly, the amount of information it gives you for stuff outside of exhausts is staggering and well worth it for dialing in an engine, or showing you what you need to get power for a certain package.
As far as exhaust designs go, just trust it. It works. It's going to go against some things you see on this site. One thing it is going to show you is that the 1 3/4" head pipes are insanely large for a XS motor.
That being said, it's not a simulator. It's more of a window into the engine. Remember, garbage in, garbage out. To get exhausts dialed in 100% you need pressure transducers to get that last little bit (only high end NHRA,NASCAR, and other pro outfits are doing this work), but PipeMax will get you very, very close.
I just recently upgraded to the latest, 3.9 version, of PipeMax.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Bob
I used it to build my exhaust on my SR500. I built the primary to PipeMax specs and used it for the overall length. Compared to the old White Brothers set-up (1 3/4" header with a Supertrapp with an open end cap) I went up 3 main jet sizes and leaner on the needle - it rips from idle to redline. Granted I'm running a real megaphone/reverse cone now and a much better muffler. Since mine is a street bike, I built it a little bit longer than you would for a race bike, but it still pulls great to redline and zero signs of reversion.
A racer I've chatted with bought PipeMax and had success using its recommendations.
Lastly, the amount of information it gives you for stuff outside of exhausts is staggering and well worth it for dialing in an engine, or showing you what you need to get power for a certain package.
As far as exhaust designs go, just trust it. It works. It's going to go against some things you see on this site. One thing it is going to show you is that the 1 3/4" head pipes are insanely large for a XS motor.
That being said, it's not a simulator. It's more of a window into the engine. Remember, garbage in, garbage out. To get exhausts dialed in 100% you need pressure transducers to get that last little bit (only high end NHRA,NASCAR, and other pro outfits are doing this work), but PipeMax will get you very, very close.
I just recently upgraded to the latest, 3.9 version, of PipeMax.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Bob
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Thanks for your reply Bob, I think I will get the pipemax program. As you have said & from what I have read the additional detail it provides is amazing.
I am wanting to run the best combo I can for my LR 750 conversion, this includes a head modified by me which will have pocket porting & blending of the existing ports & a 3 or 4 angle valve seat with standard size valves.
I know the lillie head is available & I have been fortunate to see one & get some great shots of its ports, however I would like to experiment a bit with optimizing the combo I have for the street, I believe with this program it will help with dialing in cams etc after I enter all my data.
I can always extensively port another head later or purchase a lillie head if I wish.
Open to any further discussion/thoughts anyone may have on this.
Regards,
Dale.
I am wanting to run the best combo I can for my LR 750 conversion, this includes a head modified by me which will have pocket porting & blending of the existing ports & a 3 or 4 angle valve seat with standard size valves.
I know the lillie head is available & I have been fortunate to see one & get some great shots of its ports, however I would like to experiment a bit with optimizing the combo I have for the street, I believe with this program it will help with dialing in cams etc after I enter all my data.
I can always extensively port another head later or purchase a lillie head if I wish.
Open to any further discussion/thoughts anyone may have on this.
Regards,
Dale.
hoffman900
XS650 Addict
Dale,
Very cool. Please keep us updated.
I built up a stock XS650 in PipeMax. I suggest anyone wanting to go farther, or experiment with their own combination, to get their own copy. This should be a good starting reference point for anyone doing this on their own. (this is before I saved it as a XS650 file, so ignore the heading on the screenshot). There is a lot more to the program than what I'm going to post, but you'll have to buy it to get that information
Hp is based on flywheel and what I could find of dyno'ed stock bikes. Everything else is as stock.
Another thing to keep in mind, a true megaphone / reverse cone will only tune when it's perfectly smooth inside. A megaphone/reverse cone muffler is really more for looks than function. You can tell a real megaphone / reverse cone exhaust by the muffler being placed at the very end. You'll see the meg come up to the muffler and the muffler slips over the reverse cone. A megaphone shaped muffler is only as good as the baffle size within.
Very cool. Please keep us updated.
I built up a stock XS650 in PipeMax. I suggest anyone wanting to go farther, or experiment with their own combination, to get their own copy. This should be a good starting reference point for anyone doing this on their own. (this is before I saved it as a XS650 file, so ignore the heading on the screenshot). There is a lot more to the program than what I'm going to post, but you'll have to buy it to get that information
Hp is based on flywheel and what I could find of dyno'ed stock bikes. Everything else is as stock.
Another thing to keep in mind, a true megaphone / reverse cone will only tune when it's perfectly smooth inside. A megaphone/reverse cone muffler is really more for looks than function. You can tell a real megaphone / reverse cone exhaust by the muffler being placed at the very end. You'll see the meg come up to the muffler and the muffler slips over the reverse cone. A megaphone shaped muffler is only as good as the baffle size within.
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hoffman900
XS650 Addict
There are two ways to use PipeMax.
The first is you take a known, dynoed combination, and put everything in. You then adjust VE until it matches your recorded hp (it's based on flywheel hp, so you'll need to add about 7-10hp to wheel numbers) or someone else's if you can find dyno sheets. From that, you can determine an optimum exhaust system for that combination, and how much cfm, lift, etc. the engine wants to see, vs. what it's actually seeing. This is key for figuring out choke points within the system.
The other is to put in a combination of parts, and tweak peak rpm and ve. Then you can find out how much cfm, lift, etc. you're going to need to get to that target.
Keep in mind VE changes throughout the entire rpm sweep. It peaks when power peaks. 94 isn't that great, it's not bad, but not good. A well built race engine is over 100% VE, and something like a NHRA Pro Stock engine can be upwards of 130+ VE. Motorcycles, even older ones, are usually at a higher state of tune than their car contemporaries when stock.
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