Hi all, I've been giving some thought to running heat wrap on my exhaust. I have an 07 Night train. If I understand correctly, the stock ECU will allow the fuel to self adjust richer or leaner in closed loop, based on internal temps in the exhaust. I think??? I read somewhere on here that the increments for the ECU to adjust richer or leaner is only like .5 AFR. My concern is that the wrap will increase the heat in my pipes and cause the ecu to run richer. Now this wouldn't be bad but, if the ecu can only adjust say .5 AFR to the rich side and the wrap makes the jump to .5 richer, Then won't the bike start running hotter on say a hot day in traffic because the wrap has caused the bike ecu to swing as far as it can on the rich side and therefore it can't compensate any more for the added heat?.....I hope I was able to make my point without being confusing.....The second part of my thought was how much a pipe can heat an engine up due to radiant heat sinking back into the engine? Would wrap lessen this radiant heat enough to make the engine run a little cooler anyway?...Just thought some of you may have some insight that would be helpfull. Of course my understanding of the whole thing is not great so I may be way off base anyway.......Thanks!

 

First thought that came to mind is that the wraps on the pipes will not directly alter the AFR of the engine. The ECU doesn't measure exhaust heat.

Second, by wrapping the pipes, you will prevent them from radiating heat (no d'uh) and that will do two things I'd think:
[*]push the heat to the mufflers, which will then get hotter than they did before
[*](just guessing on this one) cause the exhaust outlet area of the cylinder head to become hotter than it would if the pipe was radiating heat instead of holding it in.

I'm open for correction on that last one, am fairly certain on the second, and not doubt in my mind in any way, shape, or form on the first one.