my bolts holding the front pipe onto the engine head fell off on the freeway coming home. Yes it got loud but I rode home 10 miles & checked to find missing bolts and pipe loose & leaking. When I removed pipe to replace gasket and missing bolts I also discovered the c clip for the flange wasn't seated properly so I replaced it also. From the looks of the burn pattern on the pipe the c clip was never seated properly and the gasket had filled in the space so I'm guessing the bolts weren't properly installed from the factory? I fixed all of it now but I wonder if it could've caused damage to the engine IE; burnt valves? etc I've got almost 20 k miles on it and apparently it was leaking a little from day1. I never noticed any discoloration on the heads around the pipe area so I'm hoping not but 10 miles riding with a big leak at the head? Did I just f up my bike?

 

Should be fine. Ride it

 

No sir, happened to me a few times. Check gaskets and replace nuts. Good to go.

That funny liquid bubble pop pop noise is so shameful.

 

It should be fine. If you want, you can run a quick compression test on both cylinders, but I doubt you have any issues. Now it's even better!

John

 

Fix, forget, ride.

 

It will be fine I had the same thing happen to my 72, I just put the donut exhaust seals on and it was fine.