TOPIC:

"I think Scotch did header wrap on his downpipes to help with this issue."

Close, Kawboy !   I wrapped the collector.

Thanks Kawboy and Scotch. If I have to I'll wrap the headers and or find 2x walled pipes somewhere. I think somewhere I have stock headers than could be refurbished. 

Kawboy, tx for analysis. It looked good to me too. 

Taking the old gurl to a deserted back road this afternoon, high 90F predicted, for a heat run sans fairing...

Don

Thought I'd mention that I used about 45' of 2" header wrap ( Double layer to cover ONLY the collector.) 
Before you get too excited about wrapping the down-pipes, I suggest you do some research. You can ruin headers (down-pipes) by wrapping them. 
This is just one of many captions:
-stories/exhaust/header-wrap-what-you-should-know/

scotch wrote:

Thought I'd mention that I used about 45' of 2" header wrap ( Double layer to cover ONLY the collector.) 
Before you get too excited about wrapping the down-pipes, I suggest you do some research. You can ruin headers (down-pipes) by wrapping them. 
This is just one of many captions:
-stories/exhaust/header-wrap-what-you-should-know/
 

Yes. I've wrapped many headers in my time, from 327 Chevy's to FJR 1300's to pipes at the nuke plant, LOL. And YES, every 2 years I unwrap, clean, re-wrap. The thermal imaging of my radiator lower from cool to thermostat opening showed almost 30F of induced head in *52* seconds! So thinking of wrapping the headers from flange downward about 8 or so inches..

edit - having difficulty cutting and pasting from CandyButtAssociation <my blog> to here, error message 'too many links'. For direct link to CBA site clicky

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Test ride after Radiator Flush and Thermostat test. Left heat deflectors and barn door fairing off. Here's the theory.. Single walled exhaust instead of double wall and heat deflectors are 'trapping' the hot air and the headers are heating up the radiator directly.

Parameters    1.    Ambient temp 98 - 100 F    
2.    Slight cross wind    
3.    Fan in 'Auto' position

First off, a nice easy 45 - 50 mph ride at odometer reading 0. Temp coming up. <attachment 1>

Mile 2, slight up hill pull. Still good. <2>

Mile 3, half scale. Looking better than it has in a very long time..  <3>

Mile 4, slightly over 50% - very encouraging. By now, in the past, fan would be on, temp gauge in zone between normal operating and hot... <4>

Temps continuing to climb, but in the OK zone, mile 9.4 at 30-45 mph. So far, so GOOD! <5>

Ok then, let's stress test the bitch. 10 - 15 mph, less air flow. 10.2 miles, about 2 needles width below normal operating temp upper limit. <6>

Mile 10.5, almost to the fan. <7>At 11 miles, fan is on. Too bad the voltmeter didn't photograph. Temperature staying upper normal range, a very good thing! <8>

11.2 miles, still hanging in there! <9>

12 miles, or stated another way, 2 miles at 10 - 15 mph and she never got past this mark! <10>

Next steps:    1.    Install heat deflectors and test again, same road and as close to ambient temps as possible    
2.    Install fairing and test again, same road and as close to ambient temps as possible    
3.    Heat wrap headers on area closest to lower radiator    
4.    Dump the barn door fairing and put a bikini fairing on, lose the top box too!Very happy right about now!