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Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:04 am
by r3tro74
I have 41 of these white rubber insulators that were positioned at random locations in the cooling fins of the cylinder heads. I see thier location on the outside of the outer cylinders in pictures of restored bikes. Are they also located on the inner side of the outer cylinders and on the center cylinder? Is thier placement important i.e. if they are all on one side of a cylinder would it possiblly expand differently when heated. Are they just for noise suppresion and maybee should just leave off since I seem to be missing some of them anyway?
Thanks
Re: Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:04 pm
by bill in okc
My Ducati has these except they are black. Ducati use them for noise suppression so I guess Suzuki does it for the same reason. On the Ducati Monster forum owners sometimes find them on the floor - called 'Duck droppings' lol and the general consensus is to just leave them out - they are not too concerned with originality though so ymmv.
Re: Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 9:36 am
by oldjapanesebikes
+1 to Bill's comment - they were supposed to lower 'fin ring' noise.

Re: Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2012 3:27 pm
by r3tro74
Thanks for the replies.
I think they make the bike look more 70's era correct. I'm already running with the full chrome front fender and reused the big brake light/turn signals for the same reason.
I only had enough to do the outside of the outer cylinders. I was concerned that it may cause things to expand differently when heating up with the insulators placed this way. Probably nothing to be concerned over.
Re: Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2012 9:09 pm
by pearljam724
I'm sure the motor would cool slightly better without them. For this reason, I'd ditch them all. The sound of air passing through the fins, dominating the sound of a two-stroke ? Pfff. R3tro74, I'd appreciate if you'd share some pics of the 550. Cheers
Re: Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2012 11:06 pm
by tz375
It cools the way it is designed to with those in place, and they do help to reduce fin resonance which can be annoying.
Re: Purpose of the white insulators?
Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:06 pm
by r3tro74
pearljam724 wrote:I'. R3tro74, I'd appreciate if you'd share some pics of the 550. Cheers
My internet is down for a few days.(using my phone right now) there are some pics pn my build thread
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