But I got a coupla' questions.  

How close can the heat shield by the footpeg be to the header pipe?  Currently where everything ended up I can see about a 5mm gap at the closest point.  Obviously don't wanna melt my foot off.

How many turns out on the idle mixture screw before I risk losing it?  Currently 2.5 turns out and I'm getting NO BACKFIRES outta this harley muffler, stock jets, which surprised me.

How much leakage is acceptable? I tightened the header bolts back in enough so there's no leaking but I can feel a little air around the muffler/header joint.  I used one layer of tin can to shim, may go back and use a second.  I'm getting NO backfires and a little but not much loss of torque, sorta what I expected from this slightly freer flowing muffler.  Any reason to fix this?

Also, just to vent, I got everything back on and realized that I forgot to get off all the rust in the impossible to reach spots on my header pipe.  

Thanks for the help!
Josh

PS - for anyone considering this: sound is about the same volume but deeper and doesn't sound as much like little puffs - exactly what I was looking for.

I guess she wasn't Harly a snob  
I think the LS650's are nice looking bikes stock, especially the cool looking big single  

amen Zar