Greetings again everyone - thanks to some help from my father (my mechanical advisor, repairman, friend, dad, etc.), I just got the muffler on my 1998 LS650 replaced (thanks also to purchase of a used muffler from another member here, who sold me the newer parts).
We noticed a difference between the mufflers after we completed the swap out and it leads me to ask the question here. What is the part that is in the end of the old muffler that basically covered the smaller holes surrounding the larger hole coming out of the end of the muffler? On the replacement muffler, I can see where screw holes are, but on that muffler there are 6 holes around the center hole and no additional cover over those 6 holes.
On the original muffler there was another metal cover that seemed to cover those 6 holes and/or fill a couple of those holes while covering the rest.
Hopefully I'm explaining this welll. The other question is should I really even care about this piece at all? Will not having it impact performance? Since I replaced the muffler that was strapped with fiberglass ribbon around it and have now opened back up all of the original holes that should be there, I expect it will perhaps be louder, but that the heat should dissipate better than it had been with the muffler wrapped.
Advice definitely appreciated