250-500cc knowing when to repack silencer?

Just like title says. I have the FMF powercore usfs approved arrestor and its got about 14 months solid use. Today it was making a "crackling" noise after I shut bike off. I was like..."what the eff is that" -lol. Other than a little normal spoog that was it. Is it time or how would I know?

When the "Braaaaapppp" hurts your ears with your helmet on.

If I remove the silencer while working on the bike and it feels like it weighs 10 lbs. then I know it's oil saturated and I repack it. That hasn't been a problem since I got a Lectron carb so I'm going to defer to Mike-AK and do it when the Brraaapppp!! hurts my ears.

i go by my hr meter or every 6 months basically.

I've been going with 40-50 hours but I'm running an FMF Q Stealth (KTM 250 XC) with no spooge. My CR only has 7 hours on it but I haven't really fine tuned the jetting because of the constant weather changes lately making it almost pointless for a play bike---moderate spooge so I'll just pull it apart at 20 hours to peek at it.

I ran the same packing in a White Brothers 4T silencer for two years once and suspect that, after the packing wore out, the excess heat caused the metal fatigue and cracking of the internal ring.