My exhaust headers are discoloured and my silencer is like new, what would be the best method as I'd like to try and clean them. Consequently would a new set be available ?
Cheers
Mike

Could be that you find some useful here.

If they are only discoloured and not caked with baked on crud then do nothing because if you do shine them up they will be back to the same old discoloured in very short order.
I did mine and within 2 weeks of daily riding I may as well have left them alone.

RicK G wrote:If they are only discoloured and not caked with baked on crud then do nothing because if you do shine them up they will be back to the same old discoloured in very short order.
I did mine and within 2 weeks of daily riding I may as well have left them alone.

I second that.

I third it.

Once, when I had nothing to do on a sunny arvo, I lay on the ground under my RS and with a long strip of very light grit wet/dry sandpaper I'd wrapped in an arc round the pipes, I gently sanded them all back and forth, bringing out a brilliant lustre I'd never seen since the showroom sparkle dazzled my eyes.

Three weeks later they were that nice, brass-copper colour all over again.

I fourth it............Im a bit OCD about stainless headers but as the other guys have said, 2 weeks after a chrome like polish mine went back to a brassy/coppery finish. Strangely the ones on my Triumph Speed Triple don't, they stay shiny.

Fentible wrote:I fourth it............Im a bit OCD about stainless headers but as the other guys have said, 2 weeks after a chrome like polish mine went back to a brassy/coppery finish. Strangely the ones on my Triumph Speed Triple don't, they stay shiny.

I heard that befive.

After reading all this I've decided to paint mine black!

They would stay black about as long as the others stays shiny.
........unless you use a ceramic coating.

I was thinking of using POR15 heat proof paint, although I haven't bought anything yet.
No good then?

I might bight the bullet and get mine ceramic coated....

Might go the 'Britten Indigo' hahaha 




Might get the engine cases done while Im at it.

Jimish wrote:I was thinking of using POR15 heat proof paint, although I haven't bought anything yet.
No good then?

If you look at the following link about stainless steel, the typical dark straw/brown colour of the exhaust headers suggests that the headers are reaching 350 - 390 Deg C in normal use. As it says, the depth of colouration and the rate of colouration (oxidation) depends on the chromium content of the stainless steel used - I guess the K exhaust has a lower chromium content than the Triumph Speed triple. 

http://www.bssa.org.uk/topics.php?article=140

So simply cleaning the header pipes, will only remove the oxide layer, which in time will reform again. i.e. a waste of time and effort, unless you do it every couple weeks...if you've got that much time on your hands...you just ain't riding enough!!

I haven't any experience of POR15 heat proof paint, but the manufacturing data suggests that it is good up to 650 Deg C, so, providing the surface is prepared, throughly cleaned and the paint applied properly, it should in theory work on the header pipes. 

The pipes are in a horribly exposed position though and suffers all the salt, grit, mud, muck and water that the road can throw at them - so how long the paint coating will stay intact, is anybodies guess. Once it chips, or cracks it will probably look worse than the bare pipes and getting rid of it again could be a nightmare of a job! 

Ceramic coating is possibly the best bet, if you are desperate to do something about them.

Or hide them under a belly pan.

Paul.

sidecar paul wrote:Or hide them under a belly pan.

Paul.

 or behind a side car?

Paul.

sidecar paul wrote:Or hide them under a belly pan.

Paul.

That was my option.