Headers

Why are my chrome headers turning a nice golden color where they connect
to the engine for about 8 inches? 1996 Suzuki 1400.

 

Because they get hot.

Are they the originals or aftermarket ones? After 15 years, could be
either.

The Japanese tend to make their chrome header pipes double-skinned to
prevent them discolouring (blue or yellow) with heat. Pattern
manufacturers are not usually so painstaking. Single wall tubing
discolours.

If they're the originals, then the mixture is wrong and the engine is
running seriously hot.

Krusty will be along in a minute to tell you what they used on 1970s
Suzukis.

 

High temperature oxidization.

Even stainless steel headers will turn color, they become brown.

 

Bullshit.

 

I assume they are original since it was fairly new when I got it. Had it
a long time now. You know how you lose respect for things after you've
had them a while. Not so gentle any more. The manual says it will go 40
in first, 67 in second and 93 in third. I think I tried it a couple
times in the last two years when pissed off. Mighta got hot.

 

It's *normal* for an exhaust header to reach temperatures of up to
1400 degrees F.

Read the explanation of why the chrome turns colors at the bottom of
the page.

http://www.webbikeworld.com/r3/blue-job/blue-job-chrome-polish.htm

 

I guess I have the 'golds'.

 

Some mud splattered on the front exhaust pipe of my SV650S and that
prevented oxygen from getting to the hot metal evenly.

So the exhaust pipe is kind of mottled gold and purplish brown.

I'm not laying awake nights worrying about it.

 

No, accuracy. Weak mixture means extra heat. Duh.

 

Stainless goes yellow, chrome can go blue, I've seen yellowish chrome
headers. It's a matter of heat, which is why, as I said earlier, the
Japanese double-skin their chromed headers (which Krusty evidently
doesn't know).

My old BMW airheads always blued their headers because BMW didn't
double-skin them, for lightness.

No idea whether the OP's bike has chrome, stainless, titanium or bronze
headers, but unless there's excessive discolouration, it really isn't
anything to worry about, as you say.

 

*Yes*. Now guess why the Japanese double-skin them, on chromed systems.
Krusty gets it wrong again.

Snake oil. And it didn't work on their BMW headers. Try and figure out
why not.

 

Not really a problem. On double-skinned chromed headers, as I said
earlier, discolouration - serious blueing - can be a sign of something
getting a bit too bloody hot.

As for the OP - just realised I've posted something misleading. Golden
headers, unlikely to be a prob. Blue can be yer enemy.

 

God knows. No idea, really. I'd imagine they'd keep to chrome on
cruisers and the like, because the magpies like it, but your guess is as
good as mine.

Agreed. Sometimes it goes wrong. Not so long ago, I saw a Honda CB400
Four, one of whose downpipes had been replaced with a pattern
(single-skinned) item, and it was the only blue header of the set. Just
didn't look right.

Gilded? ;-)

I've seen it done, at French endurance races, during the interminable
killswitch-backfire battles. Never had the mechanical lack of sympathy
to do it myself ;-)

 

Don't confuse Neil Murray with the facts. He wants to believe the old
bikers' tales about lean mixtures or rich mixtures that result in fuel
burning in the exhaust header.

 

Wrong *again*!

Utterly amazing, isn't it? You can't get *anything* right. Look up the
difference between a weak mixture making an engine run hot, and fuel
burning in exhausts.

Coming from the man who claims to receive some 400 emails a year,
praising and thanking him for his advice.....

 

Let's put it another way so you can understand it.

*Cosmetic changes in surface treatment appearance do not necessarily
equate with tuning problems of stock engines*.

If you can twist *that* statement some other way, then *sit on it and
spin* until you get your grins.

You lying asshole, I never quantified the amount of grateful responses
I get from newbies.

 

"An engine running un-naturally hot will discolour chrome"

There!

See above.

Here we go again.

Yes, you did.

You said you get emails *every day*. There are 365 days in a year.
That's 365 emails a year, so some 400, plus a very few to allow for more
than one grateful newbie.

Would you like me to copy and paste your original posting, so you can
check the maths?

Here you go:

"I get appreciative thank you notes by email every day from riders that
I've helped with their problems." Posting made 5 April.

Would you like to check it on Google Groups?

 

*Sit on it and spin* until you get your grins.

 

I'll take that as the standard Krusty acknowledgement that you've been
made to look a liar and a fool *again*.

Bwaaahahahahahaha! Every time, every time....

 

The only "un-naturally hot" thing around here is *your asshole*.

Cool it off with Preparation H...