Chocolate pipes

[echoyankee]

A question of metallurgy I guess:



I've been noticing that, as the exhaust ages on the Tigers, they change colors from the factory new shine to a coppery color and finally to a chocolate color.  



I'm learning, after some inspection of the undersides of my newly purchased tiger, that it's had something of an adventure before showing up in my lap.  The biggest sin is probably failure to wash the beast after a day in the mud.



Between the bash plate and the oil cooler, there's some pitting and orangey rust on the "cross pipe" which I've removed with some WD40 and some steel wool.  



HOWEVER, there is a SNOTLOAD of rust accumulating/accumulated on the bolts which fasten the exhaust pipes to the engine proper.  I've gone at them with a retired toothbrush and some WD40 after removing the oil cooler and pinning it carefully out of the way.  



I'm getting that it was too painful for the previous rider to get into that particular crevice behind the radiator and clean up after a day in the mud.  



I'm going to call the bash plate lost and fashion a new one.  



Just want to know.  Are you all finding your pipes changing colors with time?  in many of the pics I've seen, they've started to change colors starting at the engine and then, with time, this seems to move toward the silencer.  



Maybe I should take the thing and have it anodized somewhere?  Hmm.



What are your thoughts?



Best,



echoyankee

[Brock]

Yep...the system does change colour with time. Both of mine have taken on the most colourful of hues, on the first one, even the outer casing of the exhaust can had weird uneven markings on the outside corresponding with the positions of the baffles on the inside. They all do it to some degree, some more than others. Character innit?

At least it's not rust though...

[Guest]

Stainless steel will change colour with temperature. I think that is what we're seeing.

It's not helped by some cleaning agents. I've always used the Motorex 645 recomended by Triumph but my exhaust is changing colour as Brock describes.

A friend of mine used to just spray the 645 on and leave it dripping. His exhaust went very brown and crusty as if the fluid was baking on.



As for the exhaust clamp nuts/bolts. They are difficult to clean but I've found that mine are staying pretty clean, helped by a squirt of 645 every now and then.

[madmax]

:twisted: echoyankee are you by anychance a rep for wd40.you seem to like the stuff.whats the story behind your name??? :oops:

[echoyankee]

:twisted: echoyankee are you by anychance a rep for wd40.you seem to like the stuff.whats the story behind your name??? :oops:

Well, the police and aviation officials and the military have all developed this "phonetic" alphabet where each letter is represented by a word of two or three syllables.  This, to prevent mix ups between similar soundling letters.  (i.e. T, P, Z, E)



At any rate:



My first name starts with an E



My last name starts with a Y



In the phonetic alphabet E is "echo"



In the phonetic alphabet Y is "yankee"



My initials, in the phonetic alphabet are:  echo yankee.  



HOWEVER,



given that I use WD40 as a degreaser for my rims and also as a rust removal reagent, Maybe it should be WD40yankee!   :D



Naah, I just, this weekend in fact, discovered another pretty great degreaser of the "spray on and hose off"  variety called "PJ-1."  



Maybe it's best that the screen name stays the same.  



Best,



echoyankee

[Flying Tiger]

Yes mine have also turned a pleasant chocolate brown.  



I was curious though,... :-k   would it be safe to use a product called Blue away on the stainless steel pipes, or would it lead to micro scratches that would catch even more moisture and dirt and make the finish of the exhaust pipe worse?  



http://www.stainlessworks.net/Cleaner-Polish.htm (http://www.stainlessworks.net/Cleaner-Polish.htm)

[echoyankee]

... would it be safe to use a product...would it lead to micro scratches ...and make the finish of the exhaust pipe worse?

Hmmh.  I can't say I know the answer.  Mostly because I don't know this product very well.  Is it a grinding paste of some sort?  



I can say that an unseen, out of the way spot on some part of the exhaust system would probably be the more ideal way to test the product you have here.  



I'm still kicking around the idea of taking the entire system from header all the way back to just before the silencer to get anodized.  



I'm thinking that the centerstand will be the first priority  :( .



If you take this product for a test drive, do post and let me/us know how it goes!



Best,



echoyankee

[NortonCharlie]

I didn't realize you could anodize stainless steel.  TI thought that was only an aluminum thing.  I know there are phosphate coatings (treatments) used to make stainless more corrosion resistant.

[echoyankee]

I didn't realize you could anodize stainless steel.  TI thought that was only an aluminum thing....

Truthfully, I have only heard of aluminum being anodized.  :oops:



I do know that any metal that will conduct electricity can serve as a base for electroplating.  I think some sort of inert or more durable plating atop the existing stainless would be more resistant to road gak (to include salts and corrosives that leap up from the asphalt) and very possibly more cosmetically appealing.  



Best,



echoyankee

[NortonCharlie]

Anodizing aluminum actually changes the surface of the aluminum by introducing something else into the surface structure of the material.  It actually increases the volume of material.  I did some aluminum parts that were hard anodized .010 in. deep.  The material builds up an equal amount as the depth so I had to remove an extra .005/side on all the surfaces to get the correct finish sizes.



I did some stainless parts (303 Stainless) and to meet a MIL corrosion spec it had a black phosphate surface treatment, which also changes the material composition and is not really a plating which adds a material to the surface.

[Guest]

Anodising is actually a corrosion of the surface. Yes, they can introduce a colour into the corrosive process.

Bare stainless steel is always going to be better than any coating at resisting tarnishing. If it discolours then simply polish it back to bare metal to resore the shine. If you want to restore the original colour and shine, I would use chrome polish or "T" cut. Both are a very fine abrasive.