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Stains in exhaust headers

Matias

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
68
Location
Lisboa, Portugal
Hello all,

After putting 1.000 km on my new Griso 1100 I noticed that some uggly stains started to appear on my beautiful exhaust headers :( ...
Is this a common situation? Any hints on how to remove these stains and prevent them to appear again?

Thanks all...

Matias
 
Quite normal on just about all recent Guzzis.
I use a product called Optiglanz to clean off.
Smells of almonds but doesn't do your skin a lot of good so use rubbery gloves.
Gordon
 
Thanks for the feed-back guys!

Two related questions:
- Gordon, do you know what kind of chemical this 'Optiglanz' is(or for what purpose it is produced...)? I wonder if I will be able to find it here in Europe... With chemicals I'm allways affraid of what will happen when they remain on the metal surface and get 'toasted'....
- jiltedjohn, when you use the fine steel wool do you notice any marks comparing the surface with the original polished finishing?

Thanks again....
Matias
 
The surface of the header is comparatively rough and stains easily. Any of the solutions (steel wool, Optiglanz, Simichrome, etc) polish the header until it is smooth and the stain comes off when you smooth up the surface. Any mild abrasive is suitable.
 
To add to above, polishing by hand or professionally will slow the discoloration process, but the quality of the stainless used means a chronic problem unfortunately.
 
I am as silly about shining up my vehicles as the next OC/AR guy, but must admit that I gave up long ago on blotchy pipes. They no longer bother me, and, in fact -- tho I know I am probably rationalizing my laziness :lol: -- add visual character.

Bill
 
Gordon said:
Quite normal on just about all recent Guzzis.
I use a product called Optiglanz to clean off.
Smells of almonds but doesn't do your skin a lot of good so use rubbery gloves.
Gordon

available from Hien Gericke in europe

This proves stainless does rust!!!! :lol:
 
Matias said:
Thanks for the feed-back guys!

Two related questions:
- Gordon, do you know what kind of chemical this 'Optiglanz' is(or for what purpose it is produced...)? I wonder if I will be able to find it here in Europe... With chemicals I'm allways affraid of what will happen when they remain on the metal surface and get 'toasted'....

Thanks again....
Matias
Googling "Optiglanz" will reveal all sorts of useful information.
 
I stopped cleaning my headers about 15K miles ago and now enjoy the free time to do other, more important things. While my 'liver spots' are relatively small and confined to the leading edge of the header, the gold hue the pipes have taken on is quite attractive in my book and I certainly don't want to remove that. When I polished my headers, I used a triangular head electric sanding tool with a sock boot to work the Blue Magic polishing cream . . . seemed to work very well.
 
actually some Hein Gericke shops in the UK do remain open after the whole firm went into administration and Optiglanz can be bought there.
I have used it to almost recover some dreadfully discoloured headers on a Breva.
As to time to do .. well for mildly stained pipes just spray it on, leave a couple of minutes and wash off.
I tend to use the rough side of a kitchen washing-up sponge to remove less easy stains.
Gordon
 
I thought every motorcycle headers get some "stains" due the hot .

If the pipes turn out too "blue " there should be a mixture air/fuel problem , usually too lean .

Is this correct ?
 
ARVENO said:
I thought every motorcycle headers get some "stains" due the hot .

If the pipes turn out too "blue " there should be a mixture air/fuel problem , usually too lean .

Is this correct ?

Yup. However, If you let the bike sit and idle too long, they will get blue (no cooling). I took my bike in for some warranty work and they let the bike sit and run for a long time to help diagnose the problem. When I got it back, the pipes were considerably bluer than when I dropped the bike off. Oh, well.
 
I took my bike in for some warranty work and they let the bike sit and run for a long time to help diagnose the problem. When I got it back, the pipes were considerably bluer than when I dropped the bike off. Oh, well.

Oh! that sucks....! :(
 
For $299.00 send them to Jet Hot and you have your choice of 3 finishes. After almost 4 years mine still look good. I have a friend with the green SE and he's having them done in satin black. Should look great.
 
tmag907 said:
For $299.00 send them to Jet Hot and you have your choice of 3 finishes. After almost 4 years mine still look good. I have a friend with the green SE and he's having them done in satin black. Should look great.

I live in Phoenix, and used JetHot to do my ZX14 headers, they took 4 months and ovalized (so I had sand and bend things) the headers and the extreme coating flaked off inside the headers. They offer a warranty but the service sucked.. wish I had somewhere else to recommend. it also did not reduce the heat in any noticeable way on my ZX14. So at don't spend extra on the Extreme coating because they obviously don't know how to bond the thicker coating to headers.
 
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