What are the Headers Made From

[Rogerl]

I have a 2013 BMW R1200R. The bike has almost 50,000 miles on it. Back in 2018 I had to replace an exhaust valve and while I had the head off waiting for parts I decided to polish up the  exhaust pipes except for the muffler.. I assumed the exhaust system was stainless steel because it was that ugly brown color. I used Scotch Brite pads and Lava soap to clean off the grime and the brown color. I then polished everything to make it shine. The shine did not last long before it went back to the brown color.

Fast forward to today and the exhaust pipes look terrible. I have pits that look like they are rusting. I assumed the entire system was stainless steel. Was there just a coating on the pipes that I removed in my cleaning? What is the exhaust system made of? I was thinking of having them ceramic coated over last winter but did not do it. Any information would be great.

 

Thanks

Roger L

[Scott9999]

Your problem is that you actually ride your Beemer.  Keep it in the garage and unridden, and it'll stay nice and shinny.  (Don't ask me how I know that.   🙄😕)

 

At this point, I'd agree with powder coating them with - something.   Somewhere in the back of my degrading memory bank, I recall something negative about the performance impact, when coating and exhaust header.  However, you're only attaching a coating to the outside, so I can't see why that would matter in terms of the motorcycle's performance.  Maybe they'll heat up more, I dunno.

 

Will be watching this thread for "the answer", 'cause someone here always has it. 

[Hosstage]

https://www.jet-hot.com/

 

Or you could paint them with some high temp spray paint. Many choices in color.

 

Stove Bright Paint

[dirtrider]

13 hours ago, Rogerl said:

I have a 2013 BMW R1200R. The bike has almost 50,000 miles on it. Back in 2018 I had to replace an exhaust valve and while I had the head off waiting for parts I decided to polish up the  exhaust pipes except for the muffler.. I assumed the exhaust system was stainless steel because it was that ugly brown color. I used Scotch Brite pads and Lava soap to clean off the grime and the brown color. I then polished everything to make it shine. The shine did not last long before it went back to the brown color.

Fast forward to today and the exhaust pipes look terrible. I have pits that look like they are rusting. I assumed the entire system was stainless steel. Was there just a coating on the pipes that I removed in my cleaning? What is the exhaust system made of? I was thinking of having them ceramic coated over last winter but did not do it. Any information would be great.

 

Thanks

Roger L

 

 

 

Morning Rogerl

 

The front headers are made from some sort of 400 stainless steel, some are just the bare stainless & others come with chrome plating on the 400 stainless steel base. (look in your motorcycle build or order sheet for the stainless pipe option)

 

Your headers look pretty bad for just being polished a short time ago but about one run down a calcium chlorided road can make a mess of the headers unless they are cleaned of the calcium chloride before they see dampness. 

 

One thing I never do with bare stainless header bikes is to wash them then park the motorcycle, I usually run the engine  to heat the headers &  thoroughly dry them before parking (especially if using water from a home water softening system). I do the same with the brakes to dry the brake pads & brake rotors after washing the motorcycle.  Just a couple of high speed runs with hard stops down my 400' driveway will usually dry them nicely. 

 

After your headers were cleaned & polished that removed the base passivation so they were kind of unprotected until the stainless self passivated again. (400 stainless corrodes up fairly quickly once the natural passivation is removed).

 

You can have those headers coated by a reputable header coating company but pick a good (well respected one) as the good companies not only coat the darn things but will kill the inherent corrosion in the metal pores before applying the coating so the corrosion doesn't pop back through the coating.     

[Rogerl]

Thanks for all of the information. I contacted Jet Hot and they gave me a quote of $255.00 to ceramic coat the headers. I would need to pay the shipping to Oklahoma. Yes, I have rode the bike in the early spring and late fall when there has been salt and possibly calcium chloride on the roads. I would give the bike a good bath in the fall before it is put away. We use a passivating paste at work to get rust off stainless steel. We use 300 series stainless steel for our water troughs. If we get steel ships in the water trough and then put water in the trough the chips will rust and stain the stainless steel. We clean the stains with the passivating paste. Will the passivating paste work on my headers where they look pitted? The paste we have at work is a pretty strong acid. I think I used steel wool when i cleaned the headers. Could I have embedded the carbon steel into the stainless steel and it is showing the "rust"

 

Thaks

 Roger L  

[lkraus]

I think even if you had them ceramic coated, you would still want to first polish them smooth.  I'm not familiar with passivating paste, but Google tells me it is often a strong mix of nitric and hydrofluoric acids. Google also turned up a bunch of articles saying it is too dangerous to use.

 

Header corrosion like yours seems to be pretty common in Britain, where motorcycles seem to get more year-round use on frequently salted roads. Liquid toilet bowl cleaners with 10-20% hydrochloric acid are often recommended to clean them up without a lot of effort. You still need to wear eye and skin protection, but the toilet cleaners are a good deal safer to use.  I used bowl cleaner once, but my header was not very dirty to start with, so it was not much of a test.

 

I've accepted that my headers are going to be brown, but I still keep them clean and shiny(ish). Surface dirt and grit is washed off with soapy water and minimal pressure to prevent scratches, stuck-on tar is dissolved with diesel fuel or paint thinner, soapy water again cleans up the solvent residue. Metal polish once a year or so cleans up small scratches. I've cleaned off all the brown a couple times with metal polish and barrels of elbow grease, but it's really a waste of time. 

[dirtrider]

12 hours ago, Rogerl said:

Thanks for all of the information. I contacted Jet Hot and they gave me a quote of $255.00 to ceramic coat the headers. I would need to pay the shipping to Oklahoma. Yes, I have rode the bike in the early spring and late fall when there has been salt and possibly calcium chloride on the roads. I would give the bike a good bath in the fall before it is put away. We use a passivating paste at work to get rust off stainless steel. We use 300 series stainless steel for our water troughs. If we get steel ships in the water trough and then put water in the trough the chips will rust and stain the stainless steel. We clean the stains with the passivating paste. Will the passivating paste work on my headers where they look pitted? The paste we have at work is a pretty strong acid. I think I used steel wool when i cleaned the headers. Could I have embedded the carbon steel into the stainless steel and it is showing the "rust"

 

Morning Roger

 

NEVER use steel wool or steel anything to clean stainless steel as that leaves little steel particles on/in the stainless surface that starts to rust almost instantly. 

 

You could try that  passivating paste on a hidden spot on your exhaust system just to see if it works but usually you want to clean & polish before passivating. 

 

There is typically a difference between  the nickel content of that 300 stainless you use at work & the 400 stainless used on the front pipes on your BMW. The rear muffler on your BMW is some sort of 300 stainless & as you can see that is much better at controlling discoloration, corrosion, & pitting.  

 

I use a product called wizzard's metal polish (comes in a can that looks like an old band-aid can). The can contains a fibrous cotton that is pink & has a stainless cleaning compound impregned in it.   This works pretty good on light BMW header browning or light corrosion but it is a lot of work (& expensive) to get it to remove heavy corrosion. 

 

I have tried to make my own front pipe/header cleaner using oxalic acid or even trying 10% nitric acid, but so far it hasn't worked as good as whatever is in that Wizzard's metal polish. 

 

I have even tried other Wizzard's metal polish (liquid in plastic bottles) but even that didn't work very good for cleaning the front pipes as the pink impregnated cotton in the Wizzard's  band-aid can. 

 

Your pipes look too far gone to use the band-aid can Wizzard's without a LOT of tedious work & expense.

 

I sure wish I could figure out what chemicals are in that Wizzard's as that does work pretty good on light corrosion & discoloration as I would like to make my own cleaner (I thought it was oxalic acid) but so far I have not succeeded in duplicating anything that works nearly as good. 

 

I will caution: In making your own stainless steel cleaner using various acids to be VERY CAREFUL as a lot of chemicals that will, or can, clean stainless steel can cause unrepairable harm to surrounding alloys or other metal coatings like on bolts, nuts, fittings.