Cleaning Exhaust System

[7464]

Does anyone have a recommendation on what to use to clean the rust, dirt, grime of the exhaust systemon 02RT. Mostly on the header & cat conv?

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Look for this stuff:

 

 

at a hardware or auto parts store. Takes hard crud off and dissolves tar/grease, but won't scratch good metal.

 

Works wonders on muffler (especially right at the tail hole where soot/grime gathers), less well on cat, and I haven't tried on headers; at this point they're so corroded/browned that I don't think there's actually a good shiny metal surface under there.

[Ken H.]

You can try a whole bunch of things, but in the end it will come back almost immediately. The pipes are stained stainless not chrome, and they are just not going to stay looking shiny. Unless of course you have them ceramic coated. Best advice, forget about the pipes (you can't see that much of them on an R11xxRT anyway), ride and enjoy the bike instead.

[Yeeha! Stephen]

I use steel wool and some stuff called Bar Keepers Friend. It's a scouring cleaner like comet.

[Big D]

Ride more/polish less.

 

D

[Tri750]

I used a red scotch brite pad and it removed all the brown muddy water looking crud. you can polish the headpipes with semichrome or any good metal polish and they look nice too. shiny blue and gold pipes look better than muddy looking pipes.

[Dave C.]

I tried some Flitz creme on the headers when I was doing my 36K service and it removed the browm stuff real eazy.

 

Dave

[Why_Fly]

S100 makes some good metal polish. I don't recall the offical name, but it comes in a tube. A little of it goes a long way. Cleaned up my dirty exhaust with ease. Use in a well ventilated area, however. The stuff stinks.

Can be found at your local HD dealer. I used to own a Harley so I still have all the requisite chrome polish.