Stupid is as stupid does...

[ccdhowell]

So I bought this brand new DG pipe for my 85 Tecate. So proud was I to have one of these pipes brand new I installed it and ran it for several rides. I took little notice that the end going into the cylinder was nolonger shiny steel but shiny black. Then I was looking through pics of the progress of my recent rebuild and noticed that the pipe was silver. Well it is no longer silver as it sat on my trike 2 days ago. Apparently the pipe had a coating of some kind on it and the coating baked to my pipe, the lower heat areas were brown and the high heat areas next to the cylinder and extending for about a foot were black.

I took the pipe off and tried for 2 hours to remove this baked on crud without scratching the pipe underneeth. Finally it upon the idea to heat the pipe with a propaine torch a bit and use a water soaked pad of #1 steel wool to scrub the brown and black mess off. It works but is ver time consuming. It isn't done yet...very slow going and I've scorched my right hand with the heat of the pipe while scrubbing with steel wool.

Sorry for the long post, but I need help. There's a nice shiny silver pipe under all that baked on brown and black crud, can someone suggest a better way for me to get to it?

Chris

[Bryan Raffa]

sounds like you got a bad pipe/exhaust seal... get it sealed up so it dont drip on it and bake on

[BigGreenMachine]

Did you install the copper crush gasket and o-rings on the pipe? Best bet is when you reinstall the pipe lay down a big bead of high temp gasket to seal it up. Let it dry then run it.

[ccdhowell]

No that's not it, there's no leak from the cyinder. I used the crush gasket and high temp silicone, no leak. This stuff is on the whole pipe, just black in the high heat area nearer the engine and brown on the expansion chamber and darker brown, almost black, where the pipe goes under the plasitic. Like the pipe was coated with a clear finish when it came from the factory. Something to make it shine or protect it until installation, don't know.

It will scrape off with a knife, I tired a small area where it runs under the plastic, but it scratched the pipe. i tried to disolve it with paint thinner and gasoline, I tired to clean it off with a soft wire wheel on a drill, all it did was polish it. I tired dry sandpaper and steel wool. Only thing that worked was to heat it up and scrub it with steel wool dipped in water. You bet the water steamed when it hit hot metal, I think the steam is what's helping get it off.

I might try to powerwash it off, but don't think that'd work either.

I'm stumped...may just paint it black, but I really wanted a shiny silver pipe. Chris

[BigGreenMachine]

It is a clear coat. I should have mentioned that just now. Scrubbing it off is the only option I know unless you have access to a bead blaster.

Why not send it to be ceramic coated?

[GoodKarma]

If I understand correctly, DG makes two types of pipes, clear coated metal and nickel coated (shiney "chrome look"). The clear coated will turn a tarnish/brown color and is not going to be a nice and shiney pipe. You'll have to get it coated somewhere if you wanted a shiney pipe!

[chris200x]

If it look like this it's pretty much the norm like goodkarma mentioned.

http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/416054/

I've read that your supposed to spray it down with wd-40 and wipe it with steel wool after each use. it turns it a pretty bronze color.

[ccdhowell]

Chris200x, yep that's it. Spray it down with wd-40 and wipe it with steel wool after each use, that's kinda tough, maybe I will get it powdercoated. Any ideas as how to get the brown/black coating off?

[chris200x]

I don't think there is really. All chrome headers I've ever seen do this. It's caused by the heat and really the only thing to do is to treat it with the wd-40 and steel wool. If you keep scraping at it it's gonna scratch and start to rust. But I suppose having it coated will solve the problem if you don't want that bronze look to your pipe. personally I think it looks kinda cool after it's treated a while.

Here's a good example of what I'm thinking: