One blue exhaust manifold

[briang123]

I have about 1500 miles on this bike, and as you can see in the photo, the right manifold is getting very blue. Its actually darker then what the photo shows. Its getting real dark right at the flange, and on the pipe bend. The left pipe is barely colored at all. I've not seen this on my other bikes before.
The web is one big heap of conflicting, and mis-information. So I thought Id ask people who I know have the same bike as me, do others observe this same effect? Im going in to get it checked, but I'm curious if any of you see this on yours?

Thanks for any info
Brian

 

[RidingUpandDown]

hey Bri, just ran out to the garage to check mine and compare for you; it's pouring out so i'm not out on it :'(

both mine are just equally tarnished, not blue. I have 12,000 miles on and one day was @ a hard 800 mi - no stops but for gas so it never cooled down.

My guess is a mouse crawled up there and died. ::004::

will have to let the experts chime in on the blue. :-\

Cheers, d ::001::

 

[Rustykfd]

Mine looks just like yours.....4300 miles.

 

[briang123]

Thanks for the input guys. I had a hunch this was an abnormal condition. Heh, the mouse was a new one. That would explain the funk in my garage!
Got some long road trips coming up, think I'll get this looked at beforehand.

 

[markjenn]

Everything has its limits, but fairly significant variations in header discoloration are common and normal, especially with a asymmetric system like this. Mine looks about like yours. You may be able to browbeat your dealer into doing an early throttle-body sync if this really concerns you, but I doubt you have anything to worry about.

- Mark

 

[carrot]

mine looks same as yours 12000 miles no problems

 

[briang123]

Hmm, seems to be kind of a random thing from bike to bike. I've just never noticed it on previous bikes, both would slowly turn color, but not one.
What the hell, the service guy doesnt seem concerned either.... ::021::
Road trip!

 

[Firefight911]

Here's my thoughts on it;

It is nothing to worry about and completely normal.

It is most likely caused as a result of body oils or the like being on the pipe when cold. After starting they "burn" on leaving the color they have. See that nice fingerprint on the other one?

If you really wanted to you could go through the elbow grease of cleaning them back to original, make absolutely sure they are clean from oils, etc. and then start again. But, anytime some oil or the like gets on there at any time the same thing will occur again.


---
I am here: http://tapatalk.com/map.php?qvjplb
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[coastie]

Mine have done same. Never worried about it as I thought it was just oils from people's hands. Let us know what you find out.

 

[Yamaguy55]

Go to the MC shop and get some Blue-away, or whatever it is called. Clean the blue off of both headers. If after this, one darkens much more than the other, it is running leaner on that side, and have your dealer sync the TBs, etc. other than staining from external sources, they should both be very similar in color. By removing the current staining/dis coloring, you can start fresh and see if it external or engine related. Mine are somewhat blue, but fairly evenly matched. I do not ride in the rain, that makes a big difference.
My FZ had all four head pipes blue for about a foot or more from the head, ran like a champ.

 

[limey]

I polish my pipes with MUD, GRAVEL, SAND, ROAD SALT, Don’t worry about the blue.

 

[briang123]

I have a very scientific method of washing bikes. I hose it down, slop soapy water on it, let it soak for the length of time it takes me to drink one beer, then rinse. Most the bugs come off. Im not a big worrier, but its a new bike, got a few thousand miles of road trips coming up here soon. Trying to head off any potential problems.
Firefight made a great observation....the fingerprint on the other pipe. I hadnt made the connection before that oils/contaminants would discolor the pipe. Doh.
Ill de-blue, and see what develops.
Other then them blues, this is one sweet ride. We're going to cover a lot of the western U.S during the next couple years together. Shes gonna get rode.

 

[GrahamD]

The people who designed the YAMAHA S10 obviously thought of a few things for the off road intrepid adventurer in mind..

Radiator out of the way
Able to cop a pounding off road.
Double sided swing arm.
Spokes
Big down low torque for that gnarly terrain.

Built in cigarette / camp fire lighter. >

Never worry about leaving the matches behind again.

Easily accessible to get those camp fires started on a cold night....

:lol3


Just let it warm up until the siren starts and rev it to 4K for 1 minute.

I think my motor is nicely balanced at low throttle settings at least ;D

Cheers
Graham

 

[limey]

Thats cool ::008:: ::008::

 

[MotorcopBBQ]

:lol3


::001::
NIce Graham

 

[briang123]

Now THAT is cool (or hot). So the warning about not parking in tall grass?!?!?!?

 

[528Hz]

holee chit...thot is mad lean glow wtf ::017::
mine turned blue only where I left my fingar prints.

 

[markjenn]

holee chit...thot is mad lean glow wtf ::017::

Totally normal. Most bikes will glow their headers while idling in a dark garage, especially if you rev them a bit.

- Mark

 

[528Hz]

Totally normal. Most bikes will glow their headers while idling in a dark garage, especially if you rev them a bit.

- Mark

No offense Mark and I have no intention to start an argument about this, but I disagree with the statement that this is normal. It may be under some conditions, possibly revving it very hard in a closed off space, but the glow should not remain constant. I pay close attention to that particular issue every day since a few years back the installer forgot to program power commander on my 1800 vtx after he installed pipes on it and I ran with a lean bike for a some time. And how I came to realize that is that first I noticed performance just was not there, bike felt warmer under the seat, the shield turning yellow eventually, found the paint around the side cover wrinkled and finally I noticed one night that the headers were glowing although not as bright as in that pic, but I specifically looked for that since I started to research the issue, turning the shield a bit to see the pipe on the day when I finally decided that something was wrong. I don't have to tell you what my spark plugs looked like Utah salt mine. I pulled commander out and sure enough it was slate clean. As soon as I loaded the correct tune, the glow stopped, heat went away and the performance improved. I replaced spark plugs and flushed the cooling system as well. So for about 6 months I ran a lean bike. Since that time I have never seen headers glow and sometimes, I purposely check for that, it does look hella cool in the dark though. Just my experience.

As a precaution, I would keep tabs on them spark plugs, they will show if the bike is too lean and runs hotter then it should, especially if there were any aftermarket parts involved, pipes, tuners, etc.

 

[GrahamD]

Before everyone gets their knickers in a twist

The bike was revved to 4K as stated, that is about where emissions tests are done, so there is usually a bit of lean / timing trickery going on there, My Strom 1000 did the same thing, and there is a bit of an exposure thing with the camera going on as well. ::024::

Just running a small pedestal fan across the headers makes a BIG difference to that colour.

So Mark is right, and 528 is right as well. It just depends on how red and under what conditions.

I suggest everyone give it a try at least once. Makes you appreciate why headers turn blue.