I thought there was an old school way to get this done. Does anyone know how. If no, Any commercial product that works. Thanks Denny
A friends Harley pipes always go blue. He got sick of polishing to remove the 'blue' so he just now leaves them 'As is'.
HD lore says to coat the inside of head pipes with a heat-resistant paint before mounting them ... it seems to work for a time. Another HD-related "cure" was to richen up the fuel mix since a lean mix on a v-twin seems to blue right away. YMMV ... and the blue just shows that you drive/ride it.
The difficulty with "bluing" is why later model Harleys have chrome overlay tinware that stands off from the actual pipes. Ray
"Blue Job" is the product that Most bike shops sell. But, depending on your tuning, chrome or stainless pipes will turn gold or blue again. Dyna-kote helps a little and I use that on vintage cycles. Wrap around Heat shields, Jet Hot or a performance coating is the only true cure.
Barryvanhook Bluing is caused from the mixture being to rich and the fuel burning off inside the header not from being to lean. Richening up the mixture will only cause worst bluing. try to go with a smaller jet or close the idle mixture screw down 1/2 turn this will help. Rob
I got so tired of trying to find a cure that I Googled it and this is what I found. The chrome coating is thin. Like a sigle coat of paint thin. The bluing is the chrome burnt. That being the case, it would be like having an engine fire and trying to buff the hood paint afterwards. I had an old set of chrome headers and had to run them in a pinch. I took some 1500 wet/dry and it removed the bluing, but all it was actually doing was removing the chrome to reveal the shiney metal underneath. It actually didn't look half bad. Or was that half-assed? Still not convinced, I called a chromer advertised in Hot Rod magazine. His response? NOTHING will bring the chrome back. You can slow it down a little, but in the end, it's never going to be like new. Also... if there WAS a cure, don't you think Harley would be making a killing selling it?
Here's an old trick that won't get rid of the blue but may prevent it in the beginning. Before you fire the machine for the first time whether it be bike or roadster header coat the inside with a liberal amount of heavy grease. It will smoke to beat h... for awhile but the theory is that the remaining carbon deposit will act as an insulator during future heat cycles. We used to do it on Triumphs in the 60s' and later on hot rods and it seemed to work.
Not so sure I can agree with this. Maybe it's true...but is counter to my experience with aircraft. Monitoring the exhaust gas temperature (EGT), the EGT rises when the mixture is leaned, up to the point where it peaks, then further leaning lowers the EGT.....and also power output. Conversely, if leaning to peak EGT, then richening, the EGT lowers and power doesn't fall off. Typically, mixture is set at 50*f rich of peak EGT. Some operating hand books permit lean of peak operation, but that is usually on fuel injected aircraft, not carbed. My conclusion........the higher EGT (lean mixture) will blue the exhaust faster than a lower EGT. Ray
Blue Job is the best I have seen for removeing it , but it has limited effectiveness. If you coat the inside of the pipes with heat paint or ceramic coating, that is your best shot. Tuning the engine for A/F ratio around 13.5 to 13.8 helps on the Harleys. I have not seen anything that is 100% effective.
I have heard of the grease trick before but have never tried it personally, if they do not have to be chrome ceramic coating is the way to go.
Ive seen a guy do this on his bucket,,it seems to work , no blue on his new sanderson headers ,,, Kev
been ridin scooters for 40 yrs. all the bikes ive had have had chrome pipes and ive never found anything that will prevent or take off the bluing.ive slowed it down some by using a pipe coating. i dont remember the name right off hand but you plug one end of the pipe up and pour this stuff in the other end.turn the pipes allround until the inside is completely coated and let them sit for a day or two. its some kind of ceramic coating.after you install your pipes best to wipe them down to get the oil from your skin off also, before you fire it up for the first time. the oil from your skin can burn into them and leave spots.actually seen it done.but the best way is to keep the engine tuned.semi-chrome is good to a certain extent but wont take it all off.and a v8 header has alot of pipes.lol so thats alot of polishin!! it took me almost 7 hrs one evning to get some chrome headers to look shinmey again and them damn things still were kinda blue when i got done.but on my scooter ive spent almost half that time on the pipes and there arent but 2.but they did lok good!! me likes shiney!!!!
I wiped my new drag pipes for my panhead down with a nice clean soft rag. Then I used a pair of exam gloves and coated the pipes with baby powder liberally. Fired it up and got em hot. Let it cool down and wiped them clean. Lippy
Another old trick is to wrap copper wire around the pipe for the first inch or 2 next to the head. This absorbs the heat and helps it disperse before it burns the pipe.
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