Whose exhaust pipes changed color?

[dony]

 Hey all, I know pretty much all exhaust pipes will have some degree of color change but I was just wondering what pipes you have and how much they changed color? I have a Delkevic full system with stainless steel pipes and I noticed right away the header pipes started to turn a light gold but now after a couple weeks they have turned pretty much right to the can. They are dark gold about 2 thirds of the way and are slightly lighter near the can. I have a ejk so I don't think I am running too lean. As long as they get uniform and don't get blue I think they look kind of cool.

[level41]

Running too lean shouldn't be a problem, until you notice performance suffers from it, or when you go all out (top acceleration/speed).
 
It might be an issue with the type of steel used.
 
As long as you're not running rich, you're good.
A slight discoloration can be normal. The moment it turns to blue, you have a serious issue.

[Beemer]

I have a full Akrapovic carbon fiber system and the pipes changed color. Were you expecting pipes to not change in color???

[reboot]

Sounds normal color change to me.All pipes will change color. My Akra Ti pipes are a goldish color,darker up closer to the exhaust ports and I am running a bit rich(ECU reflash). My car also has a full SS system from the header down and my header is quite a gold color now too.
 
Completely normal

[KamelReds]

Running too lean shouldn't be a problem, until you notice performance suffers from it, or when you go all out (top acceleration/speed). 
It might be an issue with the type of steel used.
 
As long as you're not running rich, you're good.
A slight discoloration can be normal. The moment it turns to blue, you have a serious issue.

 
What's wrong with it turning blue? My stock pipes did that with nothing changed on the bike.

[duenan]

"Whose exhaust pipe changed colors?"
 
Everyones. Except those guys with ceramic coating or high temp black paint.

[level41]

Running too lean shouldn't be a problem, until you notice performance suffers from it, or when you go all out (top acceleration/speed). 
It might be an issue with the type of steel used.
 
As long as you're not running rich, you're good.
A slight discoloration can be normal. The moment it turns to blue, you have a serious issue.

What's wrong with it turning blue? My stock pipes did that with nothing changed on the bike.

Blue is an indication of either running seriously too rich, or revving that engine without load (in neutral, revving to the redline), which will heat up the pipes, and destroy the valves. 
Seasoned riders can immediately identify the idiots who are revving their engine like crazy. 
It's seriously damaging the engine and weakening the exhaust steel, and an easy indicator for who abused their bikes, when trying to buy second hand.
 
Normal chrome pipes should never turn blue.
Low quality bikes, that are not really well tuned (like some older model Triumphs, Royal Enfield), they used to have a small blue ring right at the engine exhaust port (on the pipes itself).
This was mostly due to running very rich on the choke, and their chrome pipes being of lower quality than Honda or Yamaha.

[bugeyes]

On my last bike I wanted to restore the pipes and get rid of the gold color. Tried various things and finally had succes with rim cleaner made for aluminum car rims, that first and then a polish with Autosol made away with the gold. Havn't tried it on this bike yet but my Acra TI pipes are turning gold so i might.

[Allan]

Uh oh. My Akrapovic Ti turned slightly blue near the headers.. Like not a crazy blue, just a slight blue. I'll maybe post a pic... I have an EJK and I don't rev the engine without load. I thought for titanium blue tinge was normal.. Now I'm worried...

[motomeek]

"Whose exhaust pipe changed colors?" 
Everyones. Except those guys with ceramic coating or high temp black paint.

LOL even that isn't true. The black ceramic coating on mine exhaust on my scrambler has changed to a lighter shade of black....er grey.  
They're all going to change. 
 
With stainless steel, you can polish the impurities out. It's a lot of work if you don't have an electric polisher... took me two hours to do it with some t-shirt rags and without taking the pipes off the bike. But a few hundred miles later, it went back to being the same color I just removed. 
 
 
[instagram url=https://www.instagram.com/p/BDhaKKQRdzB]
 
 

[level41]

Honda bikes with good chrome exhausts shouldn't decolor at all

[rowdy]

I also have Akra Ti and the headers are now a baked golden tone with some different hues, including a little blue at the welds. I love the way it looks and would not want to change it.
 

 

[ravenlord]

Running too lean shouldn't be a problem, until you notice performance suffers from it, or when you go all out (top acceleration/speed). 
It might be an issue with the type of steel used.
 
As long as you're not running rich, you're good.
A slight discoloration can be normal. The moment it turns to blue, you have a serious issue.

Running lean is horrible for an engine, means it is running far hotter than normal and you will cook something. Lost 2 valves in my Volvo because she was sucking in unmetered air and running too lean.
 
Rich is safe, rich keeps the exhaust gas temperatures down and an engine from knocking. I would way prefer to smell the unburnt fuel out the tailpipe than deal with constant knocking from running too lean.
 

[level41]

Running too lean shouldn't be a problem, until you notice performance suffers from it, or when you go all out (top acceleration/speed). 
It might be an issue with the type of steel used.
 
As long as you're not running rich, you're good.
A slight discoloration can be normal. The moment it turns to blue, you have a serious issue.

Running lean is horrible for an engine, means it is running far hotter than normal and you will cook something. Lost 2 valves in my Volvo because she was sucking in unmetered air and running too lean. 
Rich is safe, rich keeps the exhaust gas temperatures down and an engine from knocking. I would way prefer to smell the unburnt fuel out the tailpipe than deal with constant knocking from running too lean.

Actually, Running lean without power loss (at the ratio of 1:16 or richer) doesn't harm most engines at all, unless when accelerating fast, or doing top speed.
At low acceleration, the heat generated is only a fraction of the heat generated at high acceleration and normal A/F values.
But going seriously too lean could indeed damage your engine, but at that point you could clearly feel a power loss; it wouldn't be beneficial at all to run an engine in a range above ~1:16
 
 

[avanti]

Ravenlord is absolutely correct! Rich is safe but hurts performance; lean blows the h**l outta things... while making more power than you ever did before.
 
I've been Landspeed Racing long enough and blown enough engines to know what of I speak--with nearly three-decades of broken parts to prove it. But, as Mario Andretti said, "If ya never break anything you're not racing hard enough." :-)

[CarGuy7a]

Pipe color really doesn't say much on how the engine is running (lean or rich). There is too many variables that play into header coloration on a motorcycle. Yes Heat applied to steels or titanium will change the color. But you also have to factor in the cooling of the pipes while you are riding. You can have a lean running bike and have plenty of airflow over the pipes it may never turn blue, if it does you're likely running it so lean the bike runs like garbage and spits and sputters. You can have a bike with a good tune on it but alot of city driving with limited airflow on a 90 plus degree day and there you have it, blue pipes.
 
My Akra Titanium headers right now are a medium Gold. But I also live in an area where the road ways are fairly open and I get good airflow which is why I'm not seeing any bluing. Also blue pipes do not indicate that someone revved the sack off of it in Neutral until it turned colors (which can happen). There are other ways of changing a pipe's color such as flame coloring with a torch or electrolysis anodizing, which I may try on my headers. I think the headers look very nice with that dark blue/purplish coloration but I'm not going to rev the crap out of it in N to get it.
 
There's many videos on youtube of electrically anodizing Titanium and the variation of voltages yield different color results. I watched a video of a guy anodizing Titanium pocket knife handles at 96volts DC to get a lime green color out of it. Very interesting stuff.

[KamelReds]

Pipe color really doesn't say much on how the engine is running (lean or rich). There is too many variables that play into header coloration on a motorcycle. Yes Heat applied to steels or titanium will change the color. But you also have to factor in the cooling of the pipes while you are riding. You can have a lean running bike and have plenty of airflow over the pipes it may never turn blue, if it does you're likely running it so lean the bike runs like garbage and spits and sputters. You can have a bike with a good tune on it but alot of city driving with limited airflow on a 90 plus degree day and there you have it, blue pipes. 
My Akra Titanium headers right now are a medium Gold. But I also live in an area where the road ways are fairly open and I get good airflow which is why I'm not seeing any bluing. Also blue pipes do not indicate that someone revved the sack off of it in Neutral until it turned colors (which can happen). There are other ways of changing a pipe's color such as flame coloring with a torch or electrolysis anodizing, which I may try on my headers. I think the headers look very nice with that dark blue/purplish coloration but I'm not going to rev the crap out of it in N to get it.
 
There's many videos on youtube of electrically anodizing Titanium and the variation of voltages yield different color results. I watched a video of a guy anodizing Titanium pocket knife handles at 96volts DC to get a lime green color out of it. Very interesting stuff.

This is probably why my stock pipes blue'd so quickly and bold -- stuck in DFW traffic on 95+ day = extremely hot.