i cleaned and brushed my exhaust about 200kms ago. when i put it on the bike it looked sweet and i didnt expect it to last, but what has become of it is a little surprising. adding to this i had an intermittant part throttle miss develop earlier today.
the front header is about what i expected, tho i hoped i wouldnt get the brown parch bits but thats no biggie. the rear header has gone beyond blue to a white. and these photos are taken of a cold bike. i showed gowanlochs yesterday and they thought it was fine, wouldnt be a problem. i told them it was running great as at the time it was.
is it obviously too lean on the rear cylinder or is this, as someone mentioned at a bar the other day, something that happens when you brush or polish stainess pipes?
Cheers Clint.
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pulled the plugs in search of the cause of my miss. both were identicle. medium to light grey top 2/3 of the prong part turning to black on the base 1/3. electrode quite clean and the top of ceremic white, base of ceremic reasonably black. so to me thats normal for this bike and says its a little rich which is fine.
i did however notice that the threads on the horizontal plug were fuel wet in the area that is in the head. the last few threads that go into the combustion chamber were dry. im guessing the plug was a little loose and on compression stroke may have been blowing a bit of fuel out!?!? maybe? im at work so havent test riden it since then.
the reason this is a kinda urgent thread is im about to head off on a 2000km round trip tomorrow to see family for Christmas!
the bike has run great for ages and now the day before i leave it throws a little doubt at me... :( i rang around and no one had any heat range 8 plugs in stock for me to try! so i ordered some overnight to pick up on my way out of town to carry incase.
any tips?
just off the cuff, the front pipe gets more cooling than the rear...
Pipe colour? Nothing to be concerned about IMO. So... if you went to Gowanlochs, I'm guessing you're in Sydney.... which direction is your 2000kms taking you?
wagga (parents), corowa (oma), deniliquin (inlaws). looks just shy of 900kms each way by google by the slightly scenic route. i cant stray too much or ill get too sore with the clip-ons and rear sets.
as with the pipe colour, ive never seen (and was actively loooking) another monster with a rear header as blue and white as mine. was thinking it could have been a sign of whats causing the miss. it now seems it may have been a loose plug... hopefully.
You'll be fine.
Safe trip [thumbsup]
ime the 800m leaned out noticably when fitted with mufflers, much more than any other model.
plus the vertical holds more heat as said. in particular if you warm it up on the fast idle it will discolour the pipe quickly. vertical headers will glow in less than 1 minute at fast idle - try it in the dark and see. it's just stainless holding its heat.
i also have velocity stacks and pods with shortened Ducati performance remus cans... the fuel mixture trim is, as i was informed when it was last tuned, set about as far rich as it could go in order to get a decent afr. I'm assuming that the reason other bikes and my headers didn't previously show this kind of colour is because with age the grime must take over.
i only use the fast idle to fire up the bike, from then on its just hand throttle for only a couple seconds. reason being with the clip ons, master cylinders, controls, and mirrors i use i couldn't fit the cable system that was std. so its a mater of reach over and press the fast idle cam on the throttle body when i press the button these days. I've been told by spectators that it looks cool doing it this way too! haha
well i made it through all the rain and thunderstorms to Wagga today. I've always hated wet riding but i enjoyed today. worst part was the clean up after, damn wet roads make a mess of every surface and crevice imaginable.
thanx for your thoughts guys!