Exhaust Wrap Smoke

[Abledcool1]

I just put some exhaust wrap on the headers of my 09 Firebolt, and a few seconds after I start it up it start smoking from the headers and it smells burnt, is this normal for exhaust wrap? If this is normal, how long will it last?

 

[black_xb12r]

completely normal... ive never wrapped a buell but ive wrapped alot of my race quads and flat track dirtbikes... it will smoke for a while and it stinks really bad... my advice is put your gear on start it up and go for a 5 mile ride or so to get full heat into the headers and then your movie so you wont even notice the smoke or have to smell it... it doesnt last too long and there is NOTHING to worry about it is 100% normal for header wrap...

 

[Abledcool1]

Thanks!

 

[GW 04 XB12R]

yep. definitely normal. I always soak my wrap before I put it on, for a tighter fit. It's funny you should post this now, I actually just wrapped the headers yesterday on my Firebolt. They started black, to match the bike. After soaking them, they were dark grey, just like my hands lol. After wrapping the headers (while on my bike) the engine was dark grey too! Washed everything off, went for a nice ride, tried not to inhale too much of the smoke, and now the wrap is light grey... Oh well, still looks cool, and probably gives a little performance boost.

 

[twisted]

Be careful if you ride in the rain it will rust your headers, even stainless steel.

 

[black_xb12r]

2nd on twisted's post, ive seen it happen!

 

[xtremelow]

Rusting of the Header may take place but not just from riding in the rain. The temp. of the header will dry out the wrap very quickly.

What simply needs to be done if you get caught in a heavy rain or after you wash your bike and soak the wrap is to simply let your bike for a bit to dry the wrap out.

The header will rust out if you get the header soaked in any manner and then just let the bike sit afterwards.

 

[nativeXb12Rbuell]

I wrapped my headers off the bike and reinstalled them. yes it smokes for a while. and you can spray them with high temp silicone paint, to make them look new again and turn them back to Black or grey(aluminum) or white. i used DEI High Temperature (HT) Silicone Coating and their Black exhaust wrap.
http://www.designengineering.com/ca...exhaust-wraps-accessories/ht-silicone-coating

they will smoke some to after spraying on the DEI High Temperature (HT) Silicone Coating , or other coatings.

just cover the rest of your bike like this guy did in thread below to keep the silicone paint off your bike, if you spray it with the headers on the bike.

http://www.buellxb.com/Buell-XB-Forum/Do-It-Yourself-Buell-Mods/Header-Wrap-Install-WPics


+1 on what xtremelow said , let it run until all the wrap is completely dry after a rain or washing bike , dont let it sit wet on the headers it will cause some rusting, got to dry it completely.


http://www.designengineering.com/files/pdfs/faq/faq023-htsilicone.pdf

almost for got to mention I painted my header with VHT Flameproof header paint(did that before i did the header wrap), its a silicone ceramic base header paint . i painted it with that to help prevent rust to some degree,and help with the heat.
http://vhtpaint.com/flameproof.html

 

[brisbon]

If you use dei titanium wrap you dont wet it to wrap or spray it with silicone afterwards, the heat sets it in place after you ziptie it in a few good spots with some stainless steel wireties

 

[Mike Van V]

In the rain...rust the stainless tubing...
Do you have any more of those drugs?

Yes...they will discolor....a tiny bit. But in the 10+ years I've been wrapping headers (cars and bikes), I've NEVER had a problem.
I even had an 8" section on carbon steel header on a car that over 7 years later...the tubing looked very good when I sold the car (no engine).

And as has been noted above, the newer Titanium wrap, smokes lightly for about 10 seconds. It also doesn't change color after heat cycles.
I've had it on my CR for about 5000 miles, looks just like it did the first day.
Just wrapped my 12S with the Ti. wrap this past weekend.

Mike

 

[nativeXb12Rbuell]

yes stainless steel can have corrosion it is corrosion resistant not corrosion proof, sorry we used the term rust as it really pertains to corrosion of steel, i would hope that most people would make that conection of what we meant, rust is corrsion, not that stainless steel rusts(&turn rusty red),unless it has some iron particles of some kind that has contaminated the surface, but yet that it can corrode. this would mostly happen in areas like scratches and pitted ,especailly when deep.
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?articleid=1177

http://www.ssina.com/faq/index.html#1

 

[black_xb12r]

exactly what native said... ive seen some really weird stuff with stainless at work... i work for a place that makes lenses for eye glasses i work on all of their high dollar german machines, but they have polish lines for polishing the lenses and that stuff is just bad all around.... it eats stainless its so abrasive and acgtually just destroys stainless if you just let it soak in it to... just pits it terribly till theres nothing left... not sure exactly what in it does the pitting cause its not acid or anything cause you can get it on your hands all day and your fine so...

 

[bajabomber87]

Just wrapped my 12S with the Ti. wrap this past weekend.

What length and width did you use, more importantly need, any left over?

 

[xtremelow]

I used 2" wide and nearly all of the 25' length mine came with for an idea of what amount is used.

This is what it looks like after about 5,000 miles, never repainted or anything just used the black wrap. I had it on my last bike, still need to put it on my new bike just been procrastinating.

 

[bajabomber87]

Would you recommend the 1'' wide for tighter bend headers?