TOPIC:

I just picked up a nice condition factory exhaust system.  It came off a bike that was being actively ridden, so it has fresh fumes in it.

My plan is to store it away in a box for a few years.  My question is should I do anything to clean it out before I put it away?  I have the impression that exhaust gasses and residue can be corrosive.

It's a '78 Z1R exhaust, so it has that big rectangular steel collector box that I'm guessing is raw steel on the inside.  I don't want to pull it out in 2 years and find it rusted out from the inside.   But that box also make it hard to clean out.  I can't just pull a cloth through each pipe like one could do with a Kerker header pipe.

Spray the inner and outer surface with a good weapon oil and vacuumize the exhaust in a plastic bag with desiccants bags (with humidity indicator), no oxygen/humidity  = no rust.

FWIW. I refurbished a very nice 750E muffler system. For the insides first I took it to the car wash, spraying them using the engine cleaner & wheel cleaner settings. let em soak, then a high pressure rinse (I brought plywood & large pieces of cardboard so they wouldn't get scratched).

At home I used carb cleaner spray to clean them out some more, then soaked them for several days with Evaporust, turning & shaking the mufflers periodically. After the evaporust treatment, I rinsed that out, then sprayed brake cleaner as a final rinse. Then painted the insides with Rustoleum high heat ultra bar-b-que grill paint. I also painted the manifold-crossover section.

Before painting, after dremel wire wheeling with jeweler's brass wheels off of eb. I did not sand the chrome >> I only used soft brass wire wheels.


Rustoleum silver bar-b-que grill paint. I also painted the insides.
And I used Evaporust as mentioned above. it has detergents that helped to clean the insides.


I looked at the paint the other day & it still looks the same as this pic from last year.
Also, looking inside the muffler tip, the plate about 6" in is still bright silver. the exhaust tunnel leading to that plate is coated with carbon, but I can see specs of silver paint showing thru. so the paint is still intact, at least at the mufflers.

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That attention to detail shows - your exhaust system, and your whole bike, looks better than when it left the showroom floor.  Ed

I wish. yes, the motorcycle looks pretty good in pics, but digital photos can be very deceptive. hee.

Believe me, the engine & frame don't look that great. doh.

If a guy didn't want to go to all of that trouble I did, I would spray the insides with brake cleaner, let it dry, then use a snowmobile fogging oil to coat the insides. For storage I would put athletic tube socks over the ends & taped with masking tape so they stay in place, wrap each muffler system section separately in heavy towels, also taped with masking tape, and then put everything in plastic bags. maybe put some bubble wrap or styrofoam on the muffler tips to help protect them.

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Thanks for the tips everyone.  Just to add a visual, here is a picture of the Z1R header.  This is not mine, I borrowed this pic from Ebay.

 

Scirocco wrote: no oxygen/humidity  = no rust.

That's not necessarily true.  If there is something corrosive on the inside, like an acid for example, I believe it would continue to eat the metal without oxygen.

martin_csr wrote: I used carb cleaner spray to clean them out some more, then soaked them for several days with Evaporust,

I'm reluctant to use a strong solvent, as the collector box is painted black.  The paint isn't perfect, but I'm not interested in removing it at this point.  But I'll try to take a look in the output port and see if it's painted inside.  If not, it seems like spraying with a solvent like carb or brake cleaner probably would wash out any combustion leftovers.  

Maybe something intended to remove carbon from an intake would make sense.  Do they make throttle body cleaner?

As for coating it for storage, anyone have any experience with Boeshield T-9 on chrome or painted surfaces?  I happen to have a full can of the stuff.

boeshield.com/why-boeshield/

Here are some of the claims:  "T-9 will not harm paint, plastic, rubber, fiberglass or vinyl. It can be used on engines, wiring and belts. T-9 is nonconductive and will not cause short circuits, so it’s also safe to use on electronics."

My guess is that it would be hard to get off of the inside, and then what?  Does the wax ignite the first time start it up?  

At the least I would spray some snowmobile fogging oil in there or maybe wd40 but the wd tends to dry out..



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