I just clean up the front pipe on my SD. Had to use green scotch brite to cut though the baked on crud, looked ok.
Moved on to the lower section... a couple of hours later looked back at the front header and can see what looks like rust spots forming.

How can this be if it's stainless steel? or is it??

For now I've just wiped it with engine oil.

My original headers bit the dust a long time ago. A set I purchased 2 years ago off ebay are showing a ton of surface rust.



I just bought another set of headers to have ceramic coated black, hopefully it'll hold up.

Ah, thanks... Not going mad then...

Yeh, that looks great!

I think you just need to go deeper with your cleaning through the surface layer.

I've bought some pretty rubbish looking headers back to good condition with a good dose of wire brush wheel, sanding, wd40/scotchbrite then polishing!

Oil on them won't do anything except make it smokey when you start it up.

With the oil thing I was hoping that each time will leave a carbon deposit that might help stop the surface rusting, in a similar way to blackening steel?

If so then frequent re-oiling can be carried out.

Ever noticed how that section of exhaust pipe that sits under the oil screen stays so clean - see my top picture above. I think it's because it gets drenched during each oil change.

I had the same frustration with the Akra pipes on my sdr and ended up having them coated in black. Definitely worth doing in my opinion as it's not really an expensive job and they look loads better. Mine looked amazing for quite some time but they don't hold up forever, especially at the heads and also they go a bit dull. See the shot (crap photo that i had on file) of the front header piece, it looks horrid now from heat and exposure over 3 or 4 years. In saying that it's still worth it and would not hesitate to have mine redone but by someone else to compare longevity. EDIT : I think the pics are after about 3 yrs.

Back in the early 70's I bought a SST dive knife.

Used it one time in salt water.

Found it ironic that rust had stained the blade where it was stamped Stainless Steel.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27693&hilit=Ceramic+coating - have decided to try ‘traditional’ dull/satin chrome finish ie close match to Akras.

I think I would try polishing first if it bothered me. Go for the finish we had on our original LC4 headers, almost looked chromed. Bit of autosol to keep it nice from time to time

I couldn't be bothered so just throw mine on the wire wheel every couple years to bring it back to original look.

When I had my original headers I just always gave them a good clean with a rotary wire brush mounted on a drill and brought them back to a bare metal finish and a bit of a polish afterwards. Same with my Akra full-titanium system. Every time I take them off for whatever reason I just do the same - they always return to a great natural, metal finish and then I spray them with ACF50 and they smoke when first started and that's it. Then you get to see them all turn blue/purple all over again. I just clean regularly and cover with WD40 or whatever and they are OK.

I guess it really comes down to how often you take the whole system off. Even after ten years I seem to be taking it all off at least once a year and that means they are always looking OK.

What can you do really? They are exhaust pipes.

I've done a few rides since cleaning the system and it's not holding up too bad.
The rear pipes came up to almost new just by using acid (Harpic Power Plus Max 10). The actual headers are showing signs of surface rusting but I think I could stay on top of that without needing to remove the exhaust.
So when I next get the urge I'll clean and then polish the headers back to shine.