Ceramic Coated Exhaust Headers

Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
24
Location
Baton Rouge, LA
Bike
BMW K1300S
I'm an unreformed sport bike rider who likes to grip the sides of the tank with my inner thighs and IMHO the ST1300 is unbearable when wearing jeans. In another thread somebody who lives in Arizona got an expensive heat gun and showed before and after pictures of the ST after being ridden in 115 degree heat and the bike temps were in the mid 170's. I know all you guys who live in "Frostbite Falls", the UK and other Northern climates will claim that the ST has no heat problem, but in many Southern and Sothwestern (Aussies included) climates we need a little help. To that end, I put gold heat reflective tape under the tank and seat. Improved the situation, but not enough to my liking. Next, I got my pipes ceramic coated at Nitro Plate in Nashville, TN. Price was $180 plus $38 for shipping for a total of $218. I got the gray which is good up to 1700 degrees. Pipes aren't on the bike yet, but I'm hoping this will alleviate the problem and also give me a small performance gain. I'm putting my bike on the dyno at the same time for a before and after run with some possible tweaking. BTW I have a working Power Commander III (Yeah I know, nothing has ever worked or EVER WILL WORK on an ST, the Honda makes enough power in stock form etc.) on my bike. They don't sell or support them anymore, but BAzzaz sells a stand alone EFI tuner, as well as one with speed upshift (I have another bike with this feature and it is schweet), and another one with all the goodies plus traction control. Bazzaz lists their unit as covering all ST-1300s from 2003-2012. They are a reputable company and have good tech support unlike Dynojet which has a bunch of salespeople manning their tech lines. Here is a picture of the pipes. I purchased a pair of pipes cheap off the internet so the bike wouldn't be down while they did the work, so now I have an extra set of undamaged pipes that I'd be willing to sell for about $50 or so. PM me if you are interested. Can't get the attachment to work so, I'll try again later.
 

Highrider

Part time mechanic
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
870
Age
68
Location
Barlett, Illinois
Bike
2005 ST1300
STOC #
5560
When you go to install your coated headers, check the butt end at the head seal, that surface should be perfectly flat and smooth. My coated headers (and others I have installed on ST's) needed to be filed and stoned to re-establish that seal surface. The ceramic coating left that surface wavy and crowned so I stoned it back to the steel. I would expect the same condition if yours were coated inside as well. And this probably has been determined already, the copper seals need to be replaced.
 

Mellow

Joe
Admin
Joined
Dec 1, 2004
Messages
18,826
Age
59
Bike
'21 BMW R1250RT
2024 Miles
000540
When you go to install your coated headers, check the butt end at the head seal, that surface should be perfectly flat and smooth. My coated headers (and others I have installed on ST's) needed to be filed and stoned to re-establish that seal surface. The ceramic coating left that surface wavy and crowned so I stoned it back to the steel. I would expect the same condition if yours were coated inside as well. And this probably has been determined already, the copper seals need to be replaced.
Stone? What does that mean? Is it just a finer type of filing?
 
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
4,954
Age
62
Location
New Jersey
Bike
st1300 '04
STOC #
7163
+1 flat abrasive stone.
Should give you a nice flat surface for sealing.

Just a guess but you probably don't need a diamond one I'm assuming the ceramic peaks would get knocked down with regular stone.
 
Joined
Sep 6, 2015
Messages
56
Location
West MI
Bike
2009 ST 1300
I had mine done winter of 15-16 and i would say it is about a 40% improvement in heat reduction well worth the money.
 
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