Ceramic Coated Exhaust

[Dale_I]

Winter farkle time and I had decided I wanted to re-seal my leaky exhaust. It was fortunate because I had more going on than I thought.

I ordered up new seals for everything along with a handful of fasteners and do-dads from Partzilla and pulled the exhaust.


I'll take a moment to caution other owners. The seal used between the headers and the head are crushable and, over time, you will need to retorque the header nuts because they will be loose once the seal crushes more. I read about a problem with the header nuts vibrating off sometimes and... to my surprise... I was missing one on cylinder #3. Both #3 and #4 seals were leaking and the #4 bolt was finger tight loose. When I reinstalled I re-torqued for 2 days and a half dozen heat cycles and I was still getting movement in the nuts. After that... they seemed consistent. But, I'll be checking them at the end of this riding season and will add it to the list of duties I should perform.

I'll also mention they are a weird long nut and a strange sized 7mm. I decided to pick up 4 extra to pass out to ST1100 owners at NEWSTOC. I figure if we get some on the road we have a chance of saving someone sometime somewhere who found his vibrated off.

So, take a look. You can see them all through the side fairing and make sure they are all there... these are the outside ones and there are partners to the inside. I had heard an exhaust sound at the end of last season, but had no idea I was missing a nut!



I sent the headers and heat shields over to Brad at Performance Coatings in Seattle. He's done work for my business for years and they came back gorgeous. He did the headers in satin black and the heat shields in a ceramic fake-chrome called Chromex.




During the down time I polished the rear muffler set, pinstriped the fake cooling fins on the valve cover, and generally cleaned. I doubt she's ever been that clean! Reinstalled...


Back together with the heat shield and newly polished Hwy Wings...


Tupperware on, ready to ride:


All in all I'm very glad I did it. Not only did I get the smaller exhaust leaks sealed, I found an issue that would have turned nasty and found my lost hp! I've only ridden a hundred miles and it was so cold I couldn't tell you if the coating is making a difference or not. But, come summer, I'll report back. I expect they should make a reasonably noticeable difference based on my experience in the past.

So much for winter farkles... time to ride!

 

[Upt' North]

Nice, you'll have the shiniest exhaust pipe in WA.
I'll check those nuts the next time I'm in there. Thanks.
Upt'North.

 

[Oldbikefixr]

I have used ceramic coatings on several exhaust systems that were prone to corrosion. Good stuff.

 

[ST Gui]

The headers and shields look great. A shame to over them in Tup.

Was there a time when a ceramic coating was put inside car headers or am I misremembering?

 

[paulcb]

Nice write-up Dale, thanks for posting. And thanks for the tip on the exhaust nuts, I'll check mine!

I noticed on the side of your transmission, there are white handwritten marks... SM13. I've seen the same on my '01 ST11. Does anyone know what this refers to? I was wondering if it was identifying a used part.

 

[Dale_I]

The headers and shields look great. A shame to over them in Tup.

Was there a time when a ceramic coating was put inside car headers or am I misremembering?

I know... I was thinking it was a shame to cover all that shiny goodness too. I'm not sure the procedure of everyone else, but Brad coats the inside and outside. He uses a high temp primer as well. One of the reasons I ship them across the state to get done.

Previous to ceramic coating, they would wrap them with header-wrap heat tape. It would condense moisture on the header and you could almost watch them rust through the course of a season. Technology is great!

...white handwritten marks... SM13.

I thought the same thing, but I know my ST is straight from the factory.

I had a chance to tour the Ford assembly plant in KY, where they make the Power Stroke trucks. When I was there I noticed a lot of the assemblies had a similar writing on the side. I asked about it and it was used after the assemblies have been built to identify what is inside the cases. A kind of part designation, which I'm sure would be advantageous if several similar cases happened to be stocked next to each other. I would imagine SM13 is the gear ratio set used for all the ST1100s. Just guessing though...

 

[ToddC]

Nice job Dale. Glad to see you have been busy this winter......:bow1:

Not riding today are you........ Snowopolis.....!! Snowing so hard.......the satellite dish can't get a signal thru the snow falling......

 

[John OoSTerhuis]

Nice, Dale! Thanks for poSTing. What would he charge me for doing my SSMST’s?

Regards, John

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Your pipes look really nice- it is a shame to have to cover them up!

The first summer that I had my brand new 2000 ST1100 I discovered some of those exhaust nuts were missing as well. I got replacements under warranty. I seem to recall that there was a very specific installation/torquing procedure listed in the service manual for these nuts. I installed the replacement nuts using this procedure and they never came loose again. I don't remember what the procedure was but I mention it because it might be worth a look for anyone installing these nuts.

 

[Jim Van]

Looks beautiful - too bad you had to replace the plastic.

 

[ST Gui]

Looks beautiful - too bad you had to replace the plastic.

Yep! As per similar comments I like the way the CTX/F6B/New 'Wing show more of the engine.

 

[Dale_I]

What would he charge me for doing my SSMST's?

John, you can check out his place online: https://www.performancecoatings.com/
Or, give him a call: 253-735-1919

I get no discount or kick-back, but you can tell him Dale from Tymar Performance posted pics and you're interested. Some of the cost will be how you decide to handle return shipping. I send him a pre-paid label back to me, but I have a UPS account. The coating came in between $250 and $300. YMMV

I seem to recall that there was a very specific installation/torquing procedure listed...

Yes. It is a stepped torque procedure:
1) Finger Tight
2) 9 Ft lbs
3) 12 ft lbs

I was actually a little shocked when I got the new seals. They look much more like metal o-rings. The ones I took out looked more like washers, flat and wide. I get it, we use copper annealed gaskets on high compression heads on higher hp trucks. But, we re-torque them all the time.

I'll check them during next winter and see if they move. If not, I'll figure I'm good for another 15 years or so...

 

[Dale_I]

Final update:
After 11k miles of riding this season, I just had the tupperware off for a starter replacement and checked the torque on the exhaust manifold to head nuts. They were perfect.

My assumption is that I took a lot longer and put it through many more heat cycles when I torqed the new ones down compared to what Honda has the opportunity for when they build their engines. I don't foresee a problem with then in the future, but would still recommend that ST1100 owners at least check theirs... I'm not the first one to find nuts missing...

 

[Bikeric]

Winter farkle time and I had decided I wanted to re-seal my leaky exhaust. It was fortunate because I had more going on than I thought.

I ordered up new seals for everything along with a handful of fasteners and do-dads from Partzilla and pulled the exhaust.


I'll take a moment to caution other owners. The seal used between the headers and the head are crushable and, over time, you will need to retorque the header nuts because they will be loose once the seal crushes more. I read about a problem with the header nuts vibrating off sometimes and... to my surprise... I was missing one on cylinder #3. Both #3 and #4 seals were leaking and the #4 bolt was finger tight loose. When I reinstalled I re-torqued for 2 days and a half dozen heat cycles and I was still getting movement in the nuts. After that... they seemed consistent. But, I'll be checking them at the end of this riding season and will add it to the list of duties I should perform.

I'll also mention they are a weird long nut and a strange sized 7mm. I decided to pick up 4 extra to pass out to ST1100 owners at NEWSTOC. I figure if we get some on the road we have a chance of saving someone sometime somewhere who found his vibrated off.

So, take a look. You can see them all through the side fairing and make sure they are all there... these are the outside ones and there are partners to the inside. I had heard an exhaust sound at the end of last season, but had no idea I was missing a nut!



I sent the headers and heat shields over to Brad at Performance Coatings in Seattle. He's done work for my business for years and they came back gorgeous. He did the headers in satin black and the heat shields in a ceramic fake-chrome called Chromex.




During the down time I polished the rear muffler set, pinstriped the fake cooling fins on the valve cover, and generally cleaned. I doubt she's ever been that clean! Reinstalled...


Back together with the heat shield and newly polished Hwy Wings...


Tupperware on, ready to ride:


All in all I'm very glad I did it. Not only did I get the smaller exhaust leaks sealed, I found an issue that would have turned nasty and found my lost hp! I've only ridden a hundred miles and it was so cold I couldn't tell you if the coating is making a difference or not. But, come summer, I'll report back. I expect they should make a reasonably noticeable difference based on my experience in the past.

So much for winter farkles... time to ride!

Nice job. Will check mine over next time the plastic comes off!
Regards
Eric