Forum

[Bertie the Bullet]

The down pipe is very blue, does anyone know if it is possible to get this off or is the chrome cooked ?

[PeteF]

Google "Autosol Bluing Remover". Also, try to find out why it's bluing. It's caused by getting to hot. Mixture? Timing?

[Anders F. R.]

I have successfully used some polish-stuff that is called "Blue away". It contains some abrasives and is pretty tough stuff, but id does what it says on the bottle. Polishing with Autosol or similar will be necessary. I suspect that "Blue away" is rather hard on the chrome, so don't use it too often. Find out and correct the reason for blueing first, or else it will come back very soon! Regards, Anders F. R.

[Yamaha1]

I've found very good results with a USA made product called "Blue Job" - it comes in a small white plastic "tub" - containg a powder that LOOKS like Vim, and a piece of application felt. Prior to this, I'd tried all sorts, including Solvol - but this stuff seems vastly superior - still gotta rub it long and hard, though!! Bought in the UK on t'internet.
Mike

[Ginger]

Hi
Ive used 'Blue Job' on my Triumphs as well as the Enfield and it works really well, you dont need much and once you slightly wet the powder it goes to a paste, but it removes the Blueing on most of the pipe however where it comes straight out of the head it may not get it back to bright chrome but may end up leaving it a dark chrome almost grey/ black . Seems to be better than solvol auto sol here. Hope it works for you.

[jaffa90]

Blue,mines blue and the spark plug shows slightly rich.
Please show me a single skin downpipe that`s NOT blue,excluding brandnew bikes.

[PeteF]

Well Jaffa, mine has no trace of blue (2008 350 classic at 11000 miles) and it gets ridden quite hard.

[MadMike]

Jaffa, my A65, Model 50, Dommie99, Ariel NH, Commando Fastback all have shiny chrome with no blueing on their single skin pipes. However my Hinckley Fruxton does get blued pipes, and that is, I understand, probably not a single skin pipe. However a quick polish with solvol cleans it up, if I can be bothered. Provided your mixture and timing are correct does it matter if the pipes go blue.....at least it shows the thing gets used occasionaly I guess.

[Les H]

Blueing of exhaust pipes was standard practice, even with a perfectly set up engine. However it should only amount to the first 3"-4". If the blueing is over that amount, some checking of mixture strength and ignition timing should be done. Modern chrome exhaust pipes that most British Classic bikes have fitted are manufactured by "Armours"...I was told by the owner of the company that they found by omitting the copper plating and adding extra nickel, their pipes hardly ever blue, so if MadMikes bikes that have not blued their pipes were fitted with original OE type pipes, they would almost certainly blue, as did all the original bikes as soon as they were ridden from brand new. One disadvantage with these modern pipes is that because they hardly ever turn blue, any overheating engine problem is not so readily picked up and possible lean mixtures that cause seizing might go un-noticed.

[simon]

My chrome man told me that they don't copper exhausts because the varied expansion rates create crazing of the chrome in high temperature areas. The bluing is usually a sign of excessive leanness in my experience but usually at full open throttle so unless you do the plug chop test ie stopping the motor at full tit with the decomp and pulling out the plug to have a look you are unlikely to get a clear reading as the idle circuit and the needle jet maybe right or even a bit rich. Pinking at higher speeds can be a sign but it might be a good idea to check what main jet you have. Whatever your adjustment a prolonged period of high speed running will straw the pipe if it doesn't send it a bit blue. Just one of those things I'm afraid.