Birdman

How do you get it off?

I recently had a valve cover gasket leak, and it sprayed my right sidepipe...I've tried and tried to get the oil off of the pipe, but it is baked on there.

Both are also turning a gold color..

merc49

spray some easy off oven cleaner on a rag and dab it on the oil marks,let sit for 15 min. then wet rag and wipe off.only use this on chrome steel and avoid getting it on anything else.i use this method on my harleys pipes to get rid of bake on road tar.just be carefull and wear rubber gloves so the oven cleaner doesnt burn your fingers.repeat until its gone.oh and make sure the pipes are cold before doing this.

merc49

the gold color is due to carb settings too rich or too lean,but if you catch it early enough get a polish called blue away from a motorcycle shop and polish the pipes with it and most of the time it goes away.i know it takes the blue color off,thats why they named it blue away.

Birdman

Which is it? Chrome, Steel, or both? I have stainless steel.

And saying that the pipes turn gold because of too rich or too lean doesn't help me...

redman76

I have stainless too and this is how I clean mine. I use 0000 very fine steel wool with a little metal polish and the oil comes right off. I do not use on my stainless covers because it will scratch it, but on the pipes it works great and is fast and looks great when done. It even polishes off the gold tint, but that comes back first time I crank it up.

Birdman

I used to drive this car when I was home visiting on Block Leave (military) because I was stationed in Italy.

That said, I never had any problems with the golding..the pipes always looked shiny and new...now all of the sudden they are gold.

larryg3

I have stainless steel headers and side pipe the change of color is normal. Not much you can do about that.

merc49

the easy off is a very mild acid and will not hurt steel,chrome or stainless just dont use on non ferrous metals like aluminum .and your pipes will turn colors when the heat reaches more than five hundred degrees.so with that said you are either running too rich and the unburnt fuel comes past the exhaust valve and gets burned in the pipes,or you could be running too lean and getting the exhaust temp way too hot.read your spark plugs and you will know whats going on inside the combustion chamber and will then lead you to the cure.you can use 0000 steel wool if you like rubbing for a while but it will scratch the surface.in the future there are products that you coat the inside of the pipes to keep them from turning blue but it only works if you do it before the first start up when installing them.

whitehause

I work at a harley shop, and we sella product call "blue-job"....works pretty well on discolored pipes. I agree with the easy-off oven cleaner method for baked on oil or road tar/grime.