| Author | Message | ||
     Buellboiler |
I remember reading about someone that polished is factory exhaust but was unable to find the thread (even using the search function). Has anyone done this? If so, did it help reduce the radiated heat from the pipes? Also what steps were taken to polish the pipes? Thanks! Boiler | ||
| Firemanjim |
Boiler,tons of us have done it.Can't say anything about the heat but it looks really nice. Use wet and dry sandpaper of varying grits--400/600 then use Mothers or similar to shine up like chrome.Or if you have them off take em to a buffing wheel. | ||
| Sparky |
I tried a liquid metal polish made by Adams. There's 2 types, #1 for heavily oxidized metal and #2 for putting down a final highly polished finish. I tried the heavy duty #1 on the almost blackened stainless headers and eventually they came out almost new looking except for the deep scratches that the stock pipes come with. But, at least, the scratches are shiny now. BTW, the #2 finer polish works great on the wheels, real easy to use -- no hard rubbing! | ||
| Jayvee |
I was thinking of Jet-Hot coating the header polished silver, for the functionality, but I'm not sure I'm willing yet to trade the looks for the function. I love the golden color, raw metal look on mine. It doesn't look at all like stainless, and it doesn't look like titanium, which leaves some exotic space-age metal "unobtainium." | ||
| Buellboiler |
Thanks guys for the replies. I will add this to the list of things I plan to do to my X-1. I have seen the jet hot coated pipes and they look good. I have yet to see a polished set of pipes in person. I will say that the images do look nice. Jayvee - When my X-1 had 2000 miles on it, the pipes had the golden color right up to the heads. As I put on miles the golden color is fading from heat. Is there a way to keep/restore the original golden color? Boiler | ||
| Djkaplan |
"did it help reduce the radiated heat from the pipes?" Yes... it did. Not a huge difference, but I did notice a reduction in heat radiating from the newly polished pipes on my M2. | ||
| Snowhownd |
How would polishing your pipes reduce heat?? That doesn't make any sense to me (not that I'm any kind of scientist though). | ||
| Diablobrian |
A polished surface does not radiate as much heat as a non-polished one. Color and reflectivity both effect emissivity (the ability to radiate heat) It can be counter intuitive, but it has been proven. Does it make any sense that a pipe painted white will radiate less heat than a pipe of the same temp and same thickness of black paint? That's how it works though. Silver, the shinier the better emits less heat through radiation. I was a main propulsion (steam) engineer in the Navy for 6 years. We dealt with this stuff a lot because it was the difference between roasting, or merely being so hot it was hard to breathe in some of our machinery rooms. (no joke) | ||
| Col_klink |
DB is right. A matt black surface is the best emitter. The way I was taught, consider a hollow ball with the inside painted matt black. If you make a small hole in the ball and shine a light inside it, very little will be reflected back out, making the hole a perfect absorber. If you then heat the ball, radiation coming out of the hole should be of all frequencies (the hole in the ball is now a perfect emitter). Of course, this ignores the whole surface area issue. A polished surface should have less surface per unit area than a "rough" one, reducing the area for heat radiation. I remember back in the day, when someone (Bel-Ray? Heat-Kote?) marketed a matt black paint for exhaust systems that was claimed to increase surface area through a texture quality in the paint. Both colour and texture were claimed to improve heat transfer. Klink |
