Author Topic: EFI silencer discoloring prematurely?  (Read 5461 times)

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Royal Stargazer

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on: April 04, 2014, 12:12:22 am
I've rode maybe fifty miles after having installed the EFI silencer, and I've noticed the silencer is already starting to turn gold in places, and the pipe underneath the foot peg is fairly blue - did I do something wrong? What do I do now?
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ace.cafe

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Reply #1 on: April 04, 2014, 12:15:47 am
It may take a little while for the ECU to adjust to the new silencer conditions. It might be running a little bit lean until then.
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Craig McClure

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Reply #2 on: April 04, 2014, 12:33:35 am
Hey Royal, All the EFI silencers I've seen discolor because the are stopped down with a Catalytic converter inside, which is designed to get super-hot & burn off nasty emissions. They also get very colorful.
  If you have the good fortune NOT to live in a state run by Berserk Nitwits, who require Vehicle Emissions Testing on Motorcycles, You could put a less restrictive non EFI Muffler on your Enfield. I have noticed extreme Blueing on bikes with the EFI mufflers, & much less to no Blueing on bikes without them. My 2010 has a barely noticeable gold tint at the top of the header. I owe this to my low restriction Cocktail Shaker style Reverse Megaphone, & letting it run a bit rich.  Just my opinion though.
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Arizoni

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Reply #3 on: April 04, 2014, 02:12:41 am
I thought the "EFI" mufflers were the aftermarket silencers that doesn't have a converter in them?
Their sold by Hitchcocks and NFG and look much like the old BSA silencers.
The original factory silencer, "torpedo", "Telephone pole" or whatever people want to call it, does have the converter in the front end of it, which is why that area turns yellow or blue.

Are we talking about the old OEM "EFI" silencer or the aftermarket versions?
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ace.cafe

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Reply #4 on: April 04, 2014, 02:23:52 am
I figured that since he said he had just installed the new EFI silencer, it was the aftermarket one. He wouldn't have to install the OEM one. It would have already been on there from new.
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Royal Stargazer

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Reply #5 on: April 04, 2014, 02:30:24 am
Yeah, it's the aftermarket Nfield Gear unit.

How long should I expect the ECU to take to acclimate to the new silencer?
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Arizoni

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Reply #6 on: April 04, 2014, 02:34:35 am
I don't know how long the ECU might take to adjust.  I would think 50 miles should do it but I really don't know.

Is your motorcycle doing a lot of backfiring when you let up on the throttle?  If it isn't, it probably isn't running lean now.
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Royal Stargazer

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Reply #7 on: April 04, 2014, 03:07:45 am
Other than the very rare soft puff, no backfiring at all - which is surprising because most of the reports I'd read on this muffler made backfiring sound like something to expect.
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suitcasejefferson

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Reply #8 on: April 04, 2014, 04:10:54 am
You mean the aftermarket made in England EFI silencer has a catalytic converter in it? I was considering getting it because I thought it didn't have.

Since AZ did away with emissions testing last year, I don't believe they do that anywhere. Maricopa county AZ was the ONLY county in the entire country to have emissions testing. I have 3 bikes that I had to rejet and retune every year just to get them through emissions. Couldn't leave them that way because they barely ran.
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squire

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Reply #9 on: April 04, 2014, 06:22:20 am
I have Hitchcock's EFI on my C5 and it has no catalytic converter and my system has absolutely no discolouration after two years. I love it.


mattsz

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Reply #10 on: April 04, 2014, 12:20:49 pm
I have the "EFI" silencer from CMW, not Hitchcocks - it arrived wrapped in British newspaper, so draw your own conclusions...

No cat, of course.  It's definitely yellowed - but I don't care... aesthetically, anyway.  If it suggests a problem, then I'd want to know about it!  My OEM bazooka has so many random and varied color patches, it looks like a tattoo parlor disaster...

Wasn't there a change in the baffling of these things - new perforated screens and all that?  Maybe the new ones are more restrictive, and heat up more?


barenekd

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Reply #11 on: April 04, 2014, 05:46:00 pm
Since they run the some temps old or new they start to color in short order, but they shouldn't get very blue. Mine ran gold for 16,000 miles. It came from CMW and had no catastrophic converter in it. The stock ones actually have two in them. They are also $600! Anyone need one?
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Reply #12 on: April 04, 2014, 07:02:56 pm
Yeah, it's the aftermarket Nfield Gear unit.

How long should I expect the ECU to take to acclimate to the new silencer?

 GOOD question. ... Is it the Hitchcock p/n 91080 style silencer ? 


 
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Reply #13 on: April 04, 2014, 07:49:26 pm
I have run the hitchcocks efi silencer for 500 miles, with only mild colouring. I think they used to call it 'patina', a sign the bike is being used.

Incidentally, i have never had the system backfire - sounds like a wee air leak somewhere?

I agree that the price of replacement original factory fit silencers is daft: nearly £550 here. I'm only keeping mine to fit before the bike's annual MOT Test, starting when it is 3  years old.

Cheers,

Blair


suitcasejefferson

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Reply #14 on: April 04, 2014, 09:01:07 pm
My oem pipe is badly blued around the oxygen sensor, and there is a yellow circle around the silencer itself, about an inch wide. Probably where a baffle, or the cat con itself is welded inside, causing a hot spot. I don't mind discolored pipes, they are one of the things I liked about my old Triumph. It was a bike made to be ridden, not cleaned and polished (well at least it was back then) So blue pipes and oil and grease on the engine did not look out of place.

Glad to here the EFI pipe does not have a cat in it. If I get it, I will keep the oem pipe at least until the warranty runs out. There are no inspections in AZ, and most bikes here have aftermarket pipes. I might be able to get a couple hundred $$ out of the stock pipe on eBay. I know one person that paid $500 for a new stock Honda Rebel 450 exhaust system on eBay, and was very happy to get it. It was the last thing he needed to finish restoring his bike.
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Reply #15 on: April 04, 2014, 11:04:51 pm
I have no problem whatsoever with the discoloration. It is a sign of living, it is honest. I do use a so-called 'anti-bluing' product which in fact enhances the patina.
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Reply #16 on: April 05, 2014, 01:18:13 am
I've rode maybe fifty miles after having installed the EFI silencer, and I've noticed the silencer is already starting to turn gold in places, and the pipe underneath the foot peg is fairly blue - did I do something wrong? What do I do now?

              The blue part of the pipe under the footpeg must have been blue before the muffler change. The muffler change wouldn't all of a sudden cause it; that's where the hot tube is inside the header pipe. Until you cut that out you don't have a "free flow" exhaust & it will just get bluer. Shine light up there, you'll see it.

               Unless I'm totally wrong & there is no hot tube in the UCEs. In that case ignore all of the above.

               But why else would the pipe under the footpeg be blue?
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Royal Stargazer

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Reply #17 on: April 05, 2014, 01:32:51 am
              The blue part of the pipe under the footpeg must have been blue before the muffler change.

It was not. The stock bazooka had a bit of gold on it and of course the bit around the O2 sensor was getting colorful, but where I had removed the silencer was completely clean chrome before all of this.

As long as I'm not wrecking the bike or anything, I guess I don't mind too much. She's more spirited this year than she was last year, that's for sure.
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Roeland

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Reply #18 on: April 05, 2014, 04:47:45 pm
My Hitchcocks' front pipe coloured blue and gold in the first day - loving it. (it is however wrapped at the moment)


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Reply #19 on: April 06, 2014, 04:07:19 am
................. why else would the pipe under the footpeg be blue?

There is an anti-crush reinforcement ring inside the stock header where the muffler bolts on.  Once you place a free flowing muffler on, this then is a choke point - and - it turns blue.
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