Mis-Matched Blue/Gold pipe color

[fb9]

MY V&H pipe is getting the header discoloration.
What is interesting is that they are not getting the same color and wondered if there should be concern.

Carbs are decently vacuum synced and have the same jetting settings.
No obvious air leaks -- new boots, o-rings, sealed airbox, etc.
Plug readings aren't terrible different, although I'm still not confident in the overall jetting being perfect.

Roughly speaking --
#1 is 50/50 on Blue/Gold
#2 is 90% Blue
#3 100% Gold
#4 is 90% Gold

 

[TheCafeKid]

The headers will change colour. Its enevitable. WHAT colour is more important. Blue is not good. REALLY blue going to purple is even worse. Gold, a light gold is actually pretty good IMO. sounds like your number 1cylinder is running pretty hot and number 2 is REALLY hot. The stock pipes would sometimes turn a bit of gold, but since they were double wall pipes, it wasnt as prevelant. Aftermarket headers are generally single wall, so the heat shows more than stock. Ive not seen a chrome aftermarket header that was running CORRECTLY that didnt change colour a little bit. All in all, IMO all of your pipes look a little bit on the warm side, hard to tell from pics tho.

 

[twr1776]

Did you re-jet for the pipe when you put it on? As Josh mentioned the blue is not the best color and from the pictures I would definately try to find out why you have a large variation in color on # 1 & #2 from the other two pipes. What do the plugs look like? White / Tan / Black ?

 

[Dave8338]

I'll bet tan to white. :-$
As mentioned, at times and depending on the pipe, a rejet MAY be in order. Usually if you have the stock intake set up, you can get away with a bump to the jet needles (1-1/2 notch) and make it hit the sweet spot. Is most of your riding at speeds below 65-70mph? 3000-4500 rpm's?
On pilot?
Lean?
:-s

OH by the way...pick up some of this http://www.blue-job.com/ and some #0000 steel wool and a six pack of your favorite suddzzzzyyyyyy.

 

[fb9]

I did do some rejetting, but only in the main and needle.
I'm roughly inline what other have done with similar models/modification.

Main 115 -> 122.5
Needle Spacer (6 washers) -> 2 washers (I feel this might may by too rich)
Pilot 40 -> 40 (Probably too lean)

Most riding done is 2-4k RPM, 20-40 MPH, effected by needle and pilot for throttle twist.

I did check my plugs today and they aren't too pretty.
Took some poor quality pictures, not sure how useful they really are.

However, my additional concern is defiantly then why the different output would have such wild differences in temperature/coloring on the pipes.

It looks like #2 shows the most rich, and is the most blue pipe.

1
2
3
4

[EDIT -- Images removed, read on]

 

[fb9]

Here is all 4 side by side.
Again, sorry for the poor quality!

[EDIT -- Image removed, read on]

 

[Big T]

Dunno where the pics are

Did you read up on how to post them?

Update: I posted this and they appeared!

Jetting is off - you need bigger pilots - mains are barely used at your RPMs

 

[spyder2120]

fb9, just out of curiosity, how old are your pipes? mine were only a couple of weeks old and i have gold and blue discoloration on the #3&4 pipes. when adj. the airscrews all of the plugs looked perfect, i have a limited knowledge of these things but maybe mine are only on two pipes because i couldnt vacuume sync them.

 

[fb9]

I just took it for a good plug chop.
I am supposed to take the bike long distance for vacation, but was worried about potential leanness.

Had an awesome ride! Probably my 'favorite' ride yet -- I'm still a rookie, so I can still compare how enjoyable a ride is.

Did a highway cruising speed plug chop; needed to see how we were looking at that throttle position (about 50% throttle).

Those ugly plugs came out brand spanking new white in color.
So, the previously posted images are sort of pointless (and poor quality and too large in size); thus I removed them.

I have jetting work to do for sure. Hopefully once things are jetted better the pipe color may balance out.

I think I may replace the air jets too, just to make sure they are not worn unevenly.

Guess who isn't taking the bike on vacation....
--

spyder --
I have personally put ~350-500 miles on this bike.
Previous owner 'recently' installed the pipe before I bought it [almost 5 years ago!!]
Guess how long she sat in my garage not getting 'fixed up'...

So, to answer your question, the pipe is potentially quite new.
He said old pipes were rusted out and he had to replace.
He never got around to jetting at all.
Bike has ~6500 total miles, so the pipe is defiantly 'new'.