Glowing header

This morning I fired up my bike and let it idle while I put my gloves on. I noticed a bit of a burny smell, but nothing too unusual, just burning off the morning dew. Now that the sun is rising later, it was dark out. I saw some smoke in the headlight, but it was probably exhaust vapor. After idling for probably about 1 minute, I glanced down and noticed that the header was glowing red at the exhaust port. I never noticed that before, but it usually isn't that dark out when I leave for work, and I don't usually look at the header. I have the FMF power bomb, I think it's stainless steel. Other mods listed in sig. I think my CO is set to 0, cruise mode of programmer set to 2.5.

Does this indicate a very lean condition when idling to make the exhaust gases that hot? I always thought the idle program made the bike run rich. I would expect some glowing after wailing on the bike, but not at warm-up idle. Or is this maybe a function of the FMF header being a thinner metal? I just want to make sure there is not any long term damage. Hopefully the header can handle the heat cycles.

Without an exhaust gas analyzer you won't know for sure... but since you are at idle it is something I probably would not worry about. SS is not a great conductor of heat and is likely to do this.

My girlfriend has two Super Sherpas and one of them use to exhibit this condition especially after a little ride and the sun was down. Both bikes had the same mods and I actually increased the pilot jet size on both of them to account for the lean factory settings and resulting cold start issues. This one bike was harder to start and more likely to have the 'glowing header'. Finally the start issue became really bad even though the other one would start fine with the same jetting. After cleaning the carb, fuel system, replacing the petcock and swapping parts between the bikes we finally checked the valve clearance. The intakes were fine but one exhaust was tight and the other had no clearance. Since we had a good bit of the bike apart she opted to have the valves and head reworked - she is part owner in a diesel rebuild company so turn around time was not a problem plus the guy that did the work is a Kawasaki Certified mechanic.

End result was the starting issue was gone and the level of the 'glowing header' was reduced.

Just something else you may want to check on depending on the amount of miles you have on the bike.

Interesting. I have a little over 6k miles, so I wouldn't expect valves to be out, but they could be. It starts fine and runs fine, except for some hesitation when cold.

I searched some other forums, and the opinions are split. Some say it's normal and fine, some say it is a sign of potential issues. I'll keep an eye on it I suppose.

I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Even with the valves done the Sherpa still glows a little and it has a SS header too.

Theres a few things that cause headers to glow red...

Rideing very hard and a overly rich idle mixture when the bikes warming up.

This is pretty common on carbed bikes if you leave the choke on too long while warming them up, the rich mixture dumps unburnt gas into the pipe which burns in it making it glow red. The wrr's fi is a touch rich at idle when warming up which could cause this.

Dont worry about it.

These days, it's pretty common with the thin-walled header pipes.

I have a semi-related question - has anyone had issues with heat wrap? My bike came with a Powerbomb all wrapped up. I doubt there is ceramic paint under there. I heard they can bake to death or rust out inside the wrap. The bike runs really cool though, and since I ride in shorts (with kneeguards) to work and back, I can't complain. I just figure one day I'm going to hit a speedbump and the header will fall to pieces.

rocketjump wrote:

I have a semi-related question - has anyone had issues with heat wrap?  My bike came with a Powerbomb all wrapped up.  I doubt there is ceramic paint under there.  I heard they can bake to death or rust out inside the wrap.  The bike runs really cool though, and since I ride in shorts (with kneeguards) to work and back, I can't complain.  I just figure one day I'm going to hit a speedbump and the header will fall to pieces.

I would think if it is a decent quality stainless you should not have to worry about corrosion. Usually exhaust pipes corrode from the inside out - the byproducts of combustion generally do not play nice with mild steel.

rocketjump wrote:

I have a semi-related question - has anyone had issues with heat wrap?  My bike came with a Powerbomb all wrapped up.  I doubt there is ceramic paint under there.  I heard they can bake to death or rust out inside the wrap.  The bike runs really cool though, and since I ride in shorts (with kneeguards) to work and back, I can't complain.  I just figure one day I'm going to hit a speedbump and the header will fall to pieces.

That stuff rots pipes, its just a matter of time before the pipe rust through.

Its not the heat its the moisture traped in the wrap that corriodes the pipe, the pipe is basicly getting steamed to death unless it never ever gets wet lol.