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Fazer Stainless Exhaust Headers Fitted
Blog Date - 14 January 2012
At last! Exhausts have been the bain of my mechanical life this past year. The 125 with it's rusty silencer, now solved and the Fazer with it's rusting headers. Why the devil did Yamaha deem it sensible to fit mild steel exhausts to their everyman 600? Cost, I guess. Most of the mid-range Hondas such as the Hornet came with a full stainless system. Suzuki at least tried the Bandit with stainless but unwisely inserted a natty mild steel piece half way along. Yet until the mark 2 Fazer Yamaha persisted with trusty rusty mild steel, painted black.
I guess I'm being unfair. The mild steel system on my bike, a 2001 model so it's 11 years old now, has lasted. 11 years from a piece of tube that gets super heated, covered in muck from the front wheel and left in a cold damp shed is probably not that bad. Eventually however the rust mites get in there even with relentless painting and futile attempts at cleaning. I have read some owners remove their pipe once a year, clean it, paint it and replace it. That seems like a lot of hard work. I figured the day my pipe came off the bike it would be replaced with stainless and never come off again.
They're a bugger them rust mites.
A few weeks back while cleaning...again...the exhaust to paint it...again...I poked a hole. Nothing major and it was easily fixed with a large blob of bad welding by myself. If there's one thing I have learnt is that the first weld leads on to many more welds. It's like squashing ants. No matter how many holes I could weld and no matter how much paint I apply the next hole will be along soon. I knew it was time to bite the bullet and spend some money.
Ebay saw the release into my possession a no-name stainless exhaust for my Fazer. To achieve this some bugger took £175 off me. It's a lot of money, but I try to quell my anger by thinking of it as 9 tanks of fuel at current prices. I can also accept the price as unlike tyres and brake pads and fuel and batteries I would expect the stainless headers to last a lifetime, if not longer.
My biggest fear about fitting the exhaust was the removal of the old system. In particular the undoing of the 8 M6 bolts that clamp the headers to the engine. On the 125 I sheared BOTH bolts which required engine removal to fix. I absolutely totally and completely did not want to have to do anything of the sort with the Fazer. So with great fear I started. For each bolt I gave the nut a good blast with a plumber's blowlamp. The idea is that metal expands when hot and maybe the nut would be kind enough to expand a little more than the bolt to aid removal. After a minute or two of heat I applied a spanner and oh-so-gingerly tapped it. The idea here is rather than apply a lot of shearing torque I would apply gentle shocks that would get the nut free and turning.
My plan worked. Slowly, carefully and tenderly each nut was unwound and removed. With each nut I was relieved to see the associated bolt appeared in good order with only a coating of light rust. My heart leapt for joy when the last nut broke it's grip and turned smoothly off it's thread. A couple of the nut's were awkward to reach and I had to use a socket, but I tapped this rather than twisted it to break the grip. It took almost an hour and a half to remove 8 nuts, but because those 8 nuts came off well it was time well spent. Removing the end can and the nut under the footrest was a happy doddle after the manifold bolts. I took time out to look at the old headers. I had thought I may be doing the job prematurely and that there may be another year or two left in these pipes. No, I was right to replace them now. Not only were they rusty where I'd been welding them, they were rusty in lots of other serious places.
This is where the pipes connect to the motor. Places like this you just can't get in to weld.
I spent another hour cleaning the manifold bolts. I placed a shiny new stainless nut on the thread, carefully, by hand, covered the thread in oil and wound the nut up and down, down and up until I could do this with the lightest of touch. They were tight at first as I removed the old rust and paint but each one came to the good. My whole work area was covered in oil and much but the threads were clean and that's what mattered.
I had feared the new exhausts would be a bugger to fit. All this aftermarket stuff is cheaply made, out of shape and never quite right. I picked up the headers, placed them into position and they went in like a lady's hand into a silk glove. No jiggling, no twisting and no cursing. Perfect. Dumbfounded I carefully fitted 8 new stainless steel bolts to the manifold nuts and tightened them slowly and carefully. When they were all just a bit tighter than barely tight I fitted the silencer back on and started the bike. No leaks and a smooth tickover. Happiness. I let the bike run for 5 minutes to burn off the oil and get some heat into them.
It's dirty and mean after fitting, but it's the most beautiful thing to see.
I spent another half-hour tidying up whilst the exhausts cooled. Afterwards I re-tightened each manifold nut, trying to find that perfect balance between too loose and damagingly tight.
The problem with a job like fitting a new set of exhaust headers is that it makes no difference to the bike at all. There's no additional performance, no improved carburation or fuel economy, no noticeable change in the exhaust note and no difference in the handling. In this case this is all a good thing though, it means the job has been done right and a part has been fitted that should remain in good order for a long time to come. Even though the bike felt no different I felt a warm glow inside knowing that all things being equal I should not need to do this job ever again.
One final job I have done. I've painted, repainted and painted again the manifold bolts and nuts. The weak links now are the bolts, they remain in the cylinder head and remain mild steel. I've painted them in high temperature exhaust paint in the hope that they remain covered in paint and free from further rust. I shall watch them like a hawk and paint them regularly.
The paint ain't pretty and I just slapped it on, but if it stops the bolts from rusting then I'm a happy man.
Reader's Comments
Derek Dodson said :-
Hi, Fazer FZS600 2002 owner here. Liked the blog as just fitted stainless pipes myself after the old collector part of my exhaust looked more like Emental cheese!
Bit curious though.... You say your bike is a 91 model and is 11 years old which brings the date up to 2002? when you claim you fitted yours but the Blog is dated 2012 and you talk as is you have just put these pipes on? The dates just dont add up :-)
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
DOH...it's of course a 2001 model not a '91 model. The Fazer did not exist in '91, I think the first ones came out '99.
I shall correct it...
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Frankel said :-
Yo dude! Known what you mean about the bolts. Sheared 3 off my Bandit was a proprer mare to drill em out. Bikes was off the road for 4 weeks. Stainless rox, wouldn't have a steely ever again.
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
Ren - The Ed said :-
Hi Frankel. I dream of a world filled with stainless exhausts, non-rusting bolts and nuts that are strong enough not to sheer or strip their threads. It'd be an expensive motorcycle though!
01/01/2000 00:00:00 UTC
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