TOPIC:

Memory being very hazy from 33 years ago and most probably again playing tricks on me, but seem to vagely recall (likely just a mirage) a small drain hole somewhere along the bottom of each muffler which easily gets stopped up. Such drain hole does not show in the factory shop manual or Chilton or on Kawasaki.com parts diagram, so there's a good chance I'm remembering some other muffler on some other bike. But wanted to mention it for whatever little it might be worth.

One possible *Rube Goldberg-ian* work-around for the battery vent line issue:

Get the smallest zip-ties you can find and haunt the halloween closeout sales for a bag of balloons.

Find a small, black balloon and zip-tie it to the end of the vent tube. It shouldn't seal totally, but if you think it may have, borrow a page from TG's contribution to Wireman's *planned parenthood* - poke it with a needle up around the tie somewhere - to allow pressure to equalize.

Then keep an eye on it. If it fills up - and the discoloration stops - you might have saved that last set of pipes....

thats a really good idea..

SMRT Award of the day!

Peterosaur, Thank you. As Pyxen says, "That's a really good idea". I will try that ASAP. I now have to believe that battery acid fumes are part of the problem.

The carb's on this bike have never been synchronized, or balanced. Is there any chance the fuel flow could be out of adjustment on the two right side carbs and is contributing to the problem? All four float bowl drain plugs have been out to see if fuel drained through okay. It does seem to. The rubber manifold and collars were all replaced with OEM parts a few years ago due to cracking. Would it help if the carbs were cleaned out and synchronized?

The engine does run well and uses no oil. Fuel mileage is about 45 mpg. If I place the palm of my hand on the ends of the mufflers when the bike is idling or at maybe 1500 RPM in neutral, the pulses from the exhaust are not equal. Some are pretty good and one or two others have almost no pulse. Could this be a factor?

Is it possible to coat the inside of the mufflers with some kind of heat and acid resistant coating? One that will not affect the chrome?

Thank you Patton for the drain hole thought. I will look tonight for any drain holes.

Pterosaur wrote:

RandallS1 wrote:

Thank you Wireman and Peterosaur for your ideas and help.

No problem.

Never thought about the battery vent. In the past, the right side mufflers have shown streaks of discoloration on the chrome as if something corrosive ran down over them.

There's a clue. It's worth remembering here that chrome is a POROUS, electrolytic metal.

...The corrosion does appear to start on the inside and work it's way through to the outer skin. It always appears in two locations. First at the muffler tips as rusted through holes and then near the center mounting bolt but somewhat towards the rear of the bike.

There's a number of things going on here, and it's no mystery why that appears to be so.

Strangely enough, for an outfit that operates steel mills, Kaw motorcycles has never been known for the quality of theirs. It's worth a thought that those mufflers showed up at the mill on a scrap barge. There's something over 2000 recipes for specialty steels, and I'd bet that the mix they picked was one of the cheaper ones.

Ditto for their plating.

The steel in the pipes is the most reactive metal in the structure, and especially since it is subjected to the repetitive thermal shock and exposure to exhaust gases, my bet is that acid is getting through the chrome/nickle plating, oxygen binds to the steel, then it's off to the rust races - hence the initial discoloration.

Is there any possibility it might be heat corrosion even though the exhaust tubes are not brown or blue?

That's certain to be *part* of the problem - but not the sole cause. If that were the case - that one side was running that much different than the other - there'd be other evidence - either the pipes would dis-color, or the motor'd be running like a *Wireman Special* - so wheezy, whiny and asthmatic that the problem would be obvious...

dont pay any attention to him,hes still mad about the 500hp shot of nitrous we put on his cop bike when he wasnt looking! it did make one hell of a show though,and once he came back down somewhere in gulf of mexico i think it was,and we cleaned the salt water out of his bike it was good as new.and he was only in the bodycast 5-6 months,but you should of seen the ratings on americas funniest home videos!

Post edited by: wireman, at: 2006/10/30 11:15

RandallS1 wrote:

Peterosaur, Thank you. As Pyxen says, "That's a really good idea". I will try that ASAP. I now have to believe that battery acid fumes are part of the problem.

You're welcome.

Would it help if the carbs were cleaned out and synchronized?

Couldn't hurt.

...the pulses from the exhaust are not equal. Some are pretty good and one or two others have almost no pulse. Could this be a factor?

Not likely.

Is it possible to coat the inside of the mufflers with some kind of heat and acid resistant coating? One that will not affect the chrome?

Saw a guy dump a quart of oil (true story) down his pipes in quest of the same answers.

Before it finally burned off, going down the street the guy looked like a WWII Fletcher class laying down a smoke screen for Taffy 3. Cops pulled him over twice as a "hazzard to navigation" and the EPA wanted to declare the bike a toxic waste site.

Had some real laughs on that one.

The short answer, as far as I'm aware, is no.

Anything you dump down the pipes will have to be able to handle the EGT and not break down into compounds - acids, essentially - that assist the corrosion process.

Running a tad rich might help - the natural carbon that would coat the inside of the pipes is chemically adverse to the oxidation process.

Otherwise, keeping them dry, cleaned and waxed are the best way I know of to stave off corrosion.

Oh - and you can send your old pipes to:



C.O.D. - he needs them to prop up his porch...

Post edited by: Pterosaur, at: 2006/10/30 11:32

Thank you Peterosaur, Pyxen, Wireman and Patton. Hope I did not miss anyone. Loved the photo of the NASA 900 Z1. I very much appreciate all the advice and suggestions. I will look for muffler drain holes, use the balloon idea, reroute the battery ventline waaay back and down, have the carbs synchronized and balanced, use the center stand from now on, and see what the fuel/air mixture is. Maybe it needs be adjusted on the right side. Maybe the mufflers need to run hotter. Thinking about checking the exhaust gas temperature and comparing the right side to the left side. I will post a photo pretty soon.

I would like to tell you guys about the time I was enjoying a July 4'th ride with my fiance when we were aggressively attacked by a bottle rocket but not sure where to post it.

Stumbled across this site recently which is a rather extensive development history of the Z1


www.z-power.co.uk/Z1.DOC




One excerpt from the article is as follows:

AT THE BOTTOM OF EACH SILENCER WAS A SMALL DRAIN HOLE WHERE WATER COULD ESCAPE. IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT TO KEEP THESE HOLES CLEAR OTHERWISE PREMATURE INTERNAL ROTTING WOULD OCCUR, SOMETIMES WITHIN MONTHS.

Post edited by: Patton, at: 2006/11/01 10:01

Post edited by: Patton, at: 2006/11/01 10:10