748 Exhaust re-assembly poll

You may have seen my initial post where I had trouble getting my exhaust back on after having them ceramic coated.

Well, after letting the parts rest awhile and after I relaxed, did some yoga, took a dump, shot some heroin etc, they're back on.

But not without a significant amount of mechanical persuasion (translation: I used a 3 ft. long pry bar to force the fu*ckers into place).

Now, will I:

I have never had any problems with either one of bikes, But a bike I work on... holly $#!&. I know what you mean about yoga, taking a dump, and shot some heroin, and that with two people.

I was most concerned that the force generated by the use of the pry bar was transmitted to the exhaust manifold and it's mounting studs. Breaking one of those would kind of suck, I'm guessing.

Sure as shite, I didn't want to keep the exhaust manifold loose, mount up the pipes and collector and then tighten the manifold after. Best case, that's a recipe for a exhaust leak right at the flange, worst case I snap one of those studs. Would have never lined up enough to get the flange mounted anyway.

What option did I have? I briefly entertained the idea of opening up the hole in the tabs that mount the collector, but decided not to go that route.

Is this just a simple case of the first law of dissassembly: Things NEVER go back together the same way they were before you took them apart?

Or is it something about the ceramic coating that changed the way they fit?

Someone had an idea that an uneven thickenss of the coating on the face of the manifold flange would cause the manifold to mount at a slightly different angle. Or maybe the thickness of the coating where the pipes slip together make for a closer tolerance and therefore less play.

I don't know .......... I'm putting the Italian Bitch back together and waiting for the snow to clear.

Silly question, but have you ever had the exhaust off before and then re-installed it? My guess it really has to be the ceramic coating that has caused the re-fit issues. I just put my second set of 1/2 system exhaust on my 748/870 and there seems to be plenty of play in the system during installation Even though the stock headpipes have not been altered or changed on my bike, I can't imagine that w/o the ceramic coating that they would ever have a "fit" issue. And oh yeah, don't you know yoga is for weirdos?

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ducaholic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">And oh yeah, don't you know yoga is for weirdos? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Oh, yes, I'm well aware of this. is a pretty good description of my state of mind after the first round of fighting with those pipes.
(Truth is, I don't know the first thing about yoga, yoda, yada yada or anything else. And I'm generally too stressed out to do anything that might help me to be less stressed out. Except for the heroin ....... that works great. I'm just KIDDING, jeez).

But Ducoholic, to answer your question, no I never had the exhaust completely off the bike before. So your point is taken and I think it makes the most sense. Without anything else to point a finger at, this must be a strong probability.

So to all you that might consider the ceramic coating for your pipes, keep in mind that it just might lead to fitup problems later. In hindsight, I wonder if it would have been a good idea to tell them to mask the inner sleeve?

(Now for the 10 or 15 posts from people who put on the coating and had no fitup problems whatsoever).

Chasing the dragon for Ducati related stress relief? Bad advertising for owning a Duc Hopefully once your bike is running some heat cycles will improve the too tight fit. I was considering the ceramic coating coating thing when I got my new Termi's from Section8, but the fit issues and the fact that the increased heat to the mufflers (mine being c/f) made me too wary. Good luck James.

This may sound funny to you guys, but when Pat (aka Trussdude) and I where playing around with his 996 with the Akrapovic system, we could remove the whole system with the exception of the front forward header as one large unit!

We'd set it on a bench until we needed to reinstall it, then slip the front header tube into place as well as attaching the two cans to their mounts and then the rear exhaust manifold. Total time? About three minutes!

Do they heat the pipes to cue the ceramic coating?
Well if they did, that may be why your pipes are such a pain in the ass. they may have warped a little.

Mike, I understand the process to go as follows:

- Pre heat parts @ 650 def. F for an hour. This is basically an initial cleaning.

- Sandblast parts to prep for coating

- Apply coating

- Cure parts at 650 again for an hour to bake coating.

So, 2 full hours at 650 degrees? Maybe it's enough to warp 'em a little, and we know it would only take a little to lead to fit issues.

The heat is part of the process, so it's either subject them to the heat or take a pass on the ceramic coating.

As I travel up the learning curve, I definately should have told them to mask that inner sleeve.......