Riding with a broken header pipe

[Eloz]

Hey Guys,

 

So yesterday we went riding a 40km sandy loop. Half way I noticed that my bike lost some grunt and made a terrible noise coming from my exhaust port.

I stopped and found a huge crack in my header pipe, Decided to continue as I was in the middle of nowhere.

When we got back to base I checked again and found a huge hole in my header where the crack was.

No doubt, I have to purchase a new header pipe.

My question is, would there be any sand in my engine from riding with a hole in my header pipe?

I understand that the pressure is high coming out of the exhaust port as you will see in the pictures that I fried the back of my front fender, but is that pressure combined with the bit of shielding from me fender enough to keep sand out?

 

I just do not want to only replace the exhaust header and screw up my engine because I did not check it for sand.

Am I looking at a rebuild also?

What would be the best way to check for sand, if it is at all necessary.

 

Last question, Which header would you recommend to fit onto a fmf 4.1 titanium mufler, because thats what I have at the moment.

 

Thanks guys, pictures attached.

 

Looking forward to you feedback.

 

Roland

[FORMA MOTO]

You will be fine

[Trailryder42]

Looks like a Suzuki. But what?

[AdamW21]

no way sand would have got in there while the motor was running.. I'm sure your valves hate life now tho 

[Eloz]

Why do You say that my valves hate life?, Would they have gotten damaged?

It is a 2007 Suzuki Rmz 450.

[M.r.T.]

Why do You say that my valves hate life?, Would they have gotten damaged?

It is a 2007 Suzuki Rmz 450.

Probably because this would be like running your engine without any exhaust on it at all.  It's going to be hard on your engine without that back pressure that the pipe provides, doesn't necessarily mean that there's sand in there.  If you got sand in your engine you would probably know it fairly quickly.  If it's still running alright and there's no engine noise once you've put your header on then you're probably fine.  Just keep a close eye/ear on it.

[AdamW21]

I say that because of the lack of back pressure due to no exhaust and due to the amount of heat those valves got. The head pipe actually helps get some heat away from the valves. Imagine turning a heat gun on and then putting a fan right in front of it. Your pushing all of that hot air right back on the heat gun and the heat gun is going to get hotter then the setting its on. Same thing with when your head pipe broke. You riding pushing all that air back on the exhaust port heat soaked the valve seats

[Eloz]

I say that because of the lack of back pressure due to no exhaust and due to the amount of heat those valves got. The head pipe actually helps get some heat away from the valves. Imagine turning a heat gun on and then putting a fan right in front of it. Your pushing all of that hot air right back on the heat gun and the heat gun is going to get hotter then the setting its on. Same thing with when your head pipe broke. You riding pushing all that air back on the exhaust port heat soaked the valve seats

Thank you for this information. Should I replace the valves, or what do you recommend moving toward a safe solution. I want to be as careful as possible.

I appreciate everyone's advice.

[AdamW21]

Thank you for this information. Should I replace the valves, or what do you recommend moving toward a safe solution. I want to be as careful as possible.

I appreciate everyone's advice.

Just ride the bike first. If it runs good and starts fine then you got lucky and nothing was hurt

[BDubb106]

I would not be too concerned. Just take a few mins to pull the cam cover and take a look. If they are white then you may want to think about replacing them. That means there was some serious heat going on in there, which can cause brittleness. If they are not then bolt it back up and go ride. JMHO. 

Edited November 20, 2015 by BDubb106