Somewhere along the way Saturday I met a rock. Pictures aren't so great and for some reason I failed to take one before I started the process. But the dent was about 3" long, 1.5" wide and about 1/2" to 5/8" deep. Pretty substantial dent right in the "dip" of the head pipe.
This came off my 450KTM. I figured up the volume in order to only fill the area where the dent was. Poured in 11oz of water. Froze for 2hrs--took out--thawed out (took first pictures) at this point the dent had pushed out about 1/4 of the way.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/CrowlMoto/Picture004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/CrowlMoto/Picture005.jpg
Water back in..let set overnight (6hrs)...pulled out and voila!!! fixed..still scratched but fixed!!! ..sure wasn't wanting to buy a new pipe!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/CrowlMoto/Picture007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v476/CrowlMoto/Picture008.jpg
I know the location of the dent in this pipe really lent itself to doing this procedure..had the dent been in a straight section it would have been much harder to do without damaging the rest of the pipe.
Thought maybe you'd be as surprises as I did that this can work without accidently splitting the whole pipe!!!!
ya, just made sure I only added enough water to cover the dent. then watched it VERY carefully.
I was very surprised it work so smoothly as well.
05' 450EXC
04' YZ125
ok thanks im going to try it with my crf 450 tonight ill takes some pics
I have known about this for several years now and have even told some members about it and was told "NO WAY DUDE THAT WILL NEVER WORK".Now maybe they will try it before buying a new header.
Have to plug the ends?
I put plastic bags over the ends wrapped in duct tape. However, the water never even made it's way to the ends.
05' 450EXC
04' YZ125
I spent me about $100 doing that same thing: except mine was anew pipe! The guys can atest to the fact that I don't think water would have fixed my pipe!! Too many time onto that side I guess!!! But now that I have myself a little starting dinger, maybe I can get it to pop out now and save another $100 later on.....
so all you did was just add water and stick it in the ice box?