Blue Chrome

[visage]

I just made an 800 mile trip in my 2004, 2500 Ram six speed and the chrome on my bumper is turning blue on the exhaust side. I only have the standard gauges, and nothing show hot. I run the trip with the Curise Control set at 80 MPH. Has the bluing happened to anyone else, or does anyone know what caused it to get so hot?

Thanks,

Gary

 

[agkrueger]

Gary, Is this happening with the stock exhaust or aftermarket? I have a buddy with aftermarket exhaust and no engine mods and the 5 inch straight tip is closer to his bumper and it turned it blue also. The chrome on these things leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[Prairie Dog]

It's completely normal and a little wax takes it rite off. I put a turn down on mine to stop the bumper and trailer from getting exhaust on them.

 

[mattymac]

this should tell you how hot these trucks run. Makes you want to get a pyro that much faster.

 

[SRadke]

Blue color = 5-600° F. Yea, it could get that hot but after the losses in the turbo and pipe you'd have to be on it pretty hard. Are you sure it's blueing from heat and not just a skif of soot?



-Scott

 

[jelag]

I'm reading between the lines of two posts... . If your waxing the bumper and taking the blue off... this is not something that heat is causing to the metal..... but from something from the exhaust stream... . I'm guessing that a 80 MPH the temperature at the exhaust wouldn't be more than 200 or so degrees... ... Theres a lot of wind under that truck taking the heat out of the exhaust over that 20 some odd ft of pipe... .



Jim

 

[SRadke]

I'm reading between the lines of two posts... . If your waxing the bumper and taking the blue off... this is not something that heat is causing to the metal..... but from something from the exhaust stream... . I'm guessing that a 80 MPH the temperature at the exhaust wouldn't be more than 200 or so degrees... ... Theres a lot of wind under that truck taking the heat out of the exhaust over that 20 some odd ft of pipe... .



Jim

Jim, althought I totally agree with most of your post there is something I should point out. When metals discolor from heat they actually only discolor on the surface, not all the way through. The discoloration is caused by an oxide layer that forms on the surface and refracts the light. As this oxide layer builds up to diffrent thicknesses it will diffract diffrent wavelenths of light thereby making the metal appear a diffrent color, the most obvious of which is blue. What I'm getting at here is that it actually is possible to buff the color off because it's only caused by this coating on the surface of the metal. Aint science great!



-Scott

 

[Cohomojo]

I've experienced the same thing and wax did take it off. I like the idea of a turned down tail piece.

 

[Prairie Dog]

You can even smear the "bluing" with your finger! Having blued exhaust pipes on motor cycles I can tell you no rubbing with your fingers will touch the real thing.

It's just exhaust soot.