took off the pipes to derustify, there was no water in them?
I figured that there would be a fair amount in there to cause the smoke, but there was none.
should I be able to see the water, should i be able to pour it out if the pipes are off?
also now that the pipes are off what do the gaskets look like that are supposed to be between the pipes and the engine?
is there anything I should check for while the pipes are off?
Ever see water form on the outside of an iced beverage? This is condensation that collects from the humidity in the warmer air making contact with the cold glass surface. Saturated air can no longer hold suspended moisture, and this is deposited on the wall of the glass.
Whenever the air inside the muffler is warmer than the outside air, this same condition exists. Humidity in the air gets deposited on the inner wall of the muffler/ pipe as condensation. The water is a byproduct of combustion and it can also come from the outside air. It can build over time if the engine never gets the pipe to a temperature to evaporate all the water collected throughout the pipe. There is usually a hole in the pipe system at the low point to drain off large excesses, but the condensation can easily stick to the pipe walls just as it does on the outside of that drinking glass.
When the pipe heats, it slowly turns the water into vapor. Just as when you boil water on the stove, it doesn't turn all the water to steam at once, it does it gradually until it is all gone. That is why I told you to run the bike on the freeway for 20 minutes or so, in order for the engine heat to warm the pipe to a temperature that eventually turns all the condensation to water vapor an pushes it out the end of the pipe.
The cycle is repetitive, by the way. As the pipe cools down, more condensation builds up on the inner pipe wall. Next time you start it up and the pipe begins heating, you'll see white smoke again. The severity of the condensation, and duration of the vapor exit, interacts with the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere where the bike lives.
The header gaskets look like copper doughnuts when new, and deform or flatten during installation. They stick in the head and often have black deposits on them to camouflage their lurking remains.
Cheers,