I recently had a Budget Y-pipe installed at a local racing shop that does custom exhaust work. I was talking to the owner today about potentially fabricating a B-pipe with a resonator. He said he could do that and would use aluminized steel and a Magnaflow stainless steel resonator. I told him that my Budget Y-pipe was stainless steel (which is what I ordered and what the invoice specified) and he said he didn't think it was. He said if it was stainless steel a magnet would adhere to it. I went home and I tried it and the magnet does not adhere to the Y-pipe or the flex section. My Y-pipe did not come with the test pipe. However, a magnet will adhere to the muffler, the pipe between the muffler (B-pipe?) and the catalytic convertor, all of which are stock.

Surely the stock exhaust isn't all stainless steel! WTF, am I missing something?

Is Budget selling me a bill of goods or is the stainless steel wrapped in aluminized steel? If it is, I can't see the sense of that and how would I know?

 

Stainless steel wrapped in aluminized steel? That would be pretty dumb huh. Well I have my budget y-pipe in my room and a magnet does stick to it so I guess it is stainless. On the budget site, they show their pipes painted black but mine came painted silver. I guess you can give budget a call and ask them how to tell the difference between aluminized and stainless and tell them about your situation.

 

I have been assured my a member of torontomaxima.com that the Budget Y-pipe is stainless steel. T-304 stainless steel is essentially non-magnetic, but becomes slightly magnetic when coldworked, whatever that means. He also provided some other technical composition info which is beyond me.

Now I can sleep tonight and won't make enemies at Budget tomorrow, lol!

 

Hey, are you Bobo on TMEC? If you are, I'm Jay93SE. How's it going?

 

Yeah T-304 SS is usually non-magnetic so you have nothing to worry about. I think its usually the 400 series of metal that is magnetic.

PS. don't go back to that shop to get your bpipe if they don't know basic concepts concerning metals they use daily.

 

Exactly.

T-304 is magnetic if its bent from its original configuration, but just the bend becomes mildly magnetic not the rest.

The stock system (2k2 not sure on the 4th Gens) is cheap SS ie 400 series I believe T-409 and its is magnetic because less nickel is used.

Budget did start making aluminized pipes about 3 weeks ago because of the demand, they are $50 cheaper, approx $150 US.

 

The guy from torontomaxima.com also told me to go elsewhere as did a moderator from nwmaxima.com. Obviously the shop I went to deals in aluminized steel and don't know their a$$ from page 4 when it comes to stainless steel.

 

I think two very good options for a 2.5" bpipe would be either Budget or Brullen.

Budget offers the same SS magnaflow resonator, on T-304 SS and I'm not sure exactly what Brullen uses, but their setups do sound very nice.

Additionally, since these two companies have already worked with Maxima's, you shouldn't have to worry too much about fitment issues, as they use a standard design.

Jim, as well as many other members have used budget bpipes, so you can ask them about their experiences (I haven't heard of anyone complaining about them).

 

Budget y-pipe is SS . had it for two years in rough Chicago winter and there is no rust on it .

I just need to get it wrapped with some high quality exhaust wrap

Nick.

 

I just read motorvate.ca's write up of the Budget Y again. I just noticed that the cat is already at 2.5"!
I went over to Speedy Muffler to see if they do mandrel bend custom piping and they don't. Only crush bends. I was told to go see Carline Muffler in Poco so I'll have to pay them a visit soon.

I checked out Brullen and their catbacks are almost a grand!

 

Nick:

I have been told by Budget and another local race shop not to wrap the flex section in exhaust wrap. It will retain moisture and will result in corrosion and damage down the road. Exhaust wrap is used primarily for wrapping headers when racing.

BlackCat:

The Budget B-pipe is C$260, C$10 more than the Y-pipe. The $260 version includes the resonator. Interestingly, the people in Ontario can get their pipes installed for C$15 at Budget, the same price as shipping, yet they won't give a price break to orders being shipped.

 

i have a budget y and b with res, both ss. i was wondering about the exhaust wrap issue. i have my y pipe wrapped with dei exhaust wrap including the flew section. is this something that i should take off of the flex section. ive only had the y pipe for maybe 5-6k miles. i dont want it to corrode. the reason i wrapped the flex section to begin with is because i thought it would muffle some of the sound that comes out of it. any thoughts on this??

 

If people wrap the Y-pipe I believe they generally wrap only the flex section. I don't think it will do much harm to leave it on the Y-pipe, but conversely I don't think it will do any good either. From what I gather, you should take it off the flex section for the abovementioned reasons. I would be inclined to remove all the exhaust wrap you have installed. Better safe than sorry and I don't think wrapping the non-flex section of the pipe will do much for dampening any sound.

 

ceramic coating sounds like a more perminant solution. Prolly more expensive though.

 

Here's a write-up on exhaust wrap from motorvate.ca:

http://www.motorvate.ca/mvp.php/520

I'm investigating on having a local muffler shop do up a custom exhaust for me. Although I'll be in T.O. next month for a week I'll not be carrying a B pipe on the plane with me!

 

Here is some info on header wrap that convinced me not to use it.

http://www.centuryperformance.com/heatwraps.asp

 

wrapping the pipe and the headers improves the scavenging effect, which is to get the hot exhaust gases out of the exhaust faster. The wrapping keeps the exhaust hot, allowing the gas to get out faster before it cools(which it starts to do immediatly as it leaves the engine), thus allowing more air into the engine quicker, thus creating more power. In theory it is all correct, and on some cars it will help but not to much gain, but prob not very much on the maxima.