for the turbo guys, what did you construct, or what is your manifold constructed of? If stainless what type? Actually I should have said turbo manifold. I know we use the factory exhaust manifolds.

 

You mean the up pipe? From the exhaust manifolds to the turbo

Or down pipe? From the turbo into the cat

Both are steel. Not SS, just steel. 2 1/2 inch steel pipe.

 

Hmm
would SS not be more advantagous? I know it would be more expensive, much more expensive.
BTW Baggs, I am Davy, good friends with Ben. Sorry to hear about the epic troubles you have been having.

 

i thought ss does not retain heat very well. wouldn't you want to retain as much heat as possible to have faster flowing exhaust gases?

 

Nice to meet you


And yes, if I would have know it was NOT SS, I would have stated that I want SS. It was part of my wonderful turbo package

Larrio- I am not the best person to answer your question, But I'll try. As far as heat retention, I have no dea. You could have it ceramic coated and that would help in the flowing of the exhaust. But for the pipes that are not ceramic coated, SS is best IMO. Due to not rusting.

I have MANY steel pipes on my car that are rusting and they have only been on there 1 year

 

See I am glad you spoke up, people were saying crap about using SS. I am asked them about the pipes 2 years down the road and they said it should be fine. If you pay 4 grand or more you should get stainless pipes!

 

Hell I took pics of it and posted it on the org about 4 months ago. It's surface rust, but rust none the less.

 

Ya I know you did I am referring to shadows recent posts on his kit about mild steel being cheaper.

 

Compare this...
Burns Stainless 2½" U Bend = $90.56
JC Whitney Aluminized Steel 2½" U Bend = $14.99

Multiply by a several times for all the pipes you need and you'll know why we stick w/ mild steel.

 

How much do you charge for your kit? Burns stainless is ver high quality but also very expensive, there are other places to get U-bends.

 

SS has a lower thermal conductivity than non-stainless, so heat is retained in the exhaust gas better than in an exhaust made of non-stainless steel.

 

You can see stainless is only twice as much, and will last the life of the car and keep exhaust gas moving and not let it settle inside the exhuast system.

http://www.ssheaders.com/JBends.htm

 

What grade SS is that? B/c if it's a low grade it'll still corrode from high temps. It can also crack under FI setups if it's a brittle grade. SS is also overkill on the intake side. Pipes never get more than 100+ degrees and powdercoating prevents any real corrosion problems. Burns isn't the cheapest source for SS pipes but they offer a lot of information and only have the high quality SS that will endure racing conditions.

I'm not saying SS is a bad idea. It's just that mild steel works fine in our situation especially when we're doing prototype work and aren't sure every piece will be permanent.

In a perfect world, I'd work w/ only aluminum on the IC and stainless on the manifold. But when considering a budget and a time schedule, I'd prefer to save a bit of money on piping and upgrade the level of components since w/ ceramic coating and some heat wrap it'll perform the same and still outlive the car. I don't have a TIG setup handy to do SS justice nor do I have the welding skills. Our next round of upgrades for the Max may include tubular SS manifolds that's down on the list of upgrades since a real intake manifold upgrade would see larger gains.

 

And I said my pipes were being ceramic coated didn't I?

Never said mild steel was better, I just don't see the point of SS for all applications due to it's cost. And Bags piping is rusting because I don't think Hal coated them in any way. Of course it's going to rust with bare steel. If the pipes are coated, then they won't rust. And ceramic coating is still cheaper than using stainless.

PFI's kits are mild steel also, so is Custommaxima's. Both are over $4K also. As for my kit, I really don't think there is going to be one. Custom work/fabrication is more my thing. There really isn't enough of a Maxima market to justify building a kit and dealing with the headaches that involves. The pipes are being jigged, so I may offer that to those who want to build a custom kit, but that's probably going to be the extent of it. I'd only want to do custom work on cars here in ATL.

You want to use SS, more power to you. But I'd say to do some real research instead of just asking here.

 

You should check out their outrageous shipping charges too. I tried ordering from there once, an $8 part that is about 10" long and weighs 2lbs had a shipping charge of $20.

And non SS pipes won't allow the exhaust to cool and settle in an exhaust system. Do some research on fluid dynamics, even with the lower thermal conductivity of SS, there isn't going to be a huge appreciable difference in exhaust velocity. Dyno a SS Y-Pipe, then dyno a non SS Y-Pipe from the same maker. There is not going to be an appreciable difference in power.

 

They are coated. Just coated with BS hi temp paint, that came off and now is rusting.

When I replace mine, SS will be on there

 

galvanized steel couldnt be used? I just know that it does not rust.