mild vs stainless steel exhausts

[Nozila]

im about to get an exhaustsystem soon [turbo back] and wondering what is the advantages/disadvatages of having mild steel over stainless steel and vice versa.

[JNR24]

MILD STEEL: Heavier, Rust's, Not as noisy, slightly more durable than stainless in certian condiotions (due to its thickness).

STAINLESS: Doesnt weigh as much, doesnt rust, a little louder, Just as durable as mild steel.

Mild steel exhausts preffer to live in dryer/hot conditions were wet roads dont exist. (when water/moisture hits a hot mild steel exhuast day after day, youl be lucky to see a couple of years out of it.

Hope this helps.

Stick with the sainless!

[Nozila]

hmm interesting. i was offered a customed made mild turbo back system for approx. $900 with stainless exhaust, home made mind you. Then i went to a workshop and they said $1200 for a turbo back stainless. For a $300, is the stainless considered more favourable?

[JNR24]

pay the extra $300 & stick with stainless, sounds nicer too!

[Clint32]

Stinless Lighter? Any system made here would probably use the same thickness pipe as mild steel, and would therefor be heavier.

A mild steel exhaust will last a few years 5+ if it is prepared proparly before being painted. Im sure new cars dont have stainless exhausts and they would last more than 2 years.

Stainless also has a more audible drone in the cabin compared to mild steel pipes i have found.

[Joe]

From what ive been told that Stainless Steal (SS) will be heavier

due to the mixtures of alloys & chromium, Weight wont be a big difference to lets say aluminium or titanium, Your lookin at 1-5kg difference.

Well i never really knew different metal made differnt sounds but the muffler itself, eg apexi dunk sounds different to a apexi n1, well it might be the case that different metal do make different sounds, but u gotta remember legal db level is 90.

Mild steal will rust & will last a good 5years+ if anti-rust was spreyed on the metal.

Quality of workmenship between of a custom made or workshop.

98% of the exhaust ive seen is MIG welded together, dont get me wrong MIG is fine (people MIG submarines together) & it doesnt take a genius to weld just a steady hand (easy 2 use, hard 2 master)

The only real advantage of a workshop is that they have all the tools & a hoist to easilly lift up the car without using jacks & jackstands, to be honest i cant see any real advantages if u go to either one, but the price. if the home doen job knows what his doin.

Hope this helps a bit.

[gts4-skyline]

From what I have heard, stainless has a more tinny sound. Depends on whats on offer at the time, my exhaust on the onld R32 was mild steel and that was on there for 4 years and was still fine. And you all know what the weather is like over here in NZ, and it wasn't even painted.

Glenn

[akeenan]

MILD STEEL: Heavier, Rust's, Not as noisy

not as noisy? surely this would have more to do with the actual shape of the exhaust and not the material. If you had a straight pipe running from your turbo made from stainless steel then changed to a straight pipe made from mild i doubt it would be less noisy if they both were exactly the same shape and size..