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I am building a nice driver. And wanted to get your thoughts on stainless exhaust systems. I have had some good work done on a powder coated frame. Stainless 4 bar front end with Chrome 4 inch drop magnum axle.
I am torn on wether to go all polished stainless. Or not worry about it.
And just put the extra bucks towards other items I need.
I know a lot of guys say dont put to much in the underside. Put more
details in the body and interior end of things.
Thanks
Creep
:confused:
Why stainless? I can think of several reasons to have a stainless exhaust, but there are two why not to have one. The first, too costly. The second, I can build my own out of regular steel tubing and did. The Flowmaster mufflers were ~$90 each, the rest of the system, less then $100 including all clamps, U and J bends and 10 feet of tube, welding gas and wire
You can probably do ss as cheap as ceramic coating, and you can still weld/repair/modify it at any time
Plus, stainless is truly forever. I just polished up the 20+ year old mufflers from Stainless Specialities on my 27 and they look like new, inside and out. Spreading out the cost over many years, stainless becomes a real bargain. It will never need any work again, unless you want to bring back the shine at some point.
Don
I agree with IC2 and the other thing that was pointed out to me when I had my custom headers and exhaust system built for my Anglia. Stainles exhaust create an unusual exhaust note that some don't like. We have two different companys in NZ that do ceramic coating which I would recommend. Don (Itoldyouso) has ceramic coated headers on his Bucket that hasn't discoloured from use.
Budget wise .... don't worry about it.
I'm with IC2 on this one.
REGS
Tough call - I have stainless exhaust on my Harley that is ceramic coated inside and it is as bright today as the day I put it on. The ceramic coating inside has kept the stainless from turning gold, as sometimes happens with stainless steel. Once it turns, it's impossible to polish out.
I just got some ceramic coated headers from Hooker and they look pretty good - will keep you all posted as to how they wear.
The last 3 cars I've built all had 3" stainless systems on them. Why because 3 or 4 years ago I bought 100 ft. of 3 in stainless pipe for $50 dollars. All I needed was the mufflers. I welded them all with stainless and never had a problem. As mentioned earlier stainless dose sound different.
I will say .... best sounding headers I ever had .... borla ... stainless steel. NOTHING sounded better. Cost - out of this world!!
REGS
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry clayton
Jerry's exactly correct. It's going to cost you $500 to $600 to ceramic coat a full mild steel system, with headers. The cost of mild steel plus ceramic is close to the same price as SS.
One thing not discussed is heat radiation. I drove my roadster for 7,000 miles "in bare steel" before I took it apart for paint. While the car was apart I had the entire exhaust and headers ceramic coated in satin black (at EMBEE). It is amazing how much cooler the exhaust system runs after it was coated. I was concerned about the heat because I run smooth hood sides and did not want to be blistering the new paint.
When building the system make sure you design it to have parts that are "no longer" than five feet. I spoke with several ceramic coaters before I built the system and that seemed like thats the maximum oven size for most ceramic coating companies. Also, I used stainless steel V-Band clamps to connect the mufflers, and they work great. The hardest (most time consuming part) of building the whole system was building the hangers.
I put all polished SS from headers back, One hard run and it all turned ugly gold. Had no idea I could have had the insides coated.Quote:
Originally Posted by glennsexton
for guys with 32-34 fords with rear coil overs----a take off from mustangs late 90s to 2004 will fit the car pretty nice and go right around the coil overs and line up under the frame rail---just got to shorten the extension--and they are in stainless and if you look--there are probably some in your neighborhood--just ask the guy with the loud pipes what he did with his old stuff--hangar system for them is great also
Jerry are you saying that it will run over the diff, and that this will run from headers too out the back of the car
they will run over the diff, around the coilover and line up along side fuel tank directly under the frame rail--you need to cut the extension loose and slide forward to fit the car
the mufflers can be mounted forwrd of the axle with stock mustang hanger rubbers by simply adding a cross piece for the hangers
as on any car you will need to route the pipes from headers to the mufflers
take a look at a 2003 or 2004 mustang with stock exhaust(if you can find one!!!!)
just got some new respect for Ford. SS exhaust. Huh would never have known that cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry clayton
Thanks Jerry for info. I would guess any after market would fit also?
I also would like to run a cross pipe. But I see no way of doing this. Without
going under the frame rail bottom. And I don't want to do that. Between the
trans and the drive line running through the center. I have no room left.
Just checking to see if any of you guys have put them in your 32-34 Ford.
Thanks
Creep
:D
SG4356
I am doing an 2 1/2 inch MagnaFLow on my wifes 33 and got to build her a set of headers also---the 2 1/2 is a little tighter and I might adjust the height of the vertical loop over the axle a inch --
And the years of mustang are 99-04
I'll try to post pics of the mustang parts in a day or so
Creep
the best place to locate x box I found is generally area of forward u-joint ---bring pipes close together there into x and back out to muffler
Thanks Bud for the reply. I will check it out and see if I can cram it in there somewhere.
Creep
:whacked:
Great pics. will help. planing on doing the exhaust when I get my car back this weekend from the nsra meet in Springfield Mo. Do you know if you can buy smaller size tubing than 2 1/2. would like to run smaller for the room.
Check out www.burnsstainless.com
the stock Mustang size is around 2 in and it is a lot more room around it
Mine's all ceramic coated & built in short sections.
Keeps the floor cooler than stainless.
I found that out when I changed it from mufflers back w/ polished stainless. :(
Old build pic from 2000
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL22/.../280704217.jpg
Newer exhaust
You can see I had to install metal heat shields between mufflers & floor. Still hot.
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL22/.../281040691.jpg
Jeeze that looks real close to the same layout as mine. It's nice to see a dropped front
axle for a change. I thought I was gonna be the only one left on the planet that loves
a dropped front axle. Do you have any hangers from the muffler back? I could not see any. Looks really really good. Thanks for posting these photo's.
Creep
Something I would like to point out to you guys about exhaust heat-----those BIG FLAT mufflers have a huge area to radiate heat from and that large flat surface directs it directly toward the cabin bottom---a round muffler will radiate it differently and not have as much surface area directly reflecting toward the bottom--also a round object will have max volume for the surface area--so in other words--round mufflers will radiate less heat than oval or large flat ones
There are also some coatings to use on bottom of car (or even inside floor) that will insulate very effectively
I have a 1/2" ceramic blanket sandwich 'filling' in my steel floorboard construction, then on top of the boards, ceramic paint, a Juliano's 1/4" foil/ceramic/foil blanket then 3/8" Volara and last, the carpet just for that reason. Might be overkill, but a lot easier then band aids later. I'll probably eventually use some heat deflectors as well, but forgot to install them before the body was mounted
Quote:
Originally Posted by jerry clayton
Lizard Skin comes to mind.
Mike
Lizard skin was one of them---amazing stuff
If you look at 2nd pic- the bottom of floor is coated. This is a steel car. It does help some.
There are hangers on my exhaust. Before & after mufflers. Just hard to see in the pics. I used Deed's hangers. Best I've ever tried.
http://www.deedsengineering.com/IMAG...0SMALL%20B.jpg
http://www.deedsengineering.com/EXHAUST_HANGERS.html
My exhaust system is much like the others, nothing special. Shorty headers, going to 2 1/2" mild steel u-bends tig'd together, a X pipe under the output shaft made out of two 90 degree bends, and some Magnaflow mufflers connected with V-bands. It runs over the axle and out around the gas tank extending all the way to the rear of the frame ends.
I made my hangers and mounts so that they are free to float allowing front to back movement but no side to side movement. I was shocked at the amount that the exhaust system grows in length with temperature. Cold my pipes end 1/4" before the frame caps, and after it's driven they are 1/4" past the end of the frame caps, a full 1/2" of growth. I think you would want to allow some expansion movement so you system is not trying to break apart with the expansion heat cycles.