To add to the debate of all the exhausts being offered...........

Yesterday we had a customer here getting a clutch installed. I walked under his car and noticed an exhaust that wasn't ours on his car. I took a quick look and noted that the flanges on the exhaust were starting to rust.

I went up front and asked the customer what kind of exhaust it was and how long had he had it. The customer told me what the exhaust was and that he had bought it in August, only 6 months ago.

I took him and a camera back to his car to show him the rust that was already developing on the flanges. He was surprised as this exhaust system is advertised to be all stainless.

To prove to him that it was in fact not stainless, I got one of our large shop magnets and stuck it on the flange. The tubing, hangers and tip were in fact stainless but the flanges were nothing but chromed mild steel.

Here is a picture of the flange with the magnet hanging on it for the proof.



Out of respect for one of the vendors on this forum that I owe some favors to I am not going to say what exhaust this is. Don't ask, don't send me a PM.

The point of this post is to show that there IS a difference in what you buy and in this case even what you THINK you are buying.

I did not dyno the car back to back against ours, as you can see in the picture there is also an resonator in the system...........you all know how I feel about those. This is just a post to show the quality, no matter how it is advertised, does vary.

Our COMPLETE exhaust is 100% 304 grade stainless. It will NOT rust. The 3/8" thick flanges that we have laser cut for our exhaust from 304 stainless cost us up to $35 EACH. It doesn't take long to figure out how our costs to manufacture our exhausts add up rather quickly.

Thanks for reading.

 

well it doesn't look like a megan racing TBE. they usually have the resonated test pipe not a resonator on the separate pipe.

good find david. thats why your pretty much top notch!

 

David, 304SS will rust but its self limiting. Cutting ss expose the iron in the material, will rust till it hits the chromium dioxide Cr2O3 film/barrier interface.

 

I've actually seen quite a few "full stainless" exhausts that use mild steel flanges. It's pretty common.

to Buschur for using all stainless parts to build their parts.

Corey #89 STU

 

I am no engineer or chemist but I will argue anyway. I have NEVER seen a piece of 304 grade stainless rust, end of freaking story. I can lay a piece out in the salty road if you like for proof.

If you cut it with a blade that is contaminated with iron from cutting something else then I'd agree you could see some rust from the contamination but that's it.

 

So what clutch are you installing... ?

Very good detail, most people who work on a car miss these obvious things and would just let the guy go on his way.

 

just look at any of your exhaust that has been in "service" for awhile, they look like crap. Like i said, the rust/oxidation is self limiting - its cosmetically un-pleasing. You avoid that by electropolishing to remove iron from the surface to leave a Cr203-Nickel rich layer

 

Abner, I know you're trying to sound smart by being technical, but I think you're mistaking the rust that David is showing here with normal oxidation. Buschur exhausts that have been in "service" for a while do not rust like this.

 

Clay: oxidation = rust! Any form of discoloration on the metal surface indicates this

 

Look at the picture again. See the pipes? That's what a Buschur exhaust looks like after being in service for a while. Now, look at the flange - that is rust. Buschur flanges do NOT look like that after years of service.

So what are you trying to say?

 

what I'm saying:

304 stainless will rust, unless the iron rich surface is removed BUT its self limiting

mild steel will rust and rust, non-self limiting, till everything is rusted away

thats all i'm saying

period

 

Great discussion. Closed.