Quote:
Originally Posted by project_zed
Quick question. What is the downside to aluminum thick walled exhaust over stainless steel besides looks. Anyone?
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cost...
aluminum takes extra care to weld, more expensive equipment, more expensive labor (i know aluminum welders who make $80+/hr), and needs to be relatively pure to resist/hold heat, cracking, and daily abuse. You're looking at easily $5k for a typical low end aluminum exhaust.
performance...
One interesting property of steel for exhausts is that it holds heat to a certain temperature so that you don't get a lot of thermal loss. The property of holding heat versus dispelling it allows gasses to be propelled out of the pipes rather than having to reheat the walls and lose energy like in aluminum