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Is the point of this thread not about how RB quality has gone down ? His old RB exhaust was fine under heavy heat.. New one busted under heavy heat . Or maybe it busted because he drives on rough roads.. I explained we have rough roads too even in LA , so much so that a pothole busted my rad .. I can assume it would crack **** welds on a Exhaust as well. PJ's old exhaust never broke on country roads either. We are still talking about quality.. If you have a Bridge port or live anywhere with " rough roads "you might not want to drop 1200$ on a NEW rb system .And "germany " understands english quite well , I have spoken to him many, many,times without issue and his RX7 puts all of ours to shame.
Also the weld quality above is preety bad as is the chromed headers.. That looks EBay quality bad..
Nothing AT ALL to do with weld quality!
There is a major design defect with the muffler. The inlet pipes are too close to the shell periphery. Stainless steel transfers heat poorly and is also fairly weak as a material, so when the inner pipe is 1000 degrees F or more and the outer shell is only 200F-300F or so, the inner pipe is going to break the end cap because the end cap is too small in area there to allow for the heat related dimensional changes.
Also the mufflers are loud and very sharp sounding. The new muffler was as loud as my old muffler with no packing left in it, but with an even harsher tone. I ended up making restrictors by welding large washers with 38mm inside diameters to the tailpipe tips in an effort to cut down the noise. It made it only barely tolerable.
With my repacked old muffler, you cannot hear the exhaust AT ALL when cruising down the road at 4000-4500rpm in top gear. Granted, part of this is how noisy my ring and pinion are, but even in city traffic, you mostly hear intake honk rather than exhaust noise.
There is a major design defect with the muffler. The inlet pipes are too close to the shell periphery. Stainless steel transfers heat poorly and is also fairly weak as a material, so when the inner pipe is 1000 degrees F or more and the outer shell is only 200F-300F or so, the inner pipe is going to break the end cap because the end cap is too small in area there to allow for the heat related dimensional changes.
Also the mufflers are loud and very sharp sounding. The new muffler was as loud as my old muffler with no packing left in it, but with an even harsher tone. I ended up making restrictors by welding large washers with 38mm inside diameters to the tailpipe tips in an effort to cut down the noise. It made it only barely tolerable.
With my repacked old muffler, you cannot hear the exhaust AT ALL when cruising down the road at 4000-4500rpm in top gear. Granted, part of this is how noisy my ring and pinion are, but even in city traffic, you mostly hear intake honk rather than exhaust noise.
I couldn't wrote it better, same experience.
The new style didn't work with a bridgy, perhaps with a none ported 12 A making some louder sound show and will give a slightly better flow then the italian style old muffler without the reliability.
Some pictures of the inside of the italian style muffler also not the best welding get optimal flow.
Last edited by Rx7fb spirit r; Oct 10, 2021 at 03:02 PM.
Neat. It still has nothing to do with the point of this thread.
OP did not port his engine and then the exhaust fell apart. OP already had the built engine and had no problem with his old RB exhaust on it, for many years. He put a newer RB exhaust on and it fell apart in 1000 miles. That was the point of this thread.
The engine did not change, just the exhaust. The problem was in the exhaust.
....and I installed that muffler on a GSL-SE engine with stock port closing times, just runner modifications, and that is the engine I had all the problems with it.
The bridge port was out of the car between 2017 and a month or two ago. I only ran the stainless muffler for about that month, about a thousand miles, and it did hold up but only because I put about a pound of MIG wire on the back of the muffler to tie the pipe in to the outer shell. This probably is just moving the weak spot somewhere else, when metal wants to expand it WILL expand or die trying.
The interesting thing is that I datalogged the same tune, on the bridge port, with both mufflers.
This is with the stainless muffler.
This is with the old perf core muffler after I rebuilt the over axle pipe, using 1 7/8" to 2" twin pipes merging into a 2 1/4" pipe, 16 gauge stainless instead of 1 3/4" to 2 1/4" schedule 40:
WOT is largely UNCHANGED. However the interesting thing is the perf core muffler flows a lot more at part throttle/mid range RPM, as evidenced by the tune leaning out heavily. This is big on a bridgeport because you want the exhaust to be free flowing to keep from getting too much part throttle exhaust reversion. So it's still a win, even if peak flow did not change.
is stainless easy to weld, I know aluminum isn't because when forming a bead, you just get a big glob. I use to stick weld mild steel in shipyards with 5p and LH. I think it was 5p
Stainless is a bitch because it does not transfer heat very well. At least with a MIG, the margin between getting good penetration and blowing a huge hole in it is razor thin.
Sort of the opposite problem as with aluminum, which wicks away all the heat.
is stainless easy to weld, I know aluminum isn't because when forming a bead, you just get a big glob. I use to stick weld mild steel in shipyards with 5p and LH. I think it was 5p
i find stainless easier to stick weld than mild steal. 316l rod.
While I understand this is a first gen post primarily, you guys have me thinking about the quality across all the RB products.
I purchased this second hand RB dual for my FD about a week ago, given the fact that they are on backorder until March 31st if memory serves, and for a whopping price of $250.00. Needless to say, I jumped on it, remembering how great it sounded on my last FD way back when. I can't say how many miles the exhaust has had, how many owners, etc. I realize the pictures aren't that great either. I did take a grinding wheel to the welds to clear the rust off, and part of the pipe, but would you say the quality has changed on this one as well, for those of you that have seen the RB dual?
Hi guys, so I just picked up a used full sp exhaust from a local seller for less than half of the price new. Here’s what I can see after washing off the dirt and grime as it was stored outside. The midpipe section shows sign of rust all over so my plan is to paint it with high temperature bbq paint a little later today or tomorrow. My question is, should I paint the headers and muffler too? They seem to be better material quality and show light rust in some spots by the weld areas. Nothing crazy but I’m wondering if it’s best to paint everything now while it’s off the car. I’ll post some pictures soon so you can see what I’m working with after washing it all but here’s what it looked like prior.
Nice score. Only paint that last on the exhaust is vht. But even that doesn't last that long. Especially on the header. That ss muffler has a raspy dirt bike sound too it. Not like the deep tone of the old Italian made ones.
