Aluminized steel for exhaust piping?
 

Just curious if aluminized steel (16 gauge) would be ok to use for the exhaust on my 13b turbo? Any issues with the heat?

Dan

no. unless you want to replace it every 6 months. 304 stainless 16 ga. for downpipe and back, 321 stainless 16 ga. for manifold.

excellent, thank you!

I used 16 gauge for everything but my downpipe in my first two exhausts, clean the welds and spray with that zinc in a can and never had an issue with rust, or pipes rotting at all.

I dont see it being an issue at all, my next exhaust will probably have aluminized piping in it again too.

Untill the other day, all of the racing beat header\exhaust used to be made out of steel.

Not the turbo stuff, it was all 304. I have one in my room thats 4 years old.

The NA stuff was, and mine fell apart.

NOPE, it used to be all steel...

Also, HKS used to be steel.

The problem with aluminized steel piping is that it is thin and it melts. It's so thin that the exhaust will resonate and make lots of noise. I have some aluminized piping in my exhaust system currently. One section, which is about 2 feet long, and just before the axle, has a big triangle shaped spot about 10 inches long where the pipe had started to melt, quite impressive, really.

Very good info, thanks guys. I ordered 12 feet (more than enough) 304 stainless steel 3" piping from a local company to finish the exhaust off. Good thing I asked, I didn't realize that the rotary heat could even melt the aluminized steel.

How thin? RB uses .120

Straight from RB's website:

"Racing Beat's Road Racing Header is the first step in building a serious racing exhaust system. The engine-to-pipe flange is flame cut from 1/2-inch thick flat steel. Like all of the headers we manufacture, the Road Racing Header is constructed with 2-inch O.D. mild steel tubing, .120-inch inch wall thickness, and mandrel-bends throughout."

To the OP:
Also, the OEM exhaust system is not made of SS, is made out of steel.

^ Yea how thin? 16g aluminized steel tubing is what I'm currently using on my NA 20b. I had an intake leak and my headers were glowing red hot at idle on more than one occasion. Seems to be holding up so far. I plan on upgrading the steel later when I re-engineer my header.

16G to thin? If i fired up my innovate lm1 i could probably pull hours worth of dataloggs with postturbine temps of 1800+*

Only thing that melted in that exhauyst was the core to my randomtec cat, everything else survived. i even had the downpipe wrapped.

16G isn't noisey at all on my headers. The noise I hear is at the muffler end. ;) I'm still gonna wrap it though.

The piping I ordered is 16 gauge. So hopefully that does the trick.

I am using SS for the header and DP on my car and aluminum (not aluminized steel, just aluminum) for the catback.

Damn, aluminum?!?!

Thats gansgta :icon_tup: May I ask, why aluminum?

Simple, EGT's that far back aren't nearly as hot as at the headers. Plus it's lighter.

i saw a 4 inch all aluminum exhaust from full race for a turbo civic in a book i have. pretty gnar

I did made aluminum cat back exhaust for my car..

here is thread with few pics, if you know need more pics or have some question, just ask..

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/pics-your-exhaust-873745/ Second post..

It is 16 ga. Mild steel tubing from Summit Racing. I got it from my friend's old Jetta TDi exhaust system when he re-did his system. (it was just a temp. patch job afterall) My guess is that the pressure waves were converging in that one area of the exhaust during a high speed (and RPM) run, and heated that section of the exhaust to near failure. I don't think I'll ever do another mild steel exhaust system, stainless is too nice and durable to pass up.

16 gauge works just fine, have used it for years with no problems.

This is on a N/A, but N/A have hotter exhaust than turbos.

Hell my HEADERS were 16 gauge steel for a long time... no problems!

Forgot about this thread...

I know, my comment was towards why? SS is not that much more expensive than aluminum, and then there is the welding; which seems to be more expensive than SS.


Same here, well used to :icon_tup: