Hi, I think this is the 'aluminized' steel tubing you are talking about, steel with a plating over it. Works fine, most mufflers/pipes here in Canada are aluminized, lifetime warranty on mufflers, but 1 year on pipes. Road rash breaks the coating and rust starts. The lifetime muffler warranty simply means that you will come back to them for the 1/2-1.5 hour installation fee every few years, repeat business. New pipes are your problem, they will last at least a couple of years. Vanagon mufflers here are around $95Cdn ($60US), often on sale for $75, plus say $25 installation. Cheap enough not to buy a stainless steel version. Only Dansk aftermarket bare steel pipes available here, but st.steel pipes would be excellent choice!
I've never found a garage with a tube bender that would handle the tight radius bends that the vanagons need. Want to kludge something together then get a set of J-pipes for the front cyls. and go from there, rear bends near water pump are damn near impossible to mimic however. For the price of the S&S headers I don't think it's worth kludging anything! The $750 Stebro stainless stuff is pricey, but it is heavy gauge pipe, and has very thick flanges because Stebro knows that the stuff will crack if too thin. Stainless is 'notch sensitive', meaning if you put a knick in the stuff and it sees repetetive/fatigue loading the notch will grow into a nice crack (this happens in medical implants in some cases). Stebros will likely actually last a 'lifetime' like their warranty says. I'd opt for Stebro pipes and the cheapo muffler, think Walker/Midas sells them. bye, Tim |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.