Hi guys,

I've been sorting through options on the used 3" downpipe I got for my 00R and it's going to need some work to get it to fit, and to alter it correctly.

Vibrant stuff is easily found and Mopac are dealers - but having never messed with actual fabrication I thought I'd check with you guys. Current need some 2.5" stainless tube to extend stock exhaust (Assuming it's stainless), 2.5" v-band instead of that ball socket flange the stock DP connects to rest of the exhaust with, and I need to put in a small 3" flex joint into the downpipe.

Can pick multiple vendors via Amazon.ca, but I'd prefer to have one stop shopping that will have some customer service behind their products.

Any advice is most appreciated!

Rabin

PS - Any tips on what wire and mix will work for welding stainless would be great. Contemplating just using regular mig wire/mig mix since I'm told it's weld - the welds will just get rusty.

All of this depends on the grade of stainless. Most of Vibrant's stuff is 304 while a lot of exhausts are 409. Nothing wrong with 409 but it's got a lot less chromium and nickel and will rust...so will 304 depending on how it is treated.

Lots of good info on the google - so I won't repeat that.

409 you can weld with regular ER70 MIG wire but then you have a WEZ that is essentially mild steel and will rust. When I do it I've used 309 rod and TIG welded it with full purge. This is how the exhaust on the 242 was made. 309 is made for welding dissimilar metals. You can get 409 wire for your MIG but I think the smallest spool is 15 kg. You should shield all stainless with pure argon (or argon/helium if that's what you have) but nothing with CO2 as the additional carbon is not a positive for the base metal or weld.

I've MIG welded (308 wire) 409 stainless and it worked fine. It's not really recommended due to cracking, but I've not experienced issues. The welds simply are more rust resistant than the pipe. Purge is really advised for stainless of all types to prevent sugaring of the backside of the weld. Some swear by solar flux instead. I've never used the stuff - no reason to thing it won't work.

Thanks for the welding tips Craig! I don't know anyonw with a tig set up so I'll likely just tack it with the mig and take it to get tig'd.

What about where you get your stainless pipe, v-bands, etc?

Leaning towards Mopac in Calgary - haven't found anyone local that can bring it in.

Sadly doing it right means the crappy stock downpipe gets bolted to the freshly rebuilt turbo, but I'd prefer to do it right and bolt it up later.

Rabin

I get mandrel bends from Columbia River Mandrel Bends and v-bands and tube from various online suppliers (last time I got tube it was from stainless headers. com). For the 242, I got the parts sourced locally (so its 409 not 304) and it's been fine. Oh and mufflers from the Canadian Magnaflow online guy that ships for free.

The V-bands from Mopac are really nice. IIRC the ones on the shelf are not Vibrant, though if you pressed me I couldn't tell you where they come from so perhaps I'm mistaken. Anyway, they've got nice touches like quick release bolts, male/female centering rings, and shouldered pipe connections. Not too cheap though, so if you're online shopping you might want to keep an eye out for features like that.

I've only built the one stainless exhaust and those tubes came to me via Turbobricks. All the other stainless bends I've purchased came from Columbia River as well, though I know there are lots of other places you can buy that stuff from in the US.

For the one stainless exhaust I built, I used a 2lb spool of 308 wire and "rented" a bottle of gas for my MIG. I can't remember the composition of the gas but obviously it doesn't include CO2 - probably argon/helium with maybe something else. Just ask your welding store.

Thanks guys!

I'll see how the modifying of this downpipe go first with stuff from Mopac first - then later when I'm ready to tackle something bigger I'll look at some of the other places since I'll be ordering in bulk.

Tried calling around in vain to find a shop in SK that can do a proper exhaust work with 0 success. Probably best I just invest the $$ in equipment and do it myself later on. (Last few exhaust jobs have been hack jobs despite the shop coming highly recommended...)

Rabin

Sweet update - I asked about the nice v-bands Matt mentioned and he said the other brand was Performance World products and to look online...

Found they had the same stuff I wanted from Vibrant, it was cheaper, and there's a local distributor that I know quite well.

Will have to verify tomorrow - but this should work out well.

Rabin

By the way, for the 304 V-band I installed on the 409 exhaust in the 122, I used plain old mild steel MIG wire and gas. I have only heat cycled it a few times since I haven't been able to drive the car yet, so YMMV.