V4 Broken Exhaust

I’d go the legal route using Consumer Rights Act. As the part isn’t fit for purpose.
Take them to court. That part is utter crap to fail like that.

 

Inconel is a pretty specialist nickel alloy, and a much higher grade than any stainless.
Eg 316L has 10+% nickel and 16.5+% chrome whereas as Inconel has 58% nickel and 20+% chrome. These elements are expensive. Typically we pay 6x the price of 316L for Inconel.

It’s mostly used for exhausts because it’s an ‘exotic’ material more than any performance related reason, I’m not aware of a huge weight saving compared to stainless and certainly titanium seems to be the go to material.

We use a lot of it in oil & gas as it has amazing corrosion resistance properties, we swap 6mm 316L to 3mm Inconel to achieve the same life span, this may be why weight is considered as it’s half the material but still a big cost difference.

It’s also difficult to weld and a step up in skill level to work with, not a run of the mill material. If you put too much heat in when welding you burn out the chrome and waste the point of the material.

 

Yep. Typically the fractures are in the heat affected zone for the parent material. They will all be robot welded (I would assume) but probably too much heat affecting the hardness of the material making it more prone to cracking, especially with the heat cycles and movement as you say.

It seems crazy the hoops we have to jump through as a small fab shop but then see fundamental errors with supposed ‘proper’ companies. I see it day in and out with shoddy welding on CE certified lifting equipment, it’s terrifying that there could be huge accidents even though things have been passed as safe.

 

Check you out Google man

I bought a full system from Kline for a 911 about 6 years back. I chose stainless against inconel based on cost. The full system plus headers was ~£5k. Laid on the garage floor it looked a LOT more for the money than a Akrapovic for a V4!! But it definitely wasn’t 6 times more expensive for the inconel option

 

I love a bit of welding porn chat, pays my bills!

I mean the raw materials, £1k material and £5k labour in 316L, or £6k material and £6k labour in 625 makes it ‘only’ double overall.

 

I was coded years ago on stick, and I can MIG ok, but I'd still take stuff like Alusil and Inconel to a pal of mine that's forgotten more about welding than I'll ever know. Supposedly the exhaust headers on my 944 turbo are inconel.

 

I think headers (because they’re the hottest bit) can only be made of certain stuff. Like stainless.... and not titanium, I think titanium blows through after high heat cycles. Inconel maybe, I don’t know.... which is odd. I thought I knew everything....

 

'Twas also the case in the 'old days'. The welding on my 916 exhaust was not particularly neat, especially the strands of wire still attached on the inside of the down-pipes.

Also some of the Termi stuff of old wouldn't win any awards for neat welding.

That said I don't think they had many (any?) failures in use...

 

I don't think many auto companies fab stuff to last 20 years anymore. I worked for a major hydraulics company, and they bought in a "right first time" philosophy. Sounded good, but what that really mean't was they stopped inspecting every component that might leak. To save money.

 

How many standard bikes have carbon steel headers? Or cars? The answer is most for run of the mill stuff I’m sure. Easy to see the corrosion as a giveaway.
Plus loads of full ti systems about, akra on a v4 for example?

Or are you playing the opposite game?

 

Is the ti used for the headers? I thought I read it didn’t fare well as header material

Come to think of it I’ve got a KTM with with full ti Akrapovic system on it. I’ll have to have a butchers when I get home. If I remember. And don’t just go straight to the pub