
Re: Time to spend money on a proper exhaust setup?
RX8SE3P wrote:
Other thing is that some places that do "mandrel" sometimes don't have the proper equipment and simply weld the mandrel bends to the straight sections, which unless somehow done perfectly will have internal lips and mis matches, which negates the whole idea of using mandrel.
I have built way too many exhaust systems now agree with this statement. Even the highest levels of performance and race shops build their mandrel bent systems this way. A mandrel bender is an expensive piece of machinery. If done properly your welds are minimal and only on the outside, not hurting the flow on the inside. I would take a JDM welded bent pieced together bend over a crimp bent pipe any day.
Example:
Your pieces should never overlap if you are doing it correctly. And a reputable place will always grind down any "internal lips" that you mention.
That being said. This exhaust system is definitely crimp bent. Often times you will get really bad bends like this when the shop is too lazy or just does not have all the proper sizes for their bender. The ultimate in pipe bending will always be a hydro bender IMO, but that is a bit unrealistic.
Either way, I agree that the crimp bends will take you from say a 2.5" pipe to a 2" or 2.25" in some bends. My 2.5" crimp bent right now does not have nearly the steps in it as these to. There are more than enough dyno results out there showing some impressive gains by going from crimp bent to "A pieced together" mandrel bent system. You can always buy generic full systems on like Jeggs and Summit racing then that would reduce the amount of your welds.