Titanium versus Stainless exhausts

[rider]

Does anyone know how the durability of titanium exhausts fares compared to your more usual stainless ones. Lots of speed humps around here so any exhaust will be scraped. Is the titanium as durable to bangs and scrapes as a stainless exhaust? I'm replacing a lot of rear end parts with new Toyota sourced while these parts are still available and that requires a new catback exhaust; so do I go Nur R or Whifbitz Ti 3"? One is £700 the other £1,000.

Edited May 8, 2017 by rider (see edit history)

[ManwithSupra]

Does anyone know how the durability of titanium exhausts fares compeared to your more usual stainless ones. Lots of speed humps around here so any exhaust will be scraped. Is the titanium as durable to bangs and scrapes as a stainless exhaust? I'm replacing a lot of rear end parts with new Toyota sourced while these parts are still available and that requires a new catback exhaust; so do I go Nur R or Whifbitz Ti 3"? One is £700 the other £1,000.

 

"Is the titanium as durable to bangs and scrapes as a stainless exhaust?" - Nope, Titanium is brittle compared to SS, more likely to crack then dent.

The only real reason to go full Ti, is weight saving. It is also very heat and corrosion resistant but as with all things... lighter = expensive.

 

Some could argue the sound is nicer on a Ti exhaust... but that depends on a number of things.

[el_bandido]

Inconel is worth considering.

[Frank Bullitt]

If I was looking to buy a new exhaust i'd look no further than Tim & TB Developments here and I would pick up his de-cat pipes whilst i'm at it

[ManwithSupra]

What is the actual reason you are considering Ti?

I mean apart from the weight... thats it... Are you going to be racing your car or just stating you have a Ti Exhaust for bragging rights.

 

TBH, Bragging rights about a Ti exhaust will be lost on most people, some will be impressed (although not sure why) and the other lot (like me) will be like.. "so do you race it"?

 

Iconel would probably not be cost effective for an entire exhaust, that is if you find someone willing to actually make you one.

It has pretty much the same weight properties vs SS, however due to its heat and fatigue resistance means you can have thinner walls on the tubing which means saving weight overall bringing it close to Ti in terms of weight. Its Ideally suited to Exhaust manifolds though.. hence why F1 only use Iconel for that.

[rider]

What is the actual reason you are considering Ti?

 

It is purely for weight, I had the rear hanger rubbers fail once and that resulted in the entire weight of the exhaust riding on the manifold coupling and centre bush. Such that there is a sizable gap now between the bumper and the tailpipe that wasn't there before the bush failure. A light exhaust would put less strain on the rubber mounts which lets face it with stainless exhausts these days perish way before the exhausts expire.

[Scooter]

Titanium is a much tougher material than stainless steel pound for pound ie it's certainly not brittle, so it must be the design (tubing thickness/material cost saving) that means people have experienced issues of cracking from impacts. Biggest downside to titanium other than cost is the welding has to be done in a controlled atmosphere so not just anyone can patch it up if you do fracture it.