I am about buy an exhaust for my car (3", mandrel, dp-back, over axle,), and I still can't make up my mind wheter to get it in stainless or mild... this is what i know about the two

Stainless:
+ Way more corrosion resistant than mild steel
+ Usually weights less because pipes can be thiner
+ Nice shiny finish
+ Will outlast the car
- Significantly more expensive
- Can be brittle when heat-cycled (subject to cracking but IMO should affect the DP only)
- Higher pitch of exhaust sound (tends to be "drony")

Mild:
+ Less expensive
+ Deeper sound
+ More tolerant of extreme heat
- Will last approx. 2-4 years of all-season driving unless ceramic coated
- Ceramic coating will bring the price up to cost of stainless
- usually heavier and less corrosion resistant than stainless

I can get mild for about $500 or stainless for about $750
Please help me make up my mind

+1 for stainless, if you can afford it.
i have aluminized steel piping on mine, and its working just fine, but i could have afforded stainless, thats what i would have done.

stainless is the way to go if you can afford the extra cost.

its also a lot thicker then the mild steal thats used for normal exhaust if you use 304 stainless.

I can afford it, its only about $200 more but my question is it really worth it? alot of people tell me that mild will be good enough and should last, if anything it will be my downpipe that will give up first, etc. so its not really a matter of if I can affor it but SHOULD I buy it... if i go mild ill have extra $200-250 towards PowerFC fund

its totally worth it ...i would do it if i were you.

My mild steel, not coated 2.5" exhaust put on after my swap had holes in after the first winter of salty roads.

+500 for stainless if you live North of the Mason Dixon line.

Get the mild and have it ceramic coated if you REALLY care that much about your fricken exhaust pipe... Ceramic coating will hold the heat in which will increase exhaust velocity.

Honestly.. it's not that big of an issue man.. there are more important things to spend money on.

****, you could even just get mild steel and paint it up with high temp engine enamel if you really are worried that much about some pipe under your car rusting.

wow, why is getting exaust piping made up north soo much?

here its at the most 150-160, no matter what shop...

stainless steel exhaust is 200 more then mild? isnt a stainless steel magnaflow like a little more then 100 to begin with?

Just also consider how they are welding it. If they are doing a stainless exhaust but they're using a regular MIG welder with mild steel wire, then the welds WILL rust out before too long.

A properly built stainless setup will be TIG-welded with stainless rod (or, MIG-welded with stainless wire, but you don't see this very often because you need to change a lot of the settings on the mig, and normally people only have one. Changing out that wire every time you need to go between mild and stainless is a real pain.)

Keep this consideration in your price, because normally shops that do it right charge a lot more. And if they aren't going to TIG-weld your stainless exhaust, then you might as well just go with a full mild-steel setup.

-Doc

This post has been edited by Dr_Tweak: Aug 5, 2006 - 7:58 AM

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he is talking about ALL the exhaust piping. not just the muffler.

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Good point, mild option is from DG performance, stainless would be through speed-source... I believe that both use TIG. One important thing to remember is that i need to drive my car in winter on salt/snow/sand so muffler, silencer, cat (possibly) will be stainless.

just get stainless. speedsource did jays exhaust (i think) and they did an amazing job on it.

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I'm with Lagos. It's 100% worth the cost. It will outlast the car.