Steve,
How did your mild steel mufflers fail, rust or trauma? Has your Healey
usage and/or your driving habits changed (i.e. did your Healey go from
daily driver/commute car to long trips only)? I suspect the SS mufflers
might, on average, be better built than no-name mild steel (though I've
heard complaints about at least one SS brand). My Ansa was very well
built, and showed no signs of internal corrosion over approximately 80K
miles. SS might be preferable in areas that salt their roads, but who
drives in the salt (and the muffler would be the least of their worries)?
As for high temperature corrosion, I found very little substantive info
with a net search (even the Wikipedia article was surprisingly sparse).
The info I did find linked HTC with sulfur, lead and vanadium in the
fuel. Lead has been gone for a couple decades, and I believe sulfur in
autogas has been largely eliminated as well (we're even getting it
mostly out of diesel). As for vanadium, I have no idea.
bs
BJ8 Healeys wrote:
> I believe the phenomenon of concern with wrapping exhaust pipes is high
> temperature corrosion, which doesn't require the presence of a liquid
> electrolyte. The additional heat retained in the pipes due to the wrapping
> just makes the high-temp corrosion problem more severe than it normally is.
>
> I would have to disagree that a stainless exhaust system is a waste of money
> in a Healey. I went through two stock exhaust systems before I installed my
> stainless system in 1986. It's still hanging in there and good as new, as
> far as I can tell, after 90,000 miles or so. Of course, it does have some
> dents and scrapes on the bottom of the mufflers.
>
> Steve Byers
> HBJ8L/36666
> BJ8 Registry
> Havelock, NC USA
>
>
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Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
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