Is there much difference between Mandrel Bent and non mandrel? I can get a cat back pipe for cheap.. its 3" non mandrel brand new.. like $40 cdn. I guess, how much bigger is mandrel bent pipe, on the bends?

 

mandrel ben pipes are the same circumfance through out. the conventional ones get smaller in the turns.

I want 2 1/2 mandrel bends on my truck, but its cheaper for me to get conventional 3" on it .so I'll do that, the performance will be about the same

 

so performance wise vs $$ conventional 3" vs mandrel 3" with say a flow master 80 series muffler.. will it be the end all to be all or just a nice to have?

 

mandrel bends will come in handy for any addition horse power you plan on adding, IMOA i think the mandrel bended pipes sound better

 

In my opinion, If you are just worried about cost, then non mandrel piping is best. If you are drag racing then every little bit of horsepower counts. Thus, the mandrel bends would be best. Just keep in mind that in the long run, the difference in power between mandrel & non mandrel bent piping will not be felt. It will only show a difference on the dyno or the drag strip. It really boils down to customer preforance on this one. Example--->I, personally, would rather have mandrel bend piping for my car since I'm geared toward 1/4 performance. See what i mean. So it really depends on your budget & taste on this one. Hope this all helps

 

This is such a hard topic. Everyone says get a mandrel bent cat-back. But in this post you guys are saying if you don't go to the track don't bother? If a car has a non-mandrel 2.5 inch and you upgrade to 2.75 inch will that be just as good as getting a 2.5 mandrel bent pipe?

I would think you would still lose flow due to the friction in the kinks of the non-mandrel. But if I was working on a budget I could get the 2.75 pipe for probably 1/2 or even 1/3 of what I could get the 2.5 Mandrel for. So in the end if I wanted to modify my car for more power, but I knew that the exhaust would last me a long time would it be worth my while to get mandrel, or should I just go non-mandrel and get a better cat and muffler?

 

wouldn't it all depend on the type of non-mandrel bend? there is 2 types from what i've seen, the smooth compression bend and the ripple bend. the ripple bend is what you would use on your 1982 Escort, the smoth compression bends are pretty close to mandrel at smaller bends, that's how mine is with the 3" and it's almost perfect. I'm in it for the 1/4 tho, and i still can't find anyone around eastern Iowa with a mandrel bender

 

I've heard this from someone else so don't take my word for it if it's true or not. But i think in the long run non mandrel piping might be better. The stretching of the metal required for mandrel bends creates a thinner gauge in the metal around the bends as opposed to the non mandrel bend. So this would tell me that the pipe would wear out faster over time. But like i said i just "heard" this so I'm just throwing out ideas....Like you said this is a hard topic to talk about

 

With the over-the-axle pipe on our cars I've compared 2 cat-back systems. One was a popular brand mandrel bent 3" and the other was a muffler shop compression bent 3". The 3" mandrel was just that - 3" ID throughout. The muffler shop system necked down to just under 2 1/2" ID. And since the system is only as good as its weakest link, you're only going to get a system that will flow marginally better than a 2 1/2" mandrel.

So, IMO:
3" compression bent = 2.5" mandrel

And since almost all mandrel bent systems are aluminized, while muffler shop specials are not, the thickness arguement is pointless.

 

New info that i learned. See there is always something else to be learned . Thanks for the info

 

i do believe he was refering to the thickness of the sidewall, not the actual diameter of the pipe. in that case compression bends are stronger and will probably last longer unless your working with a custom piece of pipe that's thicker in the spots where the bends are going to be. but i'm sure nobody is gonna go that far into making a strong pipe just for exhaust......

 

I live in NOVA SCOTIA, Salt Capital. Stainless steel will rust here. So alumized doesn't really help.

 

DP

 

Surface corrosion maybe, but I've never seen any decent grade of ss rust through like regular steel. That's why the aftemarket stainless steel exhaust systems come with excellent warranties, some up to 1,000,000 miles!

Odd, I used to live in Syracuse, NY. They claimed to be the salt capital And while most put their modified cars away for the winter, my uncle keeps his full size Blazer on the road and has had his aluminized duals kit on for over 5 years with only minor surface rust on the seams

 

When I said Salt capital I was just joking about the amount of salt the goverment places on our roads during the winter months.

Actually my home towns main source of income was a salt mine. And I could probably walk down there now and take some pictures of some exhausts falling off that were aluminised. My mother's car has the SS I-pipe on her GP, and its really corriding now. But that pipe has lasted 7 years in the salt weather. I can't remember what it is, but if there is 3% salt in ocean water, my home town (Pugwash) has 7%. They claim seaguls can't actually drink our ocean water. And you can just imagine how much salt dust is in the air

But if I got an alumized exhaust I would only be running the car during the summer anyway. So the corrosion should be minimum

 

Good ol Windsor Salt!! Though some days you wonder where the salt is on the roads!! other days the road is white.

 

Where are you from Thirim?

 

Actually I was referring to the same thing. I didn't think of the salt mines until after I posted.