Exhaust System

[christhesav]

I am curious who has made their own Exhaust System and what your thoughts are. I am considering getting some 1 3/4" Steel from the local Auto Exhaust shop and welding my own system together. Has anyone done this and found out your money ahead by ordering a Stainless system? Any help and pictures are greatly appreciated. It will be going on a IO-360 with horizontal induction. Thanks in advance!

[g zero]

I made my own for my biplane , it was a four straight pipe system . It was fabricated from swimming pool hand rails. , 304 stainless ,.049 wall . Had about $320 in it . Flew 200 + trouble free hours .
On my RV8 I purchased a AWI 4 into 1 for $1225 shipped ( before the price increase ) . I was going to build one , but the collector cost around $400 by itself.

Tom

[RKellogg]

I built a 4 into 1 for my -7A. The combination of nose gear, cowl, and cold induction eliminated commercially available offerings at that time. I bought 321 1.75 x .035 wall stainless straights and bends and cut & TIG'd four equal length pipes into a collector. A lot of work was involved, and I spent as much as a V-man system would have cost, nearly. It's not real pretty but has survived 270 hours so far. Sounds cool, too.

Considering the amount of work involved, I would use stainless. 321 is recommended for exhaust work, IIRC.

Spruce sells some elbows (bends), and I found another online source for collector and flanges.