I'm considering swapping out my stainless Maggie Muffs and welding in some FlowMaster 40s that are not stainless. They guy at the shop said welding stainless to non-stainless is not the ideal connection but said it can be done. Have any of you done this with your exhausts? Did you have trouble welding together? Any leaks? Opinions, thanks.
Welding Stainless to regular steel?
- Thread starter BigBeez03
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i do welding for a living and from my experiences with stainless to carbon steel welding is this: it can be done easily just like carbon to carbon steel....the only thing that u would have to worry about is the stainless "protection" coming off...i suggest a coat of spray paint the high temp stuff
when stainless reaches a certain temperature it loses its ability to prevent it from rusting in that area...i believe its about 800 degrees dont quote me on that...if u wanna look it up its called carbide precipitation
BigBeez03 said:
You can weld stainless to mild steel ,just use stainless mig wire,of course then you need special sheilding gas,a mix specifically for stainless....or you could use a small (1/16") diameter SMAW stainless stick electrode at low amperage.....or you could just buy the Flowmaster 40's in stainless....they make them and they are not that much more than the mild steel ones...just sell the mild steel ones to the kid down the street...... :burnout:
evansvt said:
Carbide precipitation is what it is called. It is caused by the carbon combining with the chromium when the metal is in the molten state. When carbon joins with chromium it forms chromium carbides which have no corrosion resistance.
(Chromiun over about 11% is what makes steel into stainless steel - Chromium combines with oxygen to form the shiny corrosion resistant oxide layer that gives stainless it's corrosion resistance.If you scratch it it instantly "heals" itself with new oxide to resist corrosion)
It is mainly a problem with austenetic 300 series stainless steels and yes temperature is a factor,but the main factor is the carbon from the use of carbon containing filler metals like mild steel electrodes or mig wire or from the carbon sucked into the weld when joining dissimilar metals like mild steel and stainless. It can be prevented somewhat when joining dissimilar metals by using alloy (read stainless) filler metals. :burnout:
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