LCGB Forums

It looks as though I'll have to buy a new curly jl3 for my project as the ron moss ex box i was planning on using doesn't seem imminent.

I hate rusty pipes so I'll either buy a mild steel and get it nickel plated or go straight for stainless (not polished). It's the same end cost but a bit less hassle if I don't need to get it plated.

However, I'm sure there's a problem with stainless on 2 strokes or is it my imagination?

I think it's something to do with the heat and stainless not being so good at dispersing it.

ive had a stainless franspeed super tourer on since october 2014 never split snapped or cracked

ToBoldlyGo wrote:I think it's something to do with the heat and stainless not being so good at dispersing it.

My understanding and I do stand to be corrected is mild steel holds the heat better keeping the gas in the chamber hotter sound waves travel faster in hot gas so as the engine works harder there's a change in the resonance which is advantages to the in spent charge being forced back into the cylinder.

Also stainless is brittle and Leeds forgiving to cracking caused by high frequency vibriation.

A well designed and fitted stainless will out live a badly fitted mild steel

Stainless pipes do affect the resonance and performance, if you take for instance race pipes they are usually built from the lightest gauge steel possible, I've worked on motors were I've changed mild steel pipes for like for like stainless pipes and there has been a drop in performance, an almost dulling of the motor, which at times requires the gearing to be lowered, I recently displayed this to someone when they complained their ts1 would not pull the gear ratio, I exchanged it for the same pipe in mild steel and he could not believe the difference, both stainless and mild steel pipes do crack, although my view is that this is more common on stainless pipes and if they do break are harder to get repaired when out on the road,

Thanks gents. The consensus seems to be; mild is better but stainless is ok.

Scotty, what sort of difference are we talking about? 20.5bhp vs 21bhp or 20.5bhp versus 24bhp?