I'm looking for someone that can weld and bend titanium. I'm designing a new exhaust system for my '03 RC51. I'm going to run both pipes down the right side GP style. I'm biulding everything from the header back, cans and all. I just need some one to do a little welding and bending of the up pipe to the cans. Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks.
Titanium welding?
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i know comeone that can weld for you...not sure anout the bending of the pipe though...you'd probably want that mandrel bent so that the inner diameter stays the same and flows right...that will cost you though and i dont think he has the machine...but i have seen this guy weld just about everything and it looks like art work! he makes better welds than any i have seen...so if u can get it bent i will ask if hes interested in taking the project on...
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Have you found a source for titanium tube?
I was looking at doing something similar a few years back and it was actually going to be cheaper to buy sheet and have it rolled and welded as tube simply wasn't available. I eventually worked out that there wasn't enough weight saving over steel to warrant the huge time and expense of trying to do it with titanium.
If I were going to do it nowadays I'd probably start by buying up various OEM titanium headers off Ebay and cut those up to get all the bends required. Tape it all together and take it to somebody to weld it all.
Not sure which were the first ti headers but the ZX6R had them back in '98.
The later they are though, the lighter they'd be.
That sounds like a good idea, but i'm not going to be making the headers out of titanium. Its just the rear section. The only part that i'm going to be needing welded and bent is from the header to the cans. The pipe is only going to be about 12"-18" long. Unfortunately, i'm going to be needing an expansion piece in there to go from the header size up to the can inlet size. it's not bad, but it needs to be done. The titanium isn't bad, I found a company that has pretty good prices. I already have the sheet that i'm going to be making the endcaps for the cans. I need to to get the the 3" piece for the cans themselves. Those are going to cost me about $85 or so and i'm going to be using the inner sleeve out of my already cut down Sato pipes.
I've been doing some investigating about the processes. They say that you can MIG it also. I may give it a try and see what happens. I'm going to build a box to do the welding in and fill it with argon for the after cooling and shielding. I just have to get some titanium wire to weld with. If it doesn't work out then I can always outsource it. After I get it done i'm going to put it on a dyno and tweek it with the laptop to see what the numbers are. If they're good then I may build and sell them. We'll see!
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