johntorg

Here is a picture of the Titanium exhaust system my Friends Danny and Ryan at Fabworx (Beaufort,SC) made for someone's show Mini Cooper S (original not BMW). They are now doing Titanium wheel nuts for the knock-off wheels.

TurboNUT

Someone needs to buy a mandrel bender.

I have always understood titanium exhaust components to have a short life span due to the material being very weak at the welds. And that piece has a lot of welds. How much run time is on that manifold? I'm interested to know their experience with it.

CurtP

That looks terrible with all the welds. Looks like dryer ducting.

V2Rocket

is that one of those turbo bike engines in a mini?

Fishey

Titanium does not like to be bent at sharp angles its not a very elastic metal.

However, It certainly could have been done but I am not sure its as easy as other metals. I think for starters you want to get it pretty hot 400-500F before you start to bend it.

techartisan

I think you may have things a bit mixed up...
Titanium might not HOLD sharp bends, but I assure you that is a sign of elasticity(mechanics of bodies which deform reversibly under stress) Titanium and its alloys generally have a modulus of elasticity half that of steel (twice as springy) which is why it is used in SPRINGS, tennis rackets, and golfclubs.

In forming titanium at room temperature you lose 15-25% of all bends to elastic return....so you have to overbend to compensate. Hot Forming as you suggest works but your recommendation is off by a degree of scale....Think Celsius...400-500C is much closer. Heating Ti doesnt really cause a great change in MoE until around 842F(450c) the elastic return of titanium (grade5) becomes negligible around 1200f(649c)

johntorg

Mandrel bent Titanium tubes apparently were not readily available, so bends were created using segments. in the flesh the exhaust is super light and strong and looks amazing.

CPR

john,

I think we can bend Titanium on our Greenlee/Textron hydraulic bender. It is good up to 4 5/8" diameter. IIRC it wears out the shoes faster than other materials.

I'll be back in late May, and if you like I can try some bends out for your friends. Just tell me what diameter they are using (looks like 1 5/8" & 2" or 2 3/8"?) and I'll pick up a stick locally. If I can get the bend radius' tight enough for them to make usable, they can have them for the cost of the material only.

All in all I think they did good considering they didn't have any fittings, it is pretty tight in there!

V2Rocket

Ti 944 exhaust?

J1NX3D

any more pics of the mini?

TurboNUT

Looking at the valve cover, my guess is Honda K-Series.

dillon410021

I really like it

whalebird

Seems a bit novel.

carlege

thats where i put my vacuum cleaner

J1NX3D

*bump!*