Do you think a aluminum muffler would last?

I was thinking about building one out of aluminum and copying a flow master 10 design. Probably weaken the aluminum some but i don’t really see a big problem. I wanted to put it a couple feet behind the cat and dump infront of the rear tire. I just think aluminum projects are a little more fun then stainless and easier to cut and weld everything out. No problem welding a gap on aluminum vs 16 gauge stainless. What do u guys think.

 

I don't see any issues, there's tons of aluminum mufflers on the market.....but what do I know . Only thing ive found is it won't last as long as a stainless muffler. How much shorter? Idk?

 

Much has to do with where you live Aluminum tends to corrode exposed to road dirt and winter chemicals
Add thermal cycling to the mix who knows.

If your costs are reasonable see what happens let us know.

 

I live in the PNW. I have all the aluminum sheet metal on hand. Building it out of .040,
Just kidding. .125.

 

An old school trick to improve life of mufflers is to make a small nail hole in the back bottom rear of it to let any condensation drain out.

 

most mufflers come with this hole.

except some stellanis products. my brother's processed a few warranty 'no start' claims, where he'd add the hole, and drain 1-2 gallons of water out of the exhaust system to get the vehicle to start..

 

Go for it. Only issue I can think of would be sealing between the steel exhaust and the muffler but a good slip fit and and proper clamps should do it. I would imagine the aluminum would probably provide less of a 'tin' sound they Flowmasters tend to have.

 

I’d be welding flanges. little worried about the corrosion so I picked up some 304 from the steel yard about a hour ago. Don’t have to worry and it fatiguing. Going to have to get my fit up spot on now. Thanks for the speedy replies!!

 

Here’s what I came up with so far and decided to just build it outa stainless if I’m doing all this work. Taper on the inlet and ex go from 3.25”-2.5”

 

Still a ways away. Gota cut and make flanges and make a little pipe coming off the back of the muffler kicking out in front of the back tire

 

the outside is the easy part!

sourcing the internal damping material and setting it up properly to not just be a modified passthrough tube is where all the science is!

 

I was probably just going to copy this flow master super 10. Maybe do some staggering instead I’m not totally sure. Most there mufflers sound pretty close to me honestly. Going based off the sounds all there mufflers make on there website with the older step side Chevy being the donkey to test them

 

Your welding shop looks alot like a kitchen. LOL, looking like my projects spread out all over the house. Cool project. Thumbs up!