Aries Stainless Steel Muffler

[Jamie86]

Last fall my parents went on the Glidden Tour, while on the trip his muffler clamp fall off.The Aries stainless steel pipe broke off at the back of the muffler. We had it welded back together, an found it is a poor quality
stainless steel IMO. Anyone else found this out ?

[steve s]

The only problem I've heard of is cracking from people tightening the clamp to the frame too tight to allow for thermal expansion/contraction, which apparently is greater with stainless than regular steel.

Steve

[Jamie86]

Vince,
The Aries muffler that is pictured on your site, looks just like what happened to dads muffler. I will not buy another stainless steel one again. It isn't worth the expense or the trouble IMO.

[Logan]

Almost every single stainless aries muffler i know of has broke off at the back. After so many of them breaking, you would think aries would fix the problem. My recommendation would be, if you have to buy another one at any time, to buy the non stainless one. It has the same performance, and over time it will hold up better. IMO. A friend showed me his stainless one after 20,000 miles and it was all black and discolored. It could probably be polished back, but who wants to polish their muffler all the time?

[al's28/33]

Someone should contact Joe Davis at Aries. He has been in the Model "A" business for many years, extremely helpful and will accept constructive criticism of his product. I have one of his "regular issue" mufflers since 2001 and haven't had an issue. I'm sure he would be interested to know of your problem.

[theHIGHLANDER]

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I gave up on stainless antique exhaust systems long ago. Aside from the mechanical and metalurgy issues, they just sound funky. They tend to "ring".

[d.j. moordigian]

You can take a new muffler or rewelded one and heat it with a rose bud in the
area of the weld to a dull red, then immediately quench with cold water too
anneal the area. This should help with the cracking....this only works on SS!

[Chris in WNC]

I have stainless Aires mufflers on 2 cars and have driven them for years with no problems. your results may vary.......

[Tom Wesenberg]

7 years on my stainless Aries and zero problems.

[RHD]

They only break because they are not mounted properly. The rear clamp has to sufficiently loose to allow for expansion and contraction. Not rattly loose, but sufficient to move if it has to. My stainless muffler has gone 27 years without the slightest problem.

[JBill]

I've had a Beaver SS muffler on my roadster for about ten years now with no problems, though I've been told (warned?) that the tack-welded seam will eventually rip open.

[theHIGHLANDER]

Originally Posted by d.j. moordigian

You can take a new muffler or rewelded one and heat it with a rose bud in the
area of the weld to a dull red, then immediately quench with cold water too
anneal the area. This should help with the cracking....this only works on SS!

This is interesting. Usually to anneal (soften) you heat at a specific temp for a specific time and slow cool. Stainless is that different?

[Ca. Kid]

Originally Posted by theHIGHLANDER

This is interesting. Usually to anneal (soften) you heat at a specific temp for a specific time and slow cool. Stainless is that different?

That process works for aluminum. I don't think it applies to stainless steel.

All martensitic and most ferritic stainless steels can be subcritical annealed (process annealed) by heating into the upper part of the ferrite temperature range, or full annealed by heating above the critical temperature into the austenite range, followed by slow cooling. Usual temperatures are 760 to 830°C for sub-critical annealing. When material has been previously heated above the critical temperature, such as in hot working, at least some martensite is present even in ferritic stainless steels such as grade 430. Relatively slow cooling at about 25°C/hour from full annealing temperature, or holding for one hour or more at subcritical annealing temperature, is required to produce the desired soft structure of ferrite and spheroidised carbides. However, parts that have undergone only cold working after full annealing can be sub-critically annealed satisfactorily in less than 30 minutes.
The ferritic types that retain predominantly single-phase structures throughout the working temperature range (grades 409, 442, 446 and 26Cr-1Mo) require only short recrystallisation annealing in the range 760 to 955°C.

[ctlikon0712]

Depending on the Aluminum alloy you heat treat it to a T-3 or T-4 condition by taking an O condition up to around 500Deg. F for 30 to 40 min, then water quench. This makes it harder. To Age it to a T-6 condition it goes up to 900 to 1000 deg. for 6 to 10 hours depending again on the alloy, and allow to air cool. This is what I did for 5 years working for McDonnell Douglas in Florida. I never did stainless steel.

[amuffler]

Originally Posted by steve s

the only problem i've heard of is cracking from people tightening the clamp to the frame too tight to allow for thermal expansion/contraction, which apparently is greater with stainless than regular steel.

Steve

very important: Both steel and stainless mufflers must have room to move, there is a great deal of thermal expansion. Failure to allow the tail pipe to move through the clamp will result in cracking or failure of the muffler at the tail pipe connection to the muffler, it will also cause bending of the exhaust manifold and will most definitely cause miss alignment of the rear exhaust outlet to the engine block. Requiring installation of a new manifold. Most reproduction tail pipe clamps i have seen cannot be adjusted to allow for this expansion, they are made to small and not to the original specifications.

Keep your tail pipe clamp loose and you will not have any problems.

Joe davis
aries muffler.

[amuffler]

Originally Posted by Jamie86

Last fall my parents went on the Glidden Tour, while on the trip his muffler clamp fall off.The Aries stainless steel pipe broke off at the back of the muffler. We had it welded back together, an found it is a poor quality
stainless steel IMO. Anyone else found this out ?

You should have been using one of our insulated tail pipe clamps. The stainless steel mufflers expand quite a bit more than the steel ones. If you use a standard tail pipe clamp, it will not allow the movement required and eventually either the tail pipe will break at the back of the mufflers or you will damage your exhaust manifold. We now include these clamps with our mufflers, if you don't have one, we will send one for free. Please contact use 650-279-6609

[amuffler]

Originally Posted by theHIGHLANDER

I gave up on stainless antique exhaust systems long ago. Aside from the mechanical and metalurgy issues, they just sound funky. They tend to "ring".

They only break because they are not mounted properly. The rear clamp has to sufficiently loose to allow for expansion and contraction. Not rattly loose, but sufficient to move if it has to. My stainless muffler has gone 27 years without the slightest problem.
__________________
R.H.D.
Author of Model 'A' Ford technical manuals.
Supplier of good original RHD parts.
Joe Davis, Aries Mufflers 650-279-6609

[amuffler]

Originally Posted by JBill

I've had a Beaver SS muffler on my roadster for about ten years now with no problems, though I've been told (warned?) that the tack-welded seam will eventually rip open.

You might consider adding some additional welding at the seam, if you back fire, it will open up and ruin the muffler.

[nkaminar]

I have the plain steel Aries performance muffler and tail pipe on my Fordor and am very happy with it. The fit is good, the sound is good, and it seems to help my performance. I found that the stock clamp at the rear is designed to allow the tail pipe to move. The clamp that came with the car was not a reproduction of the stock clamp and it did not allow the tail pipe to move.

I experimented with a straight through exhaust pipe and tube headers, but aside from being noisy it was not any different than the stock exhaust manifold and Aries muffler. I think if you are racing and run up around 8,000 rpm, the header and open exhaust probably has some advantage.

[Model A Ron]

If you like Stainless go for it but I have a feeling a steel one will do just fine a car that is not driven in road salt.