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Originally Posted by Ingen

Salt won't crack stainless all by itself.

The middle-of-weld cracks in the first pic are probably due to residual stress, not filling the weld enough, or using the wrong filler metal for the application. It's a localized stress problem.

Judging by how the weld metal is all piled up in one spot and the other piece is completely disconnected (the resonator in the 2nd to last pic) I would say that one is a lack of fusion. It's not like it broke, it just never really fused and stuck. So it came apart on that seam.

What's even more exciting is that *everyone else who has this exhaust* will probably have this problem, as well. it's not like they had one rogue welder grab some half-assed filler metal to do the welds on JUST YOUR EXHAUST.

Other people who own this thing should be checking theirs.

edit: Gotta say, as big as some of those cracks are... I can't believe they aren't leaking. I mean that 2nd to last pic it's COMPLETELY UNCOUPLED. What the hell.

the leak seems like a result of poor workmanship. The wield beads are uneven and intermittent. In addition, they also grind down the wield in the sounding joint area which you should never do.

The interesting thing is where the crack is. From the looks of it, the crack is away from the wielded zone. However, the crack location is at the high stress header area. From the looks of it, it seems like a fatigue vibration induce crack.

Typically, those exhaust headers are either made by draw or spun from a disc of sheet metal. Therefore anytime where you have aggressive geometry change, without proper manufacturing technique, the profile change area would become too thin to carry the vibration load which will later become a stress concentrator.

if you have cracks on the wield, then its most likely due to the fact that they grind off the wield beads.

This could either be a manufacturing issue or a design issue. But judging from the quality of this finished part, I would think this is more of a workmanship and quality issue.