Ok - I thought they were stainless steel -- but will sit corrrected --
living proof that you have take what you see on this list with a grain of
salt --- my apologies for the waste of bandwidth and the misinformation.

Doug

On 7/22/08, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
> tryin' to stay quiet pretty much,
> but since when do 83.5 to 85 Vanagons have stainless steel main coolant
> pipes  ?  .
>
> what they are, near as I can tell is ordinary steel, galvanized, then
> painted black.
> and a magnet sticks to them - just tested that.
> ( hush my mouth if I'm wrong, but boy are there ever a lot of incorrect
> urban myths in the VW world !! )
>
> there are numerous stainless steel alloy types - a lot of stainless steel
> is non-magnetic.
>
> I'm glad to see someone say stainless rusts though .........and it depends
> on which kind of stainless........
> but people think  stainless steel is 'magic titanium.'
> it is not.
> stainless has a lot of properties that make it not as good as steel in many
> applications.
> it's not as strong.
> it welds nicely, but it doesn't cut with a torch so nicely, and it's very
> hard to drill.
> Stainless steel cracks too.  it's not 'some perfect metal.'
> ................and ............stainless steel coolant pipes are a very
> good application of the material, and to be really correct, which should  be
> saying what alloy of stainless we are talking about each time.
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Alcock" <doug.alcock@GMAIL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 7:04 AM
> Subject: Re: The DEEP, DARK secret of fiberglass exhaust wrap discovered
>
>
> Stainless steel does rust eventually --- a case in point is the stainless
>> steel coolant pipes that run under the 83.5 to 85 vanagons. I'm sure you
>> can
>> guess how I know this.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Doug
>>
>>
>> On 7/21/08, Chris S <szpejankowski@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Well, I bought some exhaust wrap, but not to wrap my exhaust, mind you. I
>>> needed to shield some not-so-hot parts from the hotter-than-H parts. I've
>>> read reports of exhaust headers rusting very quickly after application of
>>> fiberglass exhaust wrap.  Why?  The stuff soaks up water like a sponge
>>> and
>>> holds it.  Yes, I just tested it.  So you can imagine what happens over
>>> night when the dew point drops, no?  Yes.  The doom of all bare steel,
>>> moisture, gets sucked up against the headers.
>>>
>>> It seems that sealing it against moisture would be the correct way to
>>> apply
>>> the stuff, which can be done by applying the appropriate and expensive
>>> sealant.
>>>
>>> No problem for stainless steel headers, right?  Maybe not so, since the
>>> wrap
>>> causes the temperature of the headers go up, which may be too much of
>>> heat
>>> stress for the metal to handle.  And that might be another DEEP, DARK
>>> secret
>>> in itself.
>>>
>>> Chris S.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> http://www.dougalcock.com
>>
>
>

--
http://www.dougalcock.com