Titanium Exhaust Weld/Safety Wire ?

Just picked up an 06 R6 track bike with an old style graves (titanium I believe) system on it. The exhaust has what looks like a broken weld on it on the y-pipe out of the collector under the engine and it is safety wired together across that spot. What's confusing me is that it's not a full weld, it's only a 1-1.5" bead so I'm wondering if that was just a secondary locking feature to hold the two pieces of the exhaust together. I believe this may have been a race bike in the past so I was wondering if there was some sort of extra requirement to lock the exhaust together?

Will that pass tech for normal track days or does it need to be re-welded?

That being said, I have access to a MIG welder and would like to fix it eventually (unless I need to fix it now) but I'm not familiar with titanium... Can you weld like you would steel or do I need different wire/gas etc. ?

Attached a picture of the exhaust type I have for reference. I'll see if I can get a picture of the actual part to upload later as well.

 

Anyone know how to move this to the Tech forum?

 

Following...

 

you need a TIG welder, and full argon shielding. if you don't have shielding (inside and out) your Ti will get brittle.

give it to a guy who specializes in it.

 

Titanium should be welded via Tig as mentioned. Ideally, this should be welded in a gas chamber for best results. The shielding gas is extremely important when welding titanium. This is not a typical at home repair unless you have the right tools and experience.

With that said, you may be fine to just run it as is... Hard to see in pic if there is even an issue.

 

Yeah I had a feeling that may be the case.

Sorry that's not my actual exhaust but it's the same one that's on the bike. Was hoping someone would be able to verify if it's actually titanium. I'll snap a pic of mine and the area in question when I get over to the bike tonight.

 

grave exhausts are typically thin walled pipe.

 

Subscribed. I have a spare Graves exhaust that needs to be repaired, broken weld on the mounting bracket.

 

Graves won't do it?

 

It's probably titanium, it was probably on a Graves race bike or was a Graves race bike.

 

Post pic of your actual part

 

They welded across both pipes like that because if they only welded one tab it would've flexed way more easily and broken 10 times quicker than it did.

 

Ti weld crack right down the middle of the weld... porosity, poor gas coverage.

 

Here's my situation. Found out the welds are broken on both sides but this is definitely some sort of slip fit. I'm wondering if there used to be a spring holding them together?

Is the safety wire sufficient for track day tech or should I take it somewhere asap and get it welded? Looks like they had two welds 180 degrees from each other at both connection points.

 

Fuck that hack job...get it welded.

 

Looks like the spring mounts are broken off and they used safety wire to keep the pipes together. That's a "just crashed and need to make the next race!" fix.

Welding the little "U" spring mounts on each side to put the proper spring on shouldn't a problem. Wont need shielding gas on the inside as the weld shouldn't penetrate through the pipe.

 

It looks like they tried to weld some slip joints together and it failed obviously. That crap weld is not original to the exhaust, is it even a full system? It looks almost like it's two different brands of exhaust, or a slip on.

 

The lighting is a little weird in the pictures since I was using a shop light but it appears to be a full system in person. All the same material/appearance. Might need a little persuasion to get the slip joints fully seated again but I think it's manageable.

I knew the bike had been wrecked going in and saw/haggled over the exhaust issue so I figured I was in for a little fun. Everything else on the bike seems to be in good working order. Need to get it to the track so I can ride a few easy laps to confirm there isn't more work that needs to be done which is why I was questioning the acceptability of the safety wire.

I'm going to call some local exhaust shops and see if they can put/weld spring mounts on there like it should've been from new.

 

be careful with that... Id look for a fabricator. Exhaust shops have given me the most grief and sub par work. Wish I had pics of a turbo dump pipe they welded wrong even with sharpie markings and precut U bends that just needed tacking...lol

 

If it appears to be all from the same manufacturer, is there any evidence of missing spring loops? It looks like someone tried to weld the slip joints for some reason. Maybe they don't need to be and the safety wire is just there for a backup? I would second not taking it to a local exhaust shop. They will likely not be able to weld stainless let alone titanium. I'd check with some local machine shops, they sometimes have welders on staff who know what they are doing.