lukehall

My Feedback: (1)

Hello,

Having fitted a new Samba pipe and being very impressed with the results, I am rather disappointed to have found a fault with the welding.

Have a look at the attached images. I noticed a oily char mark on my gear cover. On closer inspection I noticed that the weld seam has got small holes in it where the welding is bad. Under pressure these holes leak exhaust. I doubt they are large enough to affect performance but I am worried that they will propogate fractures and before long break. It looks like impurities in the welding material and the holes are easily large enough for me to 'suck' air through straight from the expansion chamber with my mouth.

What should I do? My instinct is to return it for a replacement, but then my Marder will be out of action for ages while they get me another one. Pretty irritating to pay a lot of money for something with poor quality control...

mike_humphreys

Hey Luke, send it back for a refund and check out your post on "samba pipes, how much should i pay"

Mike

arjwhite

Thats a joke (not a very funny one) for what they charge for the pipe.I`d expect a lot more for the money.The last front pipe i bought for a KTM enduro bike(250EXC) wasn`t a great deal more than the samba pipe price,the KTM pipe came with near seamless welds and as far as i am aware is still going strong ,and is on one hell of a larger scale.Take it back and try the fg tuned pipe.

richardneail

Are the pipes made from stainless steel?

And why don't they clean the welds up, it doesn't take alot to get rid of the discoloration from the welding.

lukehall

My Feedback: (1)

Don't think it's stainless steel - seems to be more of a steel alloy. I've heard that they rust sometimes...

Some of the joins are finished better than others, but never the less, I'd expect better from something so expensive.

Luke

BILKO1

Just finished fitting my Samba to my MT, after reading this thread i gave it a good looking at and its fine and gas tight although some of the welds are poor.

skulldoctor

man thats a sh*ty weld in the first pic. im a welder and could do better than that when im sleeping. its hard to tell if its porosity from when thier starting and stopping the weld,or if thier welding it from the indide and it wasnt properly sheilded w/inert gas on the outside to avoid the porosity.it also looks like a tig weld job,theyd get much better results from a plasma welding machine,then they could use a glass bead blaster to get rid of the discoloration. but that would make it to nice of quality and look to nice for the cust who's payn out big bucks for it. if i was producing a product that lookd like that and was selln it for as much as they get,id be embarassed.
looks to me,either theyv hired a new welder w/no experince. or they whip them out as fast as they can to keep the costs down so they can make a ton of profit {way over priced}.......
sorry bout the rant,but couldnt believe that pic above. i wont be buying one.....

ibstar

i'd send that back, its disgracful for the money £130 ish
i still don't understand why they are so expensive, i'm putting off getting mine
i raced a carson with the tuned pipe and was keeping up fine with him round the track
he reckoned it wern't set up right
brakes for the front first then maybe a pipe

richardneail

They are prob low grade stainless which is often used for car exhausts as its cheaper, problem with it is that it rusts and is magnetic.

I am also a welder mostly stainless and alu, and as skulldoctor says it looks like they have not shielded it properly and the weld has oxidized. on this alone I would send it back as the weld will be weak and will prob break.

Yer skulldoctor it looks like a tig weld to me to, it's bad that they send them out without cleaning them up. Thats why I was asking if they are stainless as it wouldn't take much to acid wash it and get rid of the discoloration.

Rich

lukehall

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Guys,

Yeah - I am going to take it back - I just hope the shop doesn't give me any crap over it. I'll ask for a refund and replace it with the FG pipe instead. After all, it is clearly defective construction and was obviously sold as such.

Best wishes,

Luke

dubby

Id replace it with another samba. The difference between to two is amazing.

FG pipe makes sod all difference from all those that I have seen and had a go with. Samba on the otherhand has made alot of diference to mine.

Definately get it replaced though.

CowboyBob

I replaced my FG pipe with a Samba too, but I'm waiting on my replacement Samba since the one that I'm running now did not have the hoop attachment for the tension spring welded to it! Needless to say I'm impressed with the performance gains, but very un-impressed that Samba's lack of quality assurance could overlook something as obvious as this.

skulldoctor

i dont know if you'v ever used plasma machine b4,but thats the best way 2 weld ss {stainless steel},esp thinner gauges. no splatter whatsoever. i used to make ss ultraviolet water purifiers. after welding we'd blast the weld w/glass beads and it came out sweeeet. the welds lookd nuthn like that pic above. im in the trucking buisness now and own my own truck,but welded for many years w/3years of previous schooling during high school. iv done it all except underwater welding.
i miss having access to a welding shop {esp w/plasma} and all the supplies. i used to make all kinds of things. i usually bug my friend that still works there for custom things i mite need. if i was still there id try to design my own pipe and give it a whurl. plus make extras and sell them reasonably. but unfrtntly i cant make them w/my truck i can only make the bucks to buy one w/it i mite buy one down the road,but il either want to see it in person or know that i can send back for a refund if im not happy. latr lefty

richardneail

Skulldoctor, No I havent ever done plasma welding, I just do Mig, Tig and Stick, I dont usually weld very thin stainless about 1.5 is the thinest that I go and I mostly tig weld it.

At the moment I am looking at setting up to weld titanium as I have some sheets and want to make a exhaust from it !

Rich

skulldoctor

plasma is sorta like tig but much,much better. i think the ss we use to weld was 16 gauge. iv never welded titanium,that would be interesting.

richardneail

Titanium welds just like ss in fact you can use the same tip and gas in your Tig plant, the only difference is that you must keep it totally surrounded in an oxygen free atmosphere while u weld it.

At 600 degrees the Ti starts to absorb oxygen from the atmosphere so if you don't keep it oxygen free the weld looks fantastic but is just brittle.

Rich

original.mb

andy i have the samba 3 pipe and the welding quality is roughly the same as yours and i paid 155 quid but i'm happy to say the performance is blinding

hey andy have u noticed that when u pull a wheelie the back end of the pipe sparks away on the floor slightly loosing the engine cos of the extreme power/torque?

FGUK

Luke,

When I was in Rossendale Models today, the retail arm of King Cobra, I asked about the Sambas and the welds, was told that the bloke who owns ModelCargo is aware of quality control issues and the problems are down to the fact that in the last few months he's lost about 5 of his top welders.

Apparently it's all in hand, although in my opinion it does seem a little greedy of ModelCargo to be putting out obviously substandard items, a little more time spent on QC and all the pipes should leave the factory to the normal high standard, after all £150 for a bit of a pipe is certainly top money!