aluminized steel vs. stainless steel
 

im in the market for some exhaust but i need to know if spending the extra 100 bucks or so to get stainless steel is worth it. How much better is the stainless steel than the aluminized. Any feedback is appreciated.

stainless is more bling...

Unless they salt the roads where you live during the winter, you don't need stainless steel.

In my case (tons of salt during the winter months) it was well worth it.

Stainless ALL THE WAY

STAINLESS....ooo the shinnyness

If they salt the roads in the winter by you, then the extra $100 for stainless will prob. double the life of your exhaust.

When i got my exhaust stainless was only 30 bucks more.....

Time to check around more

YES stainless is the answer for the long run.

Your factory exhaust tubing was stainless, primarily to resist the acids and high temperature corrosion of a catalytic converter equipped vehicle. I would get the same thing if you want your system to last.

My friend got a stainless Magnaflow for his Accord (not a ranger though), I/we live in Pennsylvania with lots of salt in the winter and his exhaust started rusting right away. He called up Magnaflow and they said it will have surface rust but will not rust the whole way, at least for a long time. It looked bad though, so we painted high-temp paint on it and has worked since last winter.
My question is that if I would get an aluminized and paint it with high-temp paint, I would be the same as stainless with paint on it too. I know the paint isn't going to be 100% protective but it helps alot.
On a JBA Evol system the tips are the same, but is the muffler stainless in both systems? If so, the stainless would be worth it. It's a 100$ difference in systems.

Stainless is heavier.

Aluminized steel has an aluminum layer on the outside. The intent is to make it last longer than plain steel by keeping salt and oxygen away from the steel. The outer layer oxidizes first but when it's gone, the steel is quickly destroyed.

Stainless steel is not a coating. It is a special class of steels alloyed with other metals that are slower to corrode. There are many grades of stainless but in most cases, the chief alloying metals are chromium and nickel.

Most factory automotive stainless is ferritic grade 409 and it does exhibit surface corrosion especially in the presence of water and road salt. The point of using stainless on an OEM exhaust is durability not beauty.

A better and more expensive grade of stainless is austenitic 304 or 316 but it is usually used on very expensive aftermarket exhausts or sometimes just the exposed tips. The more exprensive grades of stainless are rarely used on OEM exhaust systems.

I have heard plenty stories about people aluminized steel rusting out and falling apart, never heard anything bad about stainless.

I've been looking a the JBA Evol stainless system, I just checked up on it and it's made from 304 stainless, which rwenzing explained is the good stuff. I've seen these systems being used on alot of racing rangers, which seems to show that they're really decent. I found them around for just under 400$, aluminized under 300$. Which are really the going prices for any brand system.