I'm kind of at a standstill with the project because of one small problem: custom bending aluminum.



I spoke with a few local shops and they suggested using SS because 99.9% of the time they use SS and powder coat it for piping. I was under the impression that most if not all intercooler piping was made of aluminum, but maybe I'm wrong?



Anyways, here's the deal...



I purchased 3' of aluminum from KTeller.com They assured me it was T1 aircraft quality alum and could be bent. I took it to a bend shop and whaddya know, T1 cannot be bent and as a result it broke on the bender. They had some extra 2.5" elbows laying around so they welded them together to finish one side of the piping (Intercooler --> TB). They are not in the business of making 2" sections of alum for the other half of my piping so they weren't about to tackle that job.



I called a few more shops and still nothing. So I can either plop down like $60 for 3' of bendable alum. from Burns Stainless or I can find some SS and redo the piping in all SS.



What should I do?



FWIW I already have my BOV flange welded on, but I want to make this right...

Ive already told you. You dont need to bend anything. Buy some U bends, cut them up and mix with straights to make your IC piping.

I know you have, and I'm not questioning your intelligence or anything, I just want to make sure I'm doing the best thing I can do given my situation.

I'm not like mad at you or anything...



Its just the easiest way to go. One ubend would most likley be enough for you. Then YOU can cut and mark the bends and just ahve somebody weld them together. Prolly cheeper then having a shop (crush?) bend some pipes for you.

Btw, with welded ubends and pipes they can ground down and sand out the weld spots so it looks nice and smooth.

Okay good, sorry Internet tone doesn't exist haha.



I'm really more pissed about the fact that my dad decided to take on the Intercooler --> TB pipe measuring as the shop gave me two 45* or so elbows to put together. Well, needless to say I'm not satisfied with it simply because the pipe that we had made a) doesn't meet the TB elbow in the coupler and b) is not even in the coupler (ie, on one side there's like a 1/2" gap between the TB and intercooler pipes and on the other it's more like 1", on the inside of the coupler of course).



So I'm just pissed about a few things. Nothing is simple when it comes to this stuff I guess.



My only solution (without having to redo the piping, which I might do anyway...) is to make the TB elbow shorter and weld on a piece of pipe to the end of the existing pipe to account for the crookedness. If that makes any sense.

Makes sense.



Whatever you do, have the shop roll a lip 1/4 inch from the edge of the pipe, so the couplers wolnt blow off.

burns sells 304SS for like pretty cheap, but if you need curves i would buy u-bends and set it up myself.



as for measurements coming short you ALWAYS add extra room on the pipes to make up for things you run into or that just happen.



kevin.

prebent pipe is good , flows well but ever think about knotch bends? take 5deg cuts on the pipe and weld it together, flow is just as well as manderal bends do and you can even get tighter bends by knotchin pipe, well its not realy a notch is more of a pipe cut welded to more pie cuts,,,,,,,,,,,,,, tooke 22 parts to make a 12 inch pipe to go around my power stearing pump on my fc but it looks so sweet. look at the picks that might help give the idea im sayin. there from my car.

WOW, that is a lot of work https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683894.gif



I love it https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif

that must cause a nice pressure drop, thats like a 270 degree spiralling turn





kevin.

found no presure drop with this set up, and yes it was alot of work but when i got no life and had no chick at the time , what else was i goin to do to eat up the time lol!. besides try and fit a 3" pipe in a car with a strut bar and power strearing , its not that easy.

you definitly need a tig welder for that.

I never would have thought of that, the pipe I have right now, the one made of elbows, has that 1/4" lip on it. If it only it was flush...





I don't have a TIG so this isn't really a good option for me. I wouldn't feel right asking my friend to weld 50 little pieces together for me. Looks like you did a really great job though!



I'll post a pic of the pipe when I find it...

my turbo to IC pipe is a,uminum and IC to intake is steel(it has some oxidation)

Okay so it's not weird to have SS for intercooler piping...okay...I just thought it was probably too much weight for the task and would add stress to areas that wouldn't be used to it.



This is what I have now that I'm not happy with. The welds on the BOV are not pretty either...I had someone do this in the shop where I work. It has penetration, but I guess I won't know how good it is until I can crank the thing.



If you look real closely you can identify the gap I was talking about in my earlier post.



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[attachment=28402:attachment]

I don't see what you are bitching at, your alternator is dirty, the fender wells are dirty. The list goes on, and u have a rusty bracket where the rad is. The ugly welds are the least of your concerns.



j/k

it almost looks as if the bend is more than needed. could you cut say 1/2 to 1/2 an inch off the pipe do it lines up or unbend the pipe a bit?

You can do it a bunch of different ways. It depends on how nice you want the job to turn out, and your goal.



If I were you, I would do what others recomended. Buy straight Alumn. piping and two U pipes. Cut the pipes to appropriate angles, and weld them. Grind them down to a nice smooth finish. Place a beed line or flair (I prefer welds than a flair) on the ends of the pipe at both sides. Your IC cuplings clamps will use this as a holding position.

Bastage!





I think I'm going to cut a little off the end and get someone to weld on a straight piece that's cut at an angle...if that makes sense. The end connecting to the TB elbow will be cut at an angle to compensate for the pipe being bent too much.



I didn't have it bent in the first place, the shop just had two elbows laying around that I was able to put together. Too bad my dad was too gung-ho about it and overcompensated. He seems to think it will be fine the way it is but I think that gap will create a lot of turbulence. https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683664.gif