Dysfnctnl85

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...

rfreeman27

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.

Dysfnctnl85

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.

rfreeman27

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.

Dramon_Killer

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

Dysfnctnl85

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.

rfreeman27

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.

teknics

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.

fc3sboy1

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.

knonfs

WOW, that is a lot of work



I love it