DIY Downpipe to tailpipe *56k Warning*
 

Well since i got my megasquirt started i figured i mine as well take steps to make it street legal. :werd:

Currently it sounds like this

(sorry for not embedding it, dont know how :facepalm: )

[fixed- JP]

My plan is going from a 2.5" stainless downpipe and swage to a 3" aluminized steel all the way back. I have magnaflow cat and summit racing turbo muffler. I plan on TIG welding all of the pipe; ill backpurge the stainless but probably not the aluminized 3"

1. Materials ( probably enough to do 2 cars but can never have too much, I do have another project sitting outside that needs exhaust =)

2. Got the catback off

3. All thats left is the downpipe.

Ill get that later ;)

I was thinking of doing the same thing but using exhaust clamps instead of welding.
Also on my mind is a electric cutout hooked up a relay and to the electric boost controller so it automatically opens when i hit full boost.

I'm interested. Looks like you have enough piping configurations there, are you going to use the cool 2.5 > 3.0 smooth transition?

I dont think you need to purge the mild steel part even if you use the same fill thru the whole system,I would use a purge dam on either side of the weld area on the SS side though.IMO.Good luck cant wait to see a "stack of dimes"

Well today i believe i got the hardest part done ( minus the SG part )

1. Marking the first cut

2. Gotta dig through some shit to get my chop saw

3. not perfect but itl do

4. Homemade clamping process

5. thats better!:giggle:

6. first piece tacked in

7. second piece tacked in

8. Me tacking the 3rd piece on (CAUTION: i am hot, i know )

9. how it looks in there, its a little tight but i got it in :jerkit: O crap i still have one more piece to tack in there :vash:

10. view from the transmission tunnel

11. there she is

12. another angle

13. inside at cool end

14. gonna hafta cut part of the sheet metal to make it fit

15. Dremel FTW

16. going to have to go back and do some more grinding on that area but atleast it bolts up.

worked for about 4 hours today

Nice work...what I would'nt do to have a proper shop right now. I really need to get a welder and some work space god damnit!

My garage is a freakin mess. To many car parts. I got a engine 2 heads a tranny with screwd up 3rd gear, lots of pipe, and then on top of it my mom is a packrat :facepalm:

damn that is going to be tight. lots of heat up top wrap the pipe well, and the brake lines

Hey, That's looking VERY nice! Can't wait to get started on my downpipe!!!

well today was not as productive as yesterday. Only thing i got done was... the second section minus the cat

1. finishing up that sheet metal cutting yesterday. and its welded

2. I decided to change something on my second piece heres the gap that i wanted to make easier to burn through

3. another

4. another one...

5. fixed. its better now

6. time to bring out the big guns

7. cutting the wastegate side of the pipe

8. all done i have to orient the side that reintroduces to the exhaust system and weld it on before i continue. ( gonna do it at my vocational school where i got trained, They got gas up the ass)

9. back to the downpipe. welded on a little elbow to orient the pipe a bit better

10. flex pipe

11. from underneith

12 swage piece tacked on

13. FU*K, my original plan aint gonna work. See that gap? exhaust leak FTL :vash: Gonna see what i can do about it. im thinking of getting YearOne Online Shopping , i have to either expand the lower section or ditch it and go with a new design. Anyone with bright ideas?

14. It holds and looks badass but will definitely not work.


AND i was so ready to start on the 3" the easiest part

back to the drawing board

Same here, I hope mine comes out as nice.

Do you know what the bend radius is on the 2.5"? I was thinking of ordering a donut from the chassisshop for clearance if it'll help. Their 2.5 diameter is on a 2.5" radius. 3" on 3" as well. Here's what I'm talking about:

http://www.rbracing-rsr.com/turbo/bullett/bul_donut.jpg

BTW, thats a fine welding machine you have there 8)

try one of these

http://www.mounts-brackets.com/produ...lamp_71358.jpg

i know that downpipe flange anywhere are you going to run a 16g on you car or is that the greddy flange

For sure. at work we always have atleast 1 TIG machine down; all Lincolns. Our miller wirefeeds have not broken down once.

its a greddy td04 15c

nice it looks good i was going to make a downpipe for my new turbo and manifold setup but i found one of those obx downpipe so im just going to make that one work with the jgs manifold and evo 3 16g i got

What kind of elbows did you use for the first part from the turbo?
Did I see it right is where: 2x 90 degrees and 1x 45 degrees? or is it 3x 90 degrees.

I'm curiosly because it make my life easier when I know what kind of elbows to order :)

lookin good

3 90's but all of them were cut shorter due to space constraints.

Today i got a sweet new toy!!!! and its a solution to my connection issue. I introduce the first time Mr. Lathe =)

heres a link to youtube of it actually running

YouTube - My first lathe run


1. practicing on a scrap piece ( its actually running right now although its hard to tell )

2. There he is

3. Goes on like butta

4. look at that fitup ;)

5. Another pic

For any of you curious as to how much it cost me. It was 275 with bunch of bits and gears. The opprotunity presented itself when a coworker wanted to sell it. While just yesterday i encountered the fat ass gap. I figured it will pay for itself over time

Thx! for the info. I'll go order some stuff.

That Lathe work is sick!

Very nice looking piece of pipe you've got going there. Indeed, a lathe is a beautiful thing to have. I miss mine...

Must have lathe in garage before I get fired for my "saturday projects" at work (I don't even work in the machine shop anymore, but somehow find reasons to go back there when I should be in my "closet").

Super nice build. I'm trying to buy some bends right now, and will probably fab my own (on Saturdays of course). $150 at local muffler shop was cheap, but can't bring myself to live with crush bends. And all the mandrel systems are way out of my budget.

What bends precisely did you need to get around diff and to muffler? (EDIT: The pics are nice, but it's hard to piece it all together in my head)

I know I'll need a 90 on the other side to bumper exit, and I'm guessing I need atleast one "U" and two 45s to get over rear brace and into muffler.

Why did you turn down the tubing, guess I missed that part?

See pic 13 on my second set of pics. There was a gap that wouldn't work for connecting the lower and upper downpipe together. So i just turned down some pipe that was a bit too large until it was just right

gospeed81

If you see my build you will notice that im not that far yet. What i plan to do is use 2 45* to limit backpressure. Ive seen some that go 90 up and over and then another 90 out.

1 90* is = to 20ft of straight pipe ( backpressure ) the less bends you use the more your turbo can breathe!

Fluid Mechanics FTMFW!

Took it last semester, got an A, was laughing the whole way through the "coolant reroute" thread.

I'm trying to find the simplest route out too. I noticed y8s has a big 180 on his going into muffler, and I'm trying to avoid this, especially since I'm building in 2.5" (already have 2.5" 200cell/in metal cat and 2.5" muffler). I'm even thinking about putting the muffler in an unconvential spot.

There is some total win in this thread. Good idea getting the lathe involved...very cool.

Cant wait to see all this in person.

Look at turbo tims setups he builds, he doesn't use a 180, more like a 45 in and a 45 out.

That's what I'm talking about!

I feel like I saw that back when I was a newb, and it impressed me. That is badass. I plan to replicate this.

While on the topic, will I be okay without a flex joint? My downpipe has a sleeve joint with a band clamp on it, and there will be one 2 bolt flange before the cat. I plan to weld everything after that.

Tonight got some welding done before and after English 101. Since my old welding instructors are so cool they let me use their machine, rod, and GAS!!

1. Flange top side

2. Flange side view

3. Full shot :giggle:

4. Sleeve end ( notice the penetration )

5. Inside flange view. I only got crystals 3 little times from the angle of the tube being to sharp to get my tungsten in there right. I also welded the inside for added strength ( yes im going to sand this down nice and beautiful)
Also notice the penetration on the second joint

6. view of one of the Seperated gases pipe that i welded at the right angle for reintroduction

7. another view

8. close up! damn flash!

9. tried to get the shot of penetration o wells.

gospeed81- The purpose of the flex joint is to reduce stress on your manifold/downpipe. When the motor is experiencing a load it twists side to side. Now your cat back exhaust is held in by hangers that are attached to rubber. This is to give it more sway.

the downside of using a flex pipe is that its more prone to exhaust leaks because its not a solid tube ( go figure ) I decided to use one because its easy for me to cut one out and weld a new one on if it ever does happen.

Will you be okay without one? probably

Should you get one? Up to you

Do i recommend it? Yes

Fuuck those are blurry sorry for making you squint :facepalm:

Nice welds!

OMG! You turned down a piece of pipe to a slightly smallar diameter! You're a mother f'ing lathe goddess!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11










j/k, as a machinist I had to give ya shit, anything made on that puny lathe that works as intended is impressive, good job so far. NW MT members FTMFW!

why ya gotta bust balls? :fawk:

English 101 sucks, i'm taking it this quarter too.

I think you've thoroughly convinced me to take a welding class summer quarter. It would be awesome to do welding work on the side while going to school.

Bellingham technical college has an AMAZING shop. I went their for the annual welding rodeo and it is indeed nice.

ya its just a bitch to get into the program. I tried this quarter (fairly early too) and it was already full.

Tonight i got the first section of my 3 part exhaust done. Turned out better than what i expected although due to the limited space i couldn't route the wastegate port exactly where i wanted it. But hey; for my first time ever building an exhaust it will work.


1. Testing the fitup

2. Another view

3. Marking out the whole of where i need to tap it back in

4. i first started drilling holes around the perimiter

5. Then i rememberd i had 25 pack of dremel cutoff wheels :facepalm:

6. Smoothed out the hole so its nice and clean.

7. Tacked in, Off to the welding classroom!

8. Welded where i tapped back into the main pipe

9. Top side.

10. Faraway shot.

11. Closeup of top side

12. Bottom side

13 Turbo mating side

14. Another view of bottom side. The only part that looks not as good as it should is right on the bottom side where the flange, 2 1/2" and 1 1/2" pipe mate. Absolutely ridiculously impossible to get my tungsten/rod in there even with the stubby :vash:



now onto my english paper :crx:

Whoa. Your lack of lathe skill is made up for ten fold by your welding/fabricating skills, that's f'ing gorgeous dude! Nice job.

Could you copy and paste the image locations between your little picture descriptions? That way if we wanna read about what we're looking at, we don't have to scroll up a bunch.

If i knew how i would of already. Can you teach me? :laugh:

description 1, followed by the pic:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3218/3024489131_f599a55a07.jpg?v=0[/IMG

description 2, followed by the pic:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3218/3024489131_f599a55a07.jpg?v=0[/IMG


...and so on and so on. You can weld like that, but you can't figure this stuff out? I took the last ] out on each of those so you can see the format without that actual pictures. Are you seriously having issues with this? You must be posting pictures strangely.

Looks great. I think a hole saw may be easier for the wg reentry if you ever have to do that again. It sucks that you had to go in at a 90 degree.

What's the tungsten stick out, and are you using a gas lens?

Looks very nice, but I'm wondering why you didn't take that wastegate runner down a little further. I forget the guideline, but I believe you want the reentry at least 18-21" from flange...BEGi goes 30".

The problem is that he's uploading the pics as attachments, not hosting them from somewhere else. Which I wish he was so they weren't so dang big. Even on my 22" monitor they're huge. So I don't think he can put notes between each pic.

sbkcocker499, if you host your pics from somewhere else the forum would automatically resize them to fit the screen and then IF we needed to see the pic any bigger we could just click on it. :2cents:
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Ya get a photobucket account. Really simple and will clean your thread up a lot.

Today didnt work on the car so much. What i did do is take a clean/organize the shop day.


Before and after shot

As per all of your requests i got a Photobucket account and uploaded the photos there.

Fixed the upper section from before now its a snug fit.

Attachment 206011

Measuring length i need to cut my 3"

Attachment 206012

Got it tacked on

Attachment 206013

Got the cat on

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P5100004.jpg

Got the cat tacked on a little crooked but it will do. Its only a cat!

Attachment 206014

Close up of the connection from the downpipe

Attachment 206015

After i get this all welded up then i dont have to wait anymore. Since the aluminized pipe doesn't need a backing gas i can just weld and roll.

Sweet. Both on the exhaust bit and the photobucket account bit. Now I don't have to click on your thread and go browse somewhere else for 5 minutes while the photos load. Stupid DSL.

So i got the second part done the midpipe with the cat. All welded up.

Weld at the Cat

Attachment 205970

Weld at the Flex Pipe

Attachment 205971

Weld at the upper section where it connects to the downpipe

Attachment 205972

Another view at the cat

Attachment 205973

One more

Attachment 205974

How it looks in the car

Attachment 205975

Another view under the car

Attachment 205976

weld at the flange

Attachment 205977

Welding with my trusty table vise

Attachment 205978

Marking out a space for the wideband

Attachment 205979

Welded in

Attachment 205980

Another view

Attachment 205981


All in all it was a good work time off. Just need one more section and then ill be done with it. I also got the round stock for the hangers. Should be done by this weekend

Looking good! Hope to see the finished product soon.

-Michael

i like your work

I wish i could get this crap done in a day. Id be able to drive the beast.

1990 - thanks, i try;)

GREAT JOB SO FAR. I wish I knew how to weld or had a teacher :( keep it up & us posted

WOW! Realy a nice job.
I wish I could weld like you do.

I'm learning a lot from this thread. As soon as I get some gas and the other accessories for my welder and learn how to use it i'm going to be building my exhaust minus the downpipe. Its awesome seeing how yours is progressing and learning from it.

Got a shitload of homework and my brother ( lives in japan ) made me look at a 93 Rx7 an hour away. He wants 4500 for it, it runs but it doesnt stay running for long

I love these gauges

Attachment 205948

front view

Attachment 205949

rear view

Attachment 205950

Interior needs work lol!

Attachment 205951

Engine shot

Attachment 205952

Heres the video i took of it trying to run

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/v...h_P5130024.jpg

Plumbing is done!!! finished up 15 minuets ago. Made myself a PB & J while my photos uploaded.

Gettin the flange tacked on

Attachment 205810

Weld of the flange

Attachment 205811

another pic

Attachment 205812

another

Attachment 205813

Set my root opening for 1/32

http://i692.photobucket.com/albums/v...s/P5170005.jpg

2 pieces tacked on

Attachment 205814

3rd piece tacked on and marked

Attachment 205815

muff

Attachment 205816

Another view of the muff

Attachment 205817

All of it tacked togethor WOOT finally

Attachment 205818

Under the rear

Attachment 205819

another rear shot

Attachment 205820

Heading up to the front

Attachment 205821

All welded up

Attachment 205822

Welds

Attachment 205823

Muff welds

Attachment 205824

some more welds

Attachment 205825

Thar she is

Attachment 205826


All thats left is getting the hangers made and then she is ready to rock!

very nice work very nice i will call you for my exhaust lol jk but great stuff

Looking great, take some vids of the sound when you're done!

Wish i had a welder like that.