Diy intercooler piping teaser
 

so I decided that after all my lurking around the forums, that I should probably contribute something. so I decided that I am going to be taking a few photos while Im installing my intercooler piping. I have my turbo clocked straight up. I decided that I was too lazy to deal with all the shortening of cooling lines and powersteering bullshit and clocking it so I just drilled a hole in my wheel well :) I give credit to turbotim for the idea from his twinturbo set-up. Ill be using the existing 2 inch piping from the piece from the begi-s kit and joining it with a 2.5 inch piping all the way to the intercooler. This is still in progress I just wanted to show what I had so far. please excuse the crappy camera phone pics.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0608092129.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...0608092128.jpg




The second one is what we used to clean up the edge. its just some cut vacuum hose with weatherstriping sealer.



more pics to come

Looks good so far!

Very cool! I was using the same tape to hold my downpipe in place to line things up for welding lol.

only real issue ive had so far is that my intercooler is too big. i should of gotten a shorter core i think so i can have it sit higher up in the mouth.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...608092126a.jpg



fits real nice under there. im probably going to have to add another piece of vacuum line onto that hood support so it doesnt rub on the pipe.

I like that routing a lot. Keep us updated.

hey flawxy, you bought some injectors from me on ebay lol..

i too have the same piping route. its really cool and saves room =D

shipping your injectors out tomorrow morning by the way ;)

sounds good. yeah i saw it on ebay and on here in the classifieds. i just figured that id make it easier and do ebay plus it'll raise my feedback. you think its ok that my intercooler is mounted on an angle like i have it? will it divert air away from the radiator?

Thanks for the pics. I think I'm going the same route with the new car rather than where I went the first time. Have any shots of the raw hole w/o the pipe?

Hey Ive never seen routing like that before, thats pretty slick :bigtu:

Im considering doing something kind of similar, except on an NB, so I think I can route mine down, like this:

Attachment 205329

but i suppose you cant do that due to the headlights, haha

but anyway keep up the good work and keep us posted!

ill try to snap one once i take out the pipe to work on it again. it had vacuum hose glued to it with weatherstripping adhesive though

Intercooler angle looks fine IMO.

I generally like it turned down to some degree, myself. (Think of all that phatty down force its' generating!!! lol)

the way its angled its actually lifting up on the car :(

Will you need to remove a fender to fix/replace the coupler?

I'd rather put the intake in the fender. nothing wrong with the charge pipes going straight down. When the charge pipe goes through the fender I think it severely limits your air filter placement, and forces you to use less than ideal mounting positions.

Actually, having it tilted forward is the proper way to do it. You see most race cars with the intercoolers and radiators tilted that way.

If you think about the way the fins of the intercooler and positioned in the air, and not about the way the front "surface" is positioned, you can see that tilting the top forward may actually be better for "downforce" (or just preventing lift)

^ good point

no, you can just remove the wheel and plastic shielding and you should eb able to access it

i agree that i now have very limited space for air filter replacement.

Looks good, however it's a lot more work than is needed especially when you can do it without having to cut holes and remove fenders.
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Personal Opinion.. I'd replace this coupler with a weld. Even though you can access that without pulling fender it'd still be a huge bitch to get to and might not be repairable easily with wrenches and screwdrivers on the side of the road..

Is okkk, we all fiendsss

Huh, never saw that before, but the cold side is how I did mine.

Attachment 205320

I too did an unconventional routing...

Attachment 205319

Looks like a standard over the radiator routing to me, unless I'm missing something.

I don't understand over the radiator. sure it's easy to route but you're picking up all that heat pre/post intercooler. Anyone read intake temps w/ an over the radiator setup? I wonder if the IC is event able to lower the temp of the charge air.

What are you talking about? Do you really think the air moving through the charge pipes sticks around long enough to absorb heat post ic? IF anything its a better method if you have a IC with the correct up facing endtanks. More direct routing, less bends = faster response, better flow.

If the charge pipes are absorbing some of the heat the radiator is... radiating.... you're expecting the air passing through the hot pipes to not get compromised? That's bold.

Take a map torch to an aluminum pipe, get it to 200*F, blow air at turbo-psi (10psi, whatever) through the pipe and tell me the air coming out the other end isn't warmer than the air going in.

Not to be rude but this is like 3rd grade 101.

On the "less bends = faster response" statement:

I'm betting you could route the charge pipes out the fender, down the side of the car, wrapping around the tail lights, back up the passenger side, and into the intake, effectively using 18 feet of chargepipe, and you wouldn't notice a hint of hesitation.

like neo, i doubt it matter how hot the pipe really. the air is moving so fast within the pipe it will be hard for it to absorb much/any heat from the surface of the pipe. some, but not much.

likewise, unsure about the bends, I'm sure its fast enough that bends/length doesn't matter, but it certain would be more "ideal" to be as straight and short as possible.

I don't really disagree, it's just that aluminum radiates heat very easily, so although the charge air passing over the hot section may not be altered much, there is heat inside the tube regardless, and cool air will absorb that heat.

I think it looks cool, no doubt about that.

Not to be rude, but if you've taken a transport phenomena class (or any sort of fluid flow, really) You'd know that convective heat transfer is going to be essentially negligible at that flowrate. If you're that worried about it, coat the pipe in some nonconductive material.

I'm not worried about it at all, because I wouldn't route my IC plumbing that way.

it looks real nice

I still say again for a bunch of "kids" (no offense..) in a garage with a wire feed welder and some misc hand tools.. MAD Props!!

Simply line the pipes with weasel fur. Problem solved.

See... why couldn't I have just gotten that response instead of the debate I hate to withstand.

Awwww... he cute!

IDK but in my opinion doing the intercooler like you is fucking stupid!

[Waylon Jennings]
Now some folks 'round these parts just can't pass up a good argument. Reckon if their mouths ever stopped movin', their brains just might start.
[/Waylon Jennings]

who the funk is this guy talking to?

In all seriousness, I think the vast majority of us, whether we're going over, under, or around the radiator, are running a significant portion of our charge piping directly behind it.

So far as I am aware, this has not yet caused the Guadalupe River to turn to blood.

BTW, have you noticed that a weasel is precisely the correct shape and size already? You wouldn't even have to slit it lengthwise. Just hollow it out from the ends and slip the pipe through it like a sleeve.

Last time I checked they don't teach heat transfer in 3rd grade lol.

Seriously, your're completly overstating the heat transfer effect. At 100 dec C 99% of the heat transfer is convective and air is not moving in the right direction to heat the IC pipes if they are in front. The worst case is having them behind, as I do. This still doesn't matter, the effect is nearly zero.

Even though it's called a "radiator", the radiation is nearly zero at that temp.

Not to mention the air on that side of the IC is pretty hot already.

Yes but a 3rd grader knows better than to touch a frying pan while sitting atop a hot stove. Which is basically what I'm referring to. A pipe sitting on top of the radiator will become a hot pipe.

I was making my statements regarding the pipes laying across the top of the radiator, not sitting in front of it.

Listen fellas, while you're all pointing fingers at me, I'm pointing fingers at the weasel.

/end my association with this thread.

What I'm telling you is that the effect is so small that it's rediculous to consider. You'll need an education better than 3rd grade to appreciate that though. ;)

If that happened, it would be a huge scab. Damn drought :vash:

You guys w/ your low blows. Jesus... man up and say it already you inflamed vagina(s).

It could be worse. The guy I got my car (a '93) from tried to run the intercooler piping under the passenger side head light. Naturally it interferes with the headlights being lowered so he just left them up and disconnected the wires from the headlight motor to the lights. Anybody got a photos/tips/links as to how to do it more effectively? Just looking to get a headstart on the project.

Um, no. All my pipes are mild steel, and they really do not get that hot. Maybe ~115 degrees, and my IATs are not much over ambient @ 15psi, so I'd say that my intercooler is doing an amazing job.


Thanks man, I am still impressed with how well it came out.

As long as there is an air space between the pipe and the radiator it shouldn't be too bad in terms of heat transfer as air is not a good conductor. Likewise mild steel is not a great conductor compared to aluminum. Stainless steel is an even poorer conductor, but can weigh a lot. I quess a reflective wrap/sleeve around the pipe wouldn't hurt. Still hoping to see some photos of other ways to route my pipe to the intercooler on my NA wthout disabling the headlight.

:laugh: That image is great. Leave it bloody and messy, and leave the head on and run the BOV through its mouth. I'd love to do that to piss of some PETA members.

I love my home-made SS IC pipes, probably weight a couple of pounds for the whole lot.

Nice work, I hope to try my own fabrication skills.
I can cut and paste, but not weld yet.

Alpina turbo? BMW by chance? I don't have enough posts to send you a PM yet.