Rust inside steel Begi intercooler pipes
 

I bought a used Begi intercooler and piping kit a while back. Three years later I am finally installing turbo and there is some light rust visible on the ID's of the steel piping. I would hate to suck any rust particles into my engine. I'm looking for tips on cleaning the ID of this piping. I have been looking for a pipe brush big enough to clean the 2" tubing. Maybe some Evaporust?

Maybe get a bag of those colorful fish pebbles used in fish tanks and mineral spirits. Get some tape and tape one end than dump the pebbles in and pour some mineral spirits than tape the other end really good and shake it. Dump rinse repeat.

Why not save ur self the 20 bucks in brushes and buy the 20 bucks of aluminum pipe?

How long are the sections of steel piping? I looked at the BEGI site and if it's a half silicone, half pipe arrangement, then perhaps a 2" flex hone would do the trick. Not cheap:
FLEX-HONE TOOL Flexible Cyl Hone,Bore Dia.2in,120 Grit - Flexible Cylinder Hones - 2ZYX5|BC20012 - Grainger Industrial Supply Looks like there is one for $31 shipped on ebay.

Poke around ebay and there's similar bore brushes for cheaper. Or a flexible drill shaft with a wire wheel at the end.

Hes probably got one of the old kits that is all metal and only using rubber couplers.

For some reason BEGi still use MS pipes that rust easy with PCing that flakes off just as.

Ignore it. Steel rusts. Even if you clean it perfectly, it will still rust.

If it bugs you, aluminum or silicone.

BEGI uses steel because it's cheap and easy to weld. No other possible reason.

Yes, its the older steel with couplers only. I have small flexible hone like the one linked. It doesn't work around the bends.
I would prefer Aluminum tubes too, but I have a complete set of intercooler tubes already fabbed and that fit. I'm not redoing all that right now.

Do these pipes rust when installed in the car? My 1.8t jetta always has a thin film of oil in the intercooler pipes so I figured I would get a similar coating on my Miata pipes. I was planning to just stick a breather filter on the turbo side of the valve cover for now, but might need to run it to the turbo inlet pipe so I can get some oil vapor to keep the pipe ID's shiny.

The outside powdercoating sucks. It is flaking off in several places.

You get surface rust. When i took mine off (when i installed my IC) the pipes had a surface rust. Not bad but still rusted. Probably little thicker than the rust you get on the rotors after not driving for a week after a good rain storm.

Perhaps Garbage Freight sells some kind of flexible 2" ball hone or wire brush type item?

you know what else is 2"?



oh wait, you need 2" thick, not long...

According to Corky Bell:

"Is rust in the intercooler tubes ok?

Rust in a mild steel intercooler tubes is completely normal. And OK. It will not hurt the motor and result in damage. If a piece of rust goes thru the motor, it will vaporize before it can do any harm. No damage will result from rust in an intercooler tube. "

BEGi

If you're really worried about it, the above suggestions for ALU replacements sound like your best bet.

I just want to clean the rust on that has accumulated from storage. After that I'm not to worried about a thin film of rust.

Someone at work suggested that I try pushing a ball of steel wool through a couple of times and then rinse it out good. I will give it a try this weekend.

Roger. A small amount of a penetrating oil will probably help with removal as well prevention. Try a dab of wd40 or better yet pb blaster. Just clean it all out well. I imagine you don't want gobs of that stuff running through your engine.

i image gobs of the stuff wouldn't matter.

I ended up getting a $1.99 toilet brush at wally world and it worked great. I was going to spend $15 on a dryer lint brush that could reach 4 ft, but the toilet brush worked great. Some WD-40 and a couple of passes of this brush and I got it all shiny and clean.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1401458713

Why Begi still doesn't use Aluminum for pipes gets to me.....I'm guessing because they haven't bought the welder yet so steel is the only option for custom pieces.

I don't know about their newer stuff. I got my intercooler and pipes as a used kit from an older BEGI setup.