piping material for Intercooler?
 

What is type of material is acceptable for intercooler pipeings?

could I get away using cheap intake pipings? what are the pros and cons?

What would be an Miata turbo site standard?

Thanks guys

Aluminum bend, SS bends, mild steel bends. All the same in my book. Just think about how each radiates/absorbs heat, weight and cost.

I used 2.5" SS bends that I picked up off ebay for like $200 and it came with more then I could use. If you go to a speed shop, they might charge like $30-40 a bend. Just look around on ebay. You can tell whats liget and whats not.

used dryer vent :dunno:

Three major schools of thought here:

Mandrel-bent aluminum tubing is very lightweight, has good heat dissipation, and is easy to cut and grind. The downside is that welding it is beyond the reach of most DIY'ers, so every joint is a silicone coupler. This is not entirely a bad thing, as it builds a degree of flex into the system, but you may need to fabricate a hanger or two to keep everything in place. As an added bonus, the pipes polish up nicely.

Mandrel-bent stainless tubing- Not quite as popular, it's heavier than aluminum, though within the ability of some advanced DIYers to weld.

Mandrel-bent steel tubing- If you're stuck to the idea of welding your pipes, this is the way to go. You can buy a cheap flux welder for $120, though personally I regret having done so, and would have rather picked up one of the $200 convertable units and added the extra hardware to do gas-shielded welding. You'll have to finish these pipes with paint or powder-coat.

My system is mostly aluminum, though after several failed attempts at brazing, I did have to make one piece (the up-pipe into the intake manifold) out of steel so that I could properly weld a couple of fittings to it.

You can buy aluminum and stainless pipe rather cheaply off ebay. Go into eBay Motors and search for aluminum bend or stainless bend. Some popular vendors endorsed by locals on this forum are veccohighperformance and Verocious Motorsports. Be aware that these guys don't have all their inventory advertized all the time- sometimes you'll have to check in every day or so for a week or more to see all the pieces you need.

For regular steel, an often-overlooked option is Summit Racing. Go to their online catalog and look at exhaust -> individual bends. The prices aren't too bad.

Check out this thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4904

That having been said, I'll give the same final conclusion here that I did there. If this is for a 1.6 Greddy, just buy Stripes' kit.

Thank you guys for all the inputs.

Aluminized steel seems to be a popular choice, cheap but better oxidation resistance than plain mild steel.

Personally I went with Aluminum on my Nissan. I don't know if I would go with it again, up front it costs more and then I had to pay to get it TIG welded. I don't think the increase in cost is worth the couple of lbs I saved over aluminzed steel.

I say aluminum for the charge pipe at a minimum. There is a reason that aluminum makes up the heatsink for almost every computer in existence. It's one of THE best heat exchangers. Every degree counts!

titanium pipes would be even lighter and more bling. yum.

Anybody try using this stuff for welding aluminium ?
http://www.muggyweld.com/5clip2.html

I have, and you can read my experiance of it in post #9 of this thread: https://www.miataturbo.net/forums/showthread.php?t=4904

Suffice to say that while it bonded very well to the copper fittings I was using, it did not stick well to the aluminum pipe. This may have to do with the fact that the pipe had been polished previously, however I tried to be very thorough in my surface prep, using a combination of sanding discs and 3M abrasive pads. After a few days' use, both joints I made with the Muggy-Weld compound failed.

Previously, I'd also tried Bernz-o-Matic AL3 aluminum rods. These didn't fare well either- by the time I had the joint hot enough to flow the rod, the pipe melted.

Efini~FC3S is right. TIG is the way to go for joining aluminum.

Anybody ever tried an aluminum conversion kit for a MIG?

since it's not structural, titanium wouldn't likely be lighter since you could use a thin wall aluminum and still have plenty of strength for dozens of psi.

however

it aint as neat. for whatever that's worth.

Autospeed has a weird write-up in which they use copper tubing as intercooler piping. Looks, well, interesting.

heck i just used exhaust tubing.

still the best option :hs:

if it is steel yeah but they are real big.

I remember seeing that, but have you checked the price of copper plumbing lately? :eek5:

yeah its crazy high now

Not really conducive to making intercooler piping, no. But for those who like to put gold pinstriping on their car ::vomit:: it may be a good (gross) option.

yo we pimped with pinstripes

i just used a cheap ebay intercooler kit and cut it to fit.

All of mine is mild I think, it's been powerdercoated inside and out though. If i had to do it again i would use aluminum because I can tig weld. For now though i'll be keeping the mild tubing because its complete and its a pretty blue PC.

how much do you think it would be to pay someone to tig weld your stuff if you made all the cuts?

Depends on how many cuts you have lol. Seeing how you're in NC, depending on what part of the state you live in i would say you could get all the welding done for $100 or less because it would be standard shop rate which is usually around 65-90 an hr. If you had lets say 4 pieces on each side and 2.5" tubing. It shouldn't take a shop more than an hour to do it. You could save costs by making each side two pieces and using a coupler though. It would also possibly make it easier for removal as well. Depends on if you still have PS and A/C on your car. If that stuff is removed you have all kinds of room and you could possibly run solid pipes the whole way.

Use PVC piping and I will punch you through the internet.

I've not seen anyone use PVC. I know i woulnd't use it.

Rough estimate, depending on the shop and how cool the guys running it are.... hmmm.... if you do all the prep but weld it? $10-25 per joint.

whats the benefit of welding over using silicone couplers? Just the fact that everything stays put a bit easier?

less chance of leaks, ease, cost (silicone & clamps are expensive). It's acutally good to have one or two, or atleast a hump hose so everything can move around a bit as the engine torques and the intercooler stays put.

I paid $150 which, I felt, was a complete rip off. The worst part is the welds don't look very good, for $150 I was expecting beutiful welds. I guess that's what I get for going to a place called "OK WELDING". (seriously that was the name of the place, it's in Davenport IA, don't go there)

next time go to an industrial welder, or someone who welds rod iron fences, or a good exhaust shop.

or buy a cheaper welder and make really bad welds yourself and be happy you can weld just as bad.

a friend of mine who races legends cars (actually, my ex's dad, whose son races legends cars (whose 14...wtf, and he has 4 race cars! lol...yeah)) anyway, has some welding equipment...if I'm welding myself would it be better to find SS or mild steel? As aluminum is hard to work with, or so I've heard?

I'm guessing the best place for the couplers would be at the inlets/outlets of the IC? give it some flex, and then near the TB and turbo?

Stainless Steel Tube from Intercooler to Throttle Body.
It will help insulate the cooled air coming from the intercooler.

Use Mild Steel or Aluminum from the turbo to the Intercooler inlet.
These materials will help give off heat rather than insulating it. Making it easier for the intercooler to do it's job.

What he said. I agree. Mild will be easier to weld and its alot cheaper if you mess up, though SS is way easier to weld than alum. If it's going to be your first time doing this you might lay it all out in mild if you just happen to have excess, then when you're positive you like your setup after running it for a while, go to the SS on the IC-TB side and alum. on the Turbo-IC side. I would hate to mess up expensive SS bends. You might just be a real bad-a$$ welder /fabricator though so go for it.

lol, I think I'll look into mild steel, see how it goes...most of the stuff on Ebay is SS/Aluminum...how should one go about procuring mild steel (this is stuff that should be painted/powdercoated isn't it?)

I did find couplers thanks to that other thread, I believe brianeack posted the links, thanks.

jc whitney most likely. try searching "mandrel bends" most places that sell SS, sell aluminum and mild steel as well.

I've seen a gsx with pvc intercooler pipes... they sucked.

This one is interesting......Check out the TT 351

here's the most useful places:
http://www.summitracing.com
http://www.jcwhitney.com
http://roadraceengineering.com/hackertweekerparts.htm

Well i've been reading about the intercooler kits, and Stripes used to have them for sale but i checked the site and it wasn't available anymore. What I'm looking for is a kit that doesn't require too much modification so i can install it into my 95 miata. What is available now is the ones for sale on ebay, but there is quite a few kits with different sizes and bends. I'm not sure which kit to buy. So can anyone of you who have experience with installation of the intercooler help me look up a kit on ebay that will work? Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

anyone? help? suggestions?

Dam im getting tired of old post being brought up!

Just start a new thread of what your problem is.