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Intercooler plumbing fabrication questions.


vashonz

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A friend of my dad is going to have his shop help me fab the plumbing for my intercooler, and maybe exhaust.

A little background first: They manufacture aluminum boats that exceed military and CG standards, so they know how to weld aluminum and stainless. This is the plasma cutter they use.

 

The only thing they don't have is a mandrel bender.

 

I am trying to figure out what to do about the bends.

Options:

#1. pie cut the bends. Inexpensive. Looks different, flows better than crush bent. I saw the post eariler by

#2 Buy stainless or aluminum bends. Looks smooth, easier to fab(I'm not going to be doing the welding). Big problem is that these cost more than I want to spend (Budget was going to be $0, but I gotta get an electric fan, o2 sensor bung, and a muffler.)

#3 Buy tubing, have it bent, looks nicer and is cheaper. The problem is finding someone around here with a mandrel bending machine.

 

Things to keep in mind.

This is going to be tig welded by pros.

Straight tubing can be had cheap, I visited an industrial surplus place today, Aluminum tubing was $3 per pound, Stainless was $2 per pound.

I'm trying to keep costs as low as possible on this project.

 

Finally any suggestions/opinions on whether to use stainless steel or aluminum for the intake maniforld. Right now I'm split between the two, one looks really nice and has the ooh, ahh, factor; the other is lighter and more common.

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Well I'm not sure what good that CNC plasma cutter will do for your intercooler... I'd love one in my shop though!

 

I'd buy mandrel bent tubing and fab it up from that. Yeah it costs... but why put out any money if you aren't going to do it right? The pie cuts would be my second choice.

 

As for material, either can be made to look killer with a bit of time polishing. I'd go for what you can find cheaper in a mandrel bend.

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my 280ZX listed below you will see how i did mine, i bought my plumbing from jegs and jcwhitney. jc didnt have the j bends and jegs did.

 

total cost was about 70 dollars for all of it.

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if you can get it tig welded by pros, i would go for aluminum piping all the way. youll love yourself in the end, all beautiful tig welds on the piping...

get the bends and spend the extra dollar on alum, the tig welding (if you can find one) is extremely expensive-but hey since you have a hookup, i would go alloy all the way, and also have them reroute the inlet/outlet to the most efficient configuration possible. just me.

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Guest szlash280z

hey zmefly, how is your afm mounted? do the ZXT's have a mounting bracket they are supposed to be attached to? do you still have the AC compressor there?

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my afm is now along side the motor, i had made a small bracket with a heat shield to hold it in place and the shield to keep the heat of the block away from it.

 

im currently trying to figure out another way or place to put it so its not so close to the engine block, but it seems to be alright for now.

 

thanks for the compliment

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Guest szlash280z

I just did a test fitting of my volvo intercooler. it looks like it will fit, but I will probably have to relocate my horns. did anyone here have to remove their horns to fit an intercooler?

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I just did a test fitting of my volvo intercooler. it looks like it will fit, but I will probably have to relocate my horns. did anyone here have to remove their horns to fit an intercooler?

 

I did. I installed a dual tone air horn, really gets people attention. People get pissed when I honk at them. :D

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Guest Zcarsmakemyheadhurt

I have access to a mandrel bender, let me know the sizes of pipe type of material your gonna go with and I can give you a quote.

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