badjuju Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 I'm playing with making fiberglass turbo piping and intake piping... Any problems that people forsee other than the ROYAL pain the the ass it's been to make an almost suitable mold? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boodlefoof Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 The heat might be a problem depending on what kind of resin you're using and how close to the turbo you're putting it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spork Posted October 18, 2006 Share Posted October 18, 2006 I suppose the real question is why. Aluminum is light weight and much easier to do than the fiberglass would be. Buy some pre-bent mandrel bends and then take them to a competent welder and have him weld them up. It could be done, but I'm ot sure I see the advantage to it. There isn't really even a bling factor unless you did them in carbon fiber... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 it's mainly to say 'look what i did you f*ckers' and because i'm on this big fiberglass hitch right now. i am also thinking about better insulation inside the engine bay to slow heatsoak before the ic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted October 18, 2006 Author Share Posted October 18, 2006 it's mainly to say 'look what i did you f*ckers' ^not to you guys, to my friends who are always trying to compete with each other Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2126 Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 I agree with spork....why fiberglass? Its going to be heavier, require more space, and will retain heat more than aluminum. If you fab it from fiberglass your friends may just have an opportunity to laugh....as there are good reasons why just about every turbo induction plumbing is made from aluminmu. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 Fiberglass bullets are against the Geneva Convention because once buried under the skin they don't show up on an X ray. One good backfire while tuning and you have enough shrapnel to shred your face. Maybe not likely but a thought that comes to mind after seeing so many pics of blown up turbo manifolds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexideways Posted October 24, 2006 Share Posted October 24, 2006 Fiberglass bullets are against the Geneva Convention because once buried under the skin they don't show up on an X ray. That and the fact that when the bullet hits it brake appart in millions of glass shards and wherever you get hit, it's gonna make it's way to your heart and you'll die. Anyways, I'm out of subject here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240hoke Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 I know Dinan makes some breautiful carbon fiber cold air intakes for BMW's maybe check them out see if you can tell how they are made. Here at NCSU our formula car uses a carbon fiber intake manifold, it doesnt look good though looks jsut liek a wetlayup over some type of male mold, ill have to ask how they made it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelToad Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 You might want to ask yourself... If it warps, cracks, chips, breaks down ... what are the pieces going to get sucked into. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 Toad, this is a valid point, I will have to keep that in mind during testing, if I'm not totally satsified with it's duribility, I won't put it in. Hoke, that'd be greatly appreciated, I would love to get my hands on some carbon fiber to play with, but it's kinda intimidating thinking about going from napa fiberglass repair sheets to epoxy resin CF, but it's just the jump that this site is all about. any info you could supply would be awesome, particularly on the molding process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted October 25, 2006 Author Share Posted October 25, 2006 one of the reasons I want to use fiberglass is because it insulates heat, I'm thinking it'll help prevent heatsoak in between the intercooler and the intake manifold. I appreciate your enthusiasm, racer, that's the spirit i'm looking for. I hadn't considered the different resins, so I appreciate that input as well, I have a basic understanding of the differences, but I haven't seriously researched it for this project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SBC_400 Posted October 26, 2006 Share Posted October 26, 2006 a more typical way of making tubing froma fiberous material is a process known as filament winding, rather that using a mat or a weave sheet. http://www.entec.com/filament%20winding.shtml Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted October 26, 2006 Author Share Posted October 26, 2006 Hmm, that's great SBC, thanks, i'm now on another quest for information, thanks a lot just realized that post seemed sarcastic, it wans't meant to be, i appreciate the info, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavy85 Posted October 31, 2006 Share Posted October 31, 2006 We used to use CF for our formula SAE cars (back in the late '90's not sure what they are using now) for the intake manifold and that was in a turbo application. Main reason was to achieve nice smooth transitions, tapered throat, etc. If vacuum bagged (as our was) it weighed virtually nothing. Only problem I recall was one flat spot in the roof area opposite the runners that would bow out when it got hot and under boost but it never failed. A simple rib fixed that. We made it by rapid prototyping a wax mold then melting the wax out later. You could always hand carve a mold out of a chunk of wax from the craft store. Cameron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badjuju Posted October 31, 2006 Author Share Posted October 31, 2006 Hmm, yeah I had thought of RPing the tube, I've got access to a couple at the University of Washington, the question is whether my prof will let me take 18 hours out of his project time to make a tube... then just reinforce it and use the whole thing... (18 hours because it's accurate down to 15 microns and takes a while to cure) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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