jeromio Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 So, I'm rounding out my list of "things to deplete money from my bank account" and I only have a few items left. Chief among these is the exhaust system. My plan is to run 2 1/4 inch pipe from each collector and Y them together into a 3 inch. I'm therefore going to need some 2 1/4 and 3 inch J (or U) bends. I had bought some nice 16ga tubing from someplace loooong ago to make my truck headers. I <i>think</i> it was S&S. Seems like I paid around $3 for each 2" J. Looking back at S&S and at Summit and some other sources (Headers by Ed, Spintech, etc.), I'm floored by the prices for mandrel bends. $20-$35 each!? I'm pouring over the sema.org website right now trying to find sources. But, has anyone found a good source of round, mandrel bent J tubes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 I get mine from local muffler shops, speed/tuning shops are good too, especially if you know someone. The muffler shops will sometimes bend you a J or a U too. Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted September 17, 2001 Author Share Posted September 17, 2001 No one locally has a mandrel bender though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 I bought a 3inch mandrel bent U from Jegs or Summit. Wasn't cheap but in the end I actually ended up not using it. I DID use the Flowmaster Y pipe for the 2 2.5inch pipes into a 3. Be aware that in the back you have to be careful that the muffler isn't too long or you end up with an extreme bnd. Mine was mild enough to allow a gentle bend. My system has no mandrel bends in it but worked out well. Pics on my site. The pipes from the collectors are Flowtech "toobes" purchased from Jegs. If you can find a good shop I don't think there are so many bends in the system that a mandrel bend is really required (shrug). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 Yeah, I used summit as well for bends. I bought four u's and just cut them to J's if I needed to. They aren't cheap, but you don't need a ton of them either. I'm not sure exactly how its drawn through, but did anyway notice how much grease is inside the mandrel bends you buy? I got the hooker ones from summit (and I had to get all the packing peanuts out of the greasy middle of the exhaust pipe ) and the system literally smoked out the tailpipe for several minutes with all the grease burning inside it. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueovalz Posted September 17, 2001 Share Posted September 17, 2001 This was where I got all my tubing used for my cars. Auto-Jet is the name of the company. http://www.auto-jet.com/mandrel_tube_bending_data.htm Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dankinzle Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 ditto that. I got my 3.5" mandrels from autojet too. A nice guy sits behind the phones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 What's a good price for tubing benders? In the long run this should pay for itself and even make you some money doing stuff for other people. Anyone know of a good maker? Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim240z Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 Owen, Harbor Freight has a few different models. The biggest one for $199.00 can bend up to 3", which is probably the way to go. They have cheaper ones, but only bend up to 2", which is probably no good for our purposes. If your exhaust is going to be 2.5" all the way back, you could probably get away with the smaller model, but that would be penny-wise, and pound foolish..no? Harbor Freight takes forever to ship stuff, they're no Summit Racing, but prices are good and quality seems ok. I bought my welder (gas/gasless) from them (reman) and have had no problems at all. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 Exhaust tubing bender? A commercial quality hydraulic bender (not mandrel!) is quite a bit of money - several thousand. My friend's shop bought one used for a couple grand and it needed repairs This isn't even a mandrel machine - ouch! I don't believe that pipe benders will do he job as well either - didn't someone recently try? Perhaps using one of those type benders and fill the pipe with sand? Hrm, my system was less than $500 installed. It's got a couple of mild press bends in it but really nothing special and I believe it flows well. Maybe I'm losing a few HP from the press bends but for the most part it's straight pipe. Is it really worth all of this effort to come up with a system that might hang lower, will certainly take more time, and could end up costing as much? Is it really that hard to find decent muffler shops around the country? I guess maybe this is just part of the fun of building the car for everyone (shrug). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted September 19, 2001 Author Share Posted September 19, 2001 Thanks for the tip on Auto-Jet. I'll give them a call. Those manual tubing benders like the ones from HarborFreight are very jicky. I bought one for my cage. Good for the occasional massaging of tubing to make it fit, but certainly not up for repeated use or anything beyond 30 degrees. I ended up buying some structural steel DOM elbows to make the thing with. I'll use the bender for the slight bends. I tried using it on some exhaust tubing, just for fun and ended up crushing the crap out of it. Hydraulic crush benders like the exhaust shops use run about $10K. The circumference of the tubing is smooshed with these benders creating a choke point though. Mandrel benders are crazy expensive. My friend who is a production welder looked into buying one to do steel railings and such. Couldn't justify the cost of $20-$40K (price depends on flexibility (tubing diameters, radii of bends, etc.) and durability of the desired machine). [ September 19, 2001: Message edited by: jeromio ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted September 19, 2001 Author Share Posted September 19, 2001 As to the exhaust system, I haven't really found a shop around here that I'm impressed with. It's not so much that I'm concerned with increased backpressure due to the crush bends. I just want the pipes to be tucked as close to the car as possible (the car is somewhat low and I've banged the crap out of the system that's on there now) and I want it done right. No exhaust shop dude can possibly care as much about this car as me. Plus, I kind of dig working with tubing. It's like a puzzle. AND, when I'm done, even if I have to pay $25 for each bend, it's gonna be waaaay cheaper than using an exhaust shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZROSSA Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 I bought a thing called a donut when we put 3 inch one my wifes legacy gt turbo. you just cut out bits of "Pie" for the amount of bend you want and join the rest with straight pipe. It is a litle more work but has similar flow to a mandrel system and picked up about 40 hp on the legacy. I would use the donuts again. We only use one on the subaru. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 I did some looking on the net and could not find a cheap bender that did mandrel bends too. But, rather than sand, how about some balls inserted into the pipe? I read that this is the way mandrel bends are made. I use a tail pipe expander to keep the pipe round when pressing my own oval tubing, so maybe some hard baseballs inserted into the pipe would prevent the dreaded "crush bend"? Owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pparaska Posted September 19, 2001 Share Posted September 19, 2001 jeromio, I had a bunch of fun making my own exhaust from mandrel bends as well. I have about 4 J bends worth of bends in the system, and a few sticks of straight pipe. Alot of measuring, cutting, trimming, but I enjoyed it as it was a creative endeavor. Douglas, I used part of one of those donuts too, to make a tight turn into one of the LONG Dynomax Hemi Super Turbo mufflers on my car. I got mine from The Chassis Shop. You need to call them or get a catalog, they don't have much on their site, but they have alot of really nice race car building hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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