Where is good for stainless steel intercooler pipes?

[Mr Whippy]

Well, after a long time I've finally got my intercooler on my car.

The problem now is finding some decent pipes.

I was going to use mild steel as it's strong and easy to work with, and cheap. However, mandrel bent 2" isn't cheap, nor is just normal 'kink' bent 2" on a tight radius (quite hard to bend mild on a tight radius it seems, hence the high price)
Aluminium seems popular on Ebay, but it's hard to weld and get a good solid strong join (a friend used it and his joints opened up, great if you will use solid bits and then use silicone joins everywhere, but not so good for making bigger sections it seems)




Stainless, easy to weld, strong, not hugely expensive, but it's REALLY hard to find places that do a wide selection of bits to choose from like the ally bits on Ebay.

Does anyone know of a good resource in the UK that does a wide range of 2" stainless parts? Ie, decent lengths (we can cut it down to length), 90deg bends, 45's etc etc...

Thanks

Dave

[350Matt]

Try the custom exhaust people

like primary design in bicester

http://www.primarydesigns.co.uk/


or stainless steel tube technology in Oxford

http://www.sstubetechnology.com/company.htm

Matt

[stevieturbo]

Stainless bends etc are easy to find.

Any Stainless/Alu stockholder will keep a straight tube, 90's and 45's in a variety of diameters. They arent that expensive either ( although no doubt prices have went up since I last purchased )

[NTEL]

I get all my stainless steel tube and fittings from Euro Stainless Ltd in Blackburn. Ask for Bill or Neil. They can supply bends in all sizes, in various radii, and in either 304L or 316L, in polished or mill finish. Tell them Dave from NTEL put you on to them and they will look after you.

http://www.eurostainless.co.uk/

Edited by NTEL on Tuesday 19th August 21:11

[rev-erend]

I'm just got a very reasonable (best so far) from these guys for a bunch of different bends for s/s :

http://www.jpexhausts.co.uk/Site/Services.htm

email for quote : [e-mail]

[Mr Whippy]

Hmmm, I tried contacting a few (email) but haven't had any responses yet, so I guess they are really busy or don't want business

I ended up just buying a load of ally 2" bends/straights, so much infact that I'm pretty sure I have every concievable piece I could possibly need and so don't actually need to weld it, or have unnecessary joints!

We got some ally wire and the right gas for the mig, but it's a tad more tricky to do than good old mild steel

Need to practice a bit!

Thanks

Dave

[stevieturbo]

Any stainless steel stockholder would have a selection of bends, at quite reasonable prices.
Just grab a yellow pages.

If its easy to get such stuff where I live, then it has to be easy over there.

[PhillipM]

Mr Whippy said:

Hmmm, I tried contacting a few (email) but haven't had any responses yet, so I guess they are really busy or don't want business

I ended up just buying a load of ally 2" bends/straights, so much infact that I'm pretty sure I have every concievable piece I could possibly need and so don't actually need to weld it, or have unnecessary joints!

We got some ally wire and the right gas for the mig, but it's a tad more tricky to do than good old mild steel

Need to practice a bit!

Thanks

Dave

Feed some gas to the inside of the pipe while you are welding it Dave, makes a big difference.

[rev-erend]

Mr Whippy said:

Hmmm, I tried contacting a few (email) but haven't had any responses yet, so I guess they are really busy or don't want business

I ended up just buying a load of ally 2" bends/straights, so much infact that I'm pretty sure I have every concievable piece I could possibly need and so don't actually need to weld it, or have unnecessary joints!

We got some ally wire and the right gas for the mig, but it's a tad more tricky to do than good old mild steel

Need to practice a bit!

Thanks

Dave

It sure is difficult - I did a small alloy 3mm thick bracket.

Used 0.8mm alloy wire and 1.00 mm tip (helps stop the wire sticking) - needs quite a lot of amps and high wire feed - probably nearly twice the speed for the same thickness steel. Alloy was weird properties when being mig welded..

Good luck.

[Mr Whippy]

Haha, I think I'll need lots of practice to get good with ally

We have a decent sized compressor (probably 50 gallon capacity), so can pump air through the pipes at a fair old rate while working on it, that should help keep it cooler

Fingers crossed my current setup will all go in without any welds anyway, that will be the idea setup... no weak points!


I'll be sure to post pics when it's finished too!

Thanks once again.

Dave

[stevieturbo]

Mr Whippy said:

Haha, I think I'll need lots of practice to get good with ally

We have a decent sized compressor (probably 50 gallon capacity), so can pump air through the pipes at a fair old rate while working on it, that should help keep it cooler

Fingers crossed my current setup will all go in without any welds anyway, that will be the idea setup... no weak points!


I'll be sure to post pics when it's finished too!

Thanks once again.

Dave

He didnt mean cool it with air I'm sure.

With Alu and stainless, its good to backpurge the weld with the shielding gas.

[Mr Whippy]

Ah hehe, ok

Makes sense...

Will hopefully see this Saturday and post back if it's a disaster, for laughs

Dave

[PhillipM]

Yes, that's what I meant

If you're still struggling try preheating the area around the weld with a gas torch.

[stevieturbo]

And with Alu....it has to be clean clean clean clean clean.

[rev-erend]

stevieturbo said:

And with Alu....it has to be clean clean clean clean clean.

Yes - Aluminum rusts very quickly and so must be polished with a non steel item say a paper grinding pad and then welded.. as others have said - you can preheat it and block the tube and fill it with inert gas of your choice..

[GreenV8S]

stevieturbo said:

And with Alu....it has to be clean clean clean clean clean.

I've never done it, but I've been shown aluminium brazing and it looked incredibly easy - and the join was stronger than the surrounding material.

[eliot]

I've just plumbed my intercooler in using one of the ebay pipe kits. The pipes are nicley bent etc and shiny - the problem is when you come to weld them; you need to extensivley grind them right back because they have applied a clear powder coat (or similar) to them.
The couplers that came with the kit are just cheap PVC things, which are only really any good for mock-up and basic testing - mine kept blowing off.
Once i had it all figured out, I replaced the pipes with proper silicon pipes and genuine mikalor pipe clamps.

You can see how much i had to clean the pipe up compared to the otherL
http://www.mez.co.uk/dcam/DSCF3062.JPG
(And dont comment about the merge, its temporary until I can be bothered sit sit down one afternoon and make another one)

[rev-erend]

GreenV8S said:

stevieturbo said:

And with Alu....it has to be clean clean clean clean clean.

I've never done it, but I've been shown aluminium brazing and it looked incredibly easy - and the join was stronger than the surrounding material.

I have some of this Mig brazing wire and have also been told it's idea for joining different metals.. not tried it yet though.

http://www.welduk.com/Details.asp?ProductID=458

[Mr Whippy]

eliot said:

I've just plumbed my intercooler in using one of the ebay pipe kits. The pipes are nicley bent etc and shiny - the problem is when you come to weld them; you need to extensivley grind them right back because they have applied a clear powder coat (or similar) to them.
The couplers that came with the kit are just cheap PVC things, which are only really any good for mock-up and basic testing - mine kept blowing off.
Once i had it all figured out, I replaced the pipes with proper silicon pipes and genuine mikalor pipe clamps.

You can see how much i had to clean the pipe up compared to the otherL
http://www.mez.co.uk/dcam/DSCF3062.JPG
(And dont comment about the merge, its temporary until I can be bothered sit sit down one afternoon and make another one)

Yeah, our pipes look very shiny, I wasn't sure if it was polished alot and coated somehow, they look a little like stainless steel.

Either way they sand back ok... we got decent seperate silicone joins seperately, the ally pipes were just big (lots left on each side of the bends to reduce need for welding) and relatively cheap...

As said, hopefully I'll get away without any welding. Might not manage to do it this weekend though, my last shipment of expensive special sized silicone (from Peugeot size pipes onto the 2" system, at weird angles) is still on an aeroplane over Iraq I think

Ah well, gives me more time to do more testing in preparation for making the remap that will hopefully get me a nice round 250lbft and 160bhp

Dave

Edited by Mr Whippy on Friday 12th September 09:50

[GreenV8S]

rev-erend said:

GreenV8S said:

stevieturbo said:

And with Alu....it has to be clean clean clean clean clean.

I've never done it, but I've been shown aluminium brazing and it looked incredibly easy - and the join was stronger than the surrounding material.

I have some of this Mig brazing wire and have also been told it's idea for joining different metals.. not tried it yet though.

The approach I was shown involved a blow torch and brazing stick. It looked relatively foolproof, but then these things always do when somebody else is doing it ...