Welded intercooler hardpipe material and routing

[Ronin225]

Possibly not in the right section so mods feel free to move

Will soon be doing a FMIC install on my leon but i dont want to run the pipework down the original route
I plan to have a shorter smoother route and plan on welding this pipe together with silicon joiners at cooler and charge pipe/ throttle body only
Most IC kits contain only aluminium pieces of hardpipe but all one piece pipe routes i have found are done in stainless, is there a reason for this?
Obviously the stainless will be both harder and tougher than ally so would ally need to be thicker walled to compensate?
Are there any reasons i have not found ally equivalent?
Due to charge temps, especially if remapped would ally welds fatigue over time and crack??
Could it anything to do with different rates of expansion in the 2 materials, as ally expands much more?
Any metallurgists here or people who know why??
Cheers

 

[rsmith]

DON'T use stainless steel, it weights to much and cannot dissipate heat as quickly as alloy.Most kits that have longer pipe with more bends use stainless as it's easier to work with and probably cheaper. Buy the alloy bends and weld them together, it's harder to weld but the results are better.

 

[wayne lcr]

intrested in which way your going to go with the pipes.

 

[Ronin225]

We have a coded ally welder at work so i am going to be cheeky and get him to weld it
Wayne i will be coming off the cooler into bends almost immediately so it almost runs straight down from the end of the charge pipe (Again i will be remaking this with ports to suit my setup where i want them)
On the cooled side i plan to use the upward run as the MAP sensor part too, with a weld flange and DV port.
Will get some pics when i start mocking it up but got to relocate battery and do new TIP first

 

[wayne lcr]

is the pipe work not going to foul the underneath engine cover or will it hang to low the pipe work.

 

[Ronin225]

It will be a very custom install so if a bit of undertray has to come off to suit, so be it but hopefully not
Just looking through some pics and elbows may even end up welded straight on cooler

 

[Phillc]

Tim, I was looking at my intercooler last weekend as the bumper was off, and i looked at the route you said you where going to take, it wont hit the undertray, but he bends are tight though i thought you get the best flow from flowing bends rather than tight ones still good idea on the all in one pipe work so i might be needing some help when your ready Its going to be off again this weekend if you want to have a look. (The bumper) Also thought it an idea to weld to the intercooler and have the flexy silicon joint at the tubo and the throttle body.

 

[Ronin225]

Got to work saturday morning, big periodic inspection of air receivers, oh joy but if you still have bumper off at 1ish i will have a gander
I did think about welding onto the cooler but i would make it impossible to install and being as the cooler is mounted to the frame and the engine other end it needs some flex otherwise it will crack the welds
Hopefully this new route isnt to tight as it will leave a large aperture at the side for an oil cooler

 

[Phillc]

It should still be off on Sunday TBH got to redo all the timing and reset the cams, dont ask i will explain if i see you on Sat.

 

[Ronin225]

Do you still have that piece of tube or offcuts from your FMIC install as we can see if dimensionally the pipes will fit before i get a kit of them

 

[Phillc]

Yeah still got them. (What thread hijack)

 

[Ronin225]

Nice, will drop you a text saturday

 

[Phillc]

Okey Dokey.

 

[rsmith]

@Ronin225.

I would be very interested to see how this goes, from me the points of concern would be:
What cooler are you using, size?
What are the inlet/outlet sizes?:
Avoid where ever possible sharp bends, if you have to go a longer route and but its more of a sweeping bend, then this is better.
What size piping are u going to use?
Leak test all your welds.
Are you relocating your battery to the boot or just moving it slightly?


Sorry for all the questions!

 

[Ronin225]

Robbie,
Battery is being moved to the boot and gigantic filter taking up freed room, also allows catch tank and possibly swirl pot
I havent chosen a cooler but was going to look into route as this could affect size, maybe shorter but deeper to compensate, looking into branded coolers for their efficiency and R&D not cheap ebay crap
Inlets and outlets will be 63mm ( 2.5") and piped this size throughout
I will also be fabricating a new charge pipe with elbow at front end, no DV port and a smooth 90 degree bend for N75 to stop the kinking/splitting problems
Welder at work is coded and only ever welds ally 8 hours a day so is pretty good
Cool side pipework is most important here as in the run upto the throttle body i want to incorporate the DV port and MAP sensor (have asked no-one thinks changing its orientation matters)

 

[Phillc]

There was a discussion about the optimum pipe diameter being 63mm hot side and 57mm cold but cant remember the outcome.

 

[Ronin225]

Try finding an intercooler with ports like that

 

[Ronin225]

Bit of an update
A work colleague brought an aluminium 2.5" bends kit from a local company seem good quality and have a wall thickness of 1.5mm or 2mm ( cant remember)
Either way very sturdy pipe and not easily bent or damaged, this is what i will use
Popped over to see Phill and his partially disassembled car and figured out a relatively smooth route (cold side will be a ballache though)
Now i have measurements i can find a core to suit
However before this i will need to fabricate a new charge pipe in 63mm not the standard 57mm
I have some pics of proposed route will try and get them up soon

 

[Willie]

Tim, any progress with this?
Or did you give it up?

 

[JamJay]

Interesting, nice to see someone doing it different