I'm planning on upgrading the factory top mount intercooler to a front mount setup. I was brainstorming with a friend about the piping. I was wondering if anyone had any feedback on using ABS plastic as intercooler piping. Joints would be joined together with silicone couplers. My thoughts about this are that if semi-trucks and buses use plain-old ABS plastic tubing (personally seen it with my own eyes) and push 38 psi, then i wouldnt have any kind of trouble using it for 11 psi. I dont know if i would use it on the turbo side of the intercooler, considering the temperature difference, but i dont even know if it would affect the piping. any ideas?

 

That's an interesting idea. I'd love to do a FMIC, but I really don't want to pay the exorbitant price alot of companies seem to charge for their kits.....

 

it would be better than aluminum piping, the plastic wouldnt transfer the engine bay heat to the charged air.....you wouldnt notice a difference really. i guess most are just attracted to the appearance of aluminum
.

 

well i just mounted my top mount up front last week.. i use a variesty of junk yard parts to pipe it in anything from dodge 3,0 bends to audi intercooler pipes and some 2" stainless piple and some semituck radiator hose for couplers seemed to wrk good for me

 

lol thats so great mort, good use of junkyards

 

REcycle like mort...



Gil

 

semi trucks use aluminum IC pipes. Plastic gets heatsoaked very quickly...I never seen a truck use plastic abs plastic, unless its like a f350. But I know from personal experience, that the semi's use alu. piping and so do most turbo trucks out there, included the all so popular isuzu npr.

 

I have seen it done many times. I have never seen pipe come apart. I have seen the inside of ABS show some signs of breaking down under heat but it was never a problem. That was runing over 20 psi on a small turbo. Not on an RX7. Your other option is to get an exhaust shop to bend you pipe. They can bend almost anything. If you want it to look real nice buy mandrel bends grind the welds down after you get it done and then powder coat or paint the pipes.

As for semi trucks runing 38 psi through ABS I doubt it. What makes you so shure it was ABS? There are all kinds of black plastics. For a truck time is money and I can't see them risking a break down to save a couple bucks by runing ABS pipe.

 

doesnt make sense, why buy abs plastic when you can get alu. piping done for $300..??? And your engine bay wont look cheap and ghetto rigged. IC is a BPU mod, you really shouldnt do anything unless you get the essentials...

 

Try using coolant hoses for all the bends and use straight exhaust pipe to connect them. You can get pretty much any bend or length you need. You might need to go to a truck shop to get the right sizes, but its all pretty cheap and wont look completly ghetto.

Heres a picture of what I did http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/nrainvil/pics/Rx7/fmic3.jpg
I ended up settling on something slightly different, but you get the idea.

 

if you want to run your setup like this you will need to run a bead al the end of the pipe for the coolant hoses to grab on to if not they will blow off. I do not recommend using rubber coolant hose but you will find that out yourself. Good luck

 

I too wanted to do this when I first got my swap years ago, but then I realized that its so cheap that it is necessary... First you need some metal in the pipes in order to weld the BOV. just buy the alu. ones, youlll be glad you did.... you can even buy u bends and do your own..Other thanthat the most theyll charge you is 300

 

Bukwild, what problems did you have with coolant hose? Most of what I have is reinforced truck hose, so its a bit sturdier than the usual stuff. According to the temperature and pressure ratings, it should be fine.

 

if you don't have a bead on the pipe that the clamp down the fittings will blow off and if you run stock ems you will stall and the car will not start again. You will find this out.

 

thats not true, I had the afm connected to the turbo, but I had the TB pipe off as I was adjusting something and the car idled just fine.. The only pipe you need to worry about is the one from the afm to the turbo. Thats the only one that matters..

 

That pic is actually old, I moved the afm so theres now no pipes between it and the throttle body. Beyond having to put a bead on the pipes, did you run into any problems when using rubber coolant hose as couplings?

 

I doubt radiator hoses will do well under vac and boost on and off.

 

I didn't use rubber hoses I used the couplers from the greddy kit and my aluminum pipes all have beeds on them. I did see this type setup on a acura turbo setup and everytime he launched he blew his pipes off. They will not hold with just clamps I will guarantee that.

 

Welding a bead is a good idea. Radiator hose will hold up fine. It never sees any vacuum. Just boost.

 

How About Carbon Fiber Ic Pipe!!! :-) Lol