I'm at the point now where it's time to connect my turbo to the I/C and my I/C to the intake. I just went down to the local diesel shop and they wanted outrageous amounts of $ for bends and silicone adapters. I picked up a 2.25" 90deg bend and asked what they go for and he said that right there is 58 bucks, almost shat myself. Now I know I'm not going to be able to make the I/C connections for $5 but I definitely don't want to spend $300 just to hook up my I/C.
What have you guys used with success without blowing the budget?
Thanks

 

I wound buy a I/C piping kit, but wait, I think it depends on what I/C you have. Radiator hose work very well for the couplings, it still isnt cheap though.

 

I wish it was as easy as buying a "kit" but I'm kind of doing a custom job here. Look at my avatar, that should give you an idea what I have to do.

 

You can buy mandrel bends from Burns Stainless or Magnaflow for relatively cheap... I think about $15-$18 per bend. For the rest of the piping just go to a local muffler shop and get thin walled exhaust piping, which usually runs about $4 per foot.

 

Now is not the time to go cheap. This is a very important part of the setup, one which you will touch often and see everytime you open the hood. Do it right.

Burns is a great place to get tubing and bends, I used 2-3/4". Another option is to find a 2nd hand alloy store, one that buys scrap metal/pipe. Seek out a good fabricator/welder that can create smooth transitions and make quality welds you will be proud of, remember, you will see them every time you pop your hood. The pipe ends needs to line up with a small gap, use a coupler at each end to allow for movement of the motor, pipe should be routed such that there is no rubbing, ends should have a weld bead around the pipe to prevent the coupler from backing off, and think about how much your engine will move when routing the pipes.

Get some decent silicone couplers, available at many places, typ $20-35/foot or $5 each in various colors. Turbonetics website has good prices on adaptors from turbo out to IC pipe size etc, typ $25-30. Don't go cheap on clamps either. Upgrade those worm clamps for constant tension clamps, about $4-5 each.

 

theres a hot rod shop locally here, and i just go and take a u bend and a couple other sections of pipe, i cut and mock it up and then they weld it up. its cheap, like $50-60 to do most of the car (not including silicon connectors).

mike

 

$5 for straights and $25 for bends sounds a hell of a lot better than $58 for a silicone bend to me I guess I just found the most expensive place there is.
I definitely am using T bolt clamps, won't find any cheep clamps under my hood. I have a pile of them at work just waiting to be put the car.

Thanks guys

 

Good idea, U-bends. I'll have to do it that way. Probabaly get a better bend radius that way

 

I'll have to check them out. Thanks

 

Setzep, find a shop that does stainless steel piping, usch as a dairy equipment or food processing plant installation/fabrication, and buy up their scrap..
I got most of my stainless from an equipment renovation from and Ice cream plant, and some extras from the place that did the renovation for the ice cream plant..
For connectors, I bought goodyear silicone straight radiator hose from a heavy duty truck parts shop, and cut it into 3 inch lengths for connectors, they also had the donaldson hump hose connectors, but the rad hose was 8 bucks a foot which meant 2 bucks/connector..
Here are some pics to see the stuff..
https://www.rx7club.com/forum/showth...ight=Its+alive

Used stainless was really cheap, I think it cost me 20 bucks to do my downpipe and intercooler piping...Max

 

Lots of good info here.

http://burnsstainless.com sells bends and http://bakerprecision.com/ sells silicone hose, couplers, and bends. You can surely source some stuff cheaper, but if you don't want to spend time hunting or can't find a key piece, you should be able to get whatever you need here.

I know you have clamps already, but just for general reference if someone searches and find this thread (fat chance, ha! ), you can get Breeze constant torque SS hose clamps from http://www.mcmaster.com/. This is a good source for Santoprene TPR hose if you need to relocate your single turbo intake, too. It is cheap, available in many sizes (metric and standard), and it works great. Santoprene can't take the boost, though, so it is good for unboosted plumbing only (like between air filter and turbo).

2.25" is too small. Many turbos have 2.5" outlets (good size for turbo to IC). The stock turbo plumbing is 2.75" (good for IC to throttle body elbow).

-Max

 

I got T-Bolt clamps from Napa for less than $3

 

i used 2.5inch id radiator hose for elbow directly off the turbo. i had my local autoparts store order a 90 deg elbow for $16. the rest of the ic tubing is regular aluminized exhaust tubing. i welded a flange and 1in piece of pipe on for the BOV. the local custom exhaust shop just bent some tubing up for me ($40). make sure they weld beads around the ends to help hold the connectors. i also used rubber pvc connectors on the cold side (seem to be holding up fine)$5ea. home depot.
justin

 

Wow, thanks for all the replies!
Maxthe7man- I might have to search around for a place that does stainless plumbing like what you did. $20 for all that stainless is a steal!!

maxcooper- Thanks for the links, barkerprecision.com looks like it might have some good connectors. That 2.25" piece that I talked about isn't what I am going to run, just wanted to know what the price was. I'm going to run 2.5" out of the turbo into the I/C then 3" or 2.75 out of the I/C in to the intake.

pistonsuk- How does just using regular 90 deg radiator hose work for you? Ever pop off or anything? Funny you mentioned those PVC connectors, I was just at home depot yesterday and was eying them up

 

double post

 

Here is a pic of what I have to work with.
I'm going to have to cut the intake elbow, make shorter, point it down a little bit and reweld it. It would hit the hood otherwise.

 

DONT USE ALUMINIZED EXHAUST TUBING

I dont know everything about turbochargine but I do know that that stuff will RUST on the inside. Its only aluminized on the outside.

The air filter wont remove water vapor.

 

www.turbohoses.com sells some silicon hose too.

 

Bump.... I'm in the same exact boat right now. I'm waiting for a guy (his shop is right behind Mazdatrix) to custom make my IC piping. We are local here in CA so he's buying the material from Burns stainless. Save up your money and do it right. Every time you open the hood of your FB to show that you have a turbo engine, you want to be proud of it. If you put in some rigged up, crappy looking stuff, you're only gonna spend money twice when you later decide to get it done nicely.

Just my $.02 though

-Tom

 

A lot of stock systems use steel tubing to connect the I/C to the turbo/intake. I was at the junk yard on tuesday and most of the japanese cube vans used steel. But the mack cube vans used aluminum.
I think they can get away with this because maybe the turbo will let a little oil by the seals to coat the tubing?

 

See thats the thing, I wanta do it right but I just don't want to blow the budget doing it. I think I'm going to go ahead and get the connectors from turbohoses.com but I'm not sure which tube is better for this application, aluminum or stainless?

 

Sorry, I didn't mention, but even though the material is coming from "Burns Stainless", we are indeed using aluminum piping that will be polished. Here is the link: http://www.burnsstainless.com/Alumin...minumtube.html What my fabricator is doing is buying pre-bent "U" shaped and/or 90 degree bent aluminum pipes, cuting and welding them together to get the desired shape. It's definitely more like an artist creating a work of art so that's why, in my opinion, not just any old muffler shop can make it look nice.

As for silicone couplings, they sell 2.75in stuff for $24 a foot. Assuming you make each one 4 inches long, it only costs $8 for each one. http://www.burnsstainless.com/Hardwa...iconehose.html

Good luck buddy. Post some pics when you finally get it done. Having a turbo 1st gen is gonna be pretty cool

-Tom

 

I'll make sure to post pictures when I get it done, whenever that will be. I tend to take my time when working on this sucker.
I just hope it will be worth it when I'm done, sometimes I get sick when I think about how much time/money I have wraped up in this thing.

 

Tom, So that's your car behind MazdaTrix. I saw it the other day when I dropped off my Bimmer for a tune up. I ended up getting a new diff for my E39. I was chatting with Jack when i notice your FD. Is your turbo setup a XS BB turbo kit? I notice that you turbo outlet and I/C inlet were quite aways off. But it shouldn't be hard if you have a good fab dude.$$$

Setzep, You can go to Baker's web site and check out some of there silicone hoses and transition hoses as well. I got some hose from them and I think that there prices are fair and the quality of the product 1st rate. Good luck on your project.

Jay

 

Why don't you loosen the compressor side of the turbo, and point it to the side a little bit, then re-tighten?

That way you could use a regular 90 and not worry about the hood?