Quote:
Originally Posted by ivorton74
What size piping is good for the hotside, cross-over, downpipe and intercooler? My buddy is going to be building the kit using mild steel and he already has the truck manifolds.
|
Its really worth considering trying to go with Alum tubing for the cold-side/charge pipe stuff if you can (really stainless would be nice on the hot side too). Most of the welding needs to happen on the hotside, so for the sake of budget and welding I understand staying mild steel; but for the rest, going to alum (or stainless) offers some real benefits.
Most of the charge piping can be bought in bend kids and fastened with silicon couplers or strap bands (even v bands), so you can avoid having access to a TIG if you don't. Alum and SS allow for a thinner wall on the same size tube, while retaining the strength that you'd need in that situation. This means a cut in weight over the total length of the piping, and a physically smaller footprint..as a start.
Lets say you have 10ft of tubing on your cold side/charge pipe/intercooler etc.
For steel Formula: Wt/Ft = (*OD - *WT) x *WT x 10.69
- which means over our assumed 10ft of pipe; IF you used .049 (exhaust tube) it would weigh about 12lbs. However, using exhaust pipe on turbo systems (even the inlet side) is something I consider sub-par.
- If you stepped up slightly to .065 wall steel, it becomes a little closer to 15lbs.
- If you started to move up to sch5 (.083, something you might source from construction or hvac supply), its around 24lbs.
- If you went all the way to sch40 (like you might see on home built hot sides), its jumps to nearly 57lbs.
Now if I compare that to aluminum;
..i got lazy but,, for the same diameter, its only about
.5lb /ft, cutting the calculated weight to only
5 lbs.
Stainless on the hot side allows for thinner wall thickness for weight savings as well, but I won't start doing those numbers unless your interested.