front mount piping

Got started on my front mount piping last night, everything is going well. I didn't have to trim much sheet metal so I was happy about that, the turbo outlet was a bit tricky, I had to machine some special 8x1.25mm X 5/15"-24 studs so I could use 5/16" jet nuts on the turbo outlet flange. this worked out pretty well, I can make these studs and supply the nuts if anyone is interested, it makes it much easier if you're making your own outlet pipe. Other than that, all went pretty well, safc2 and my logger showed up yesterday so I'll be getting to that after the IC.... Lots of work to do if I'm gonna make this bay area run on saturday!!!

piping tacked in the car...

piping tacked on the floor.

special stud I machined with 5/16" self locking jetnuts, these nuts are 3/8" wrench size and worked perfectly installed with a 3/8" 1/4 drive universal socket (no, I didn't give myself much room)

 

man that looks really good. is that 3" pipe... looks huge man. 3" is a little much for 16g or 14b, but man it looks sick!

good work man. how much did it cost you?

 

[Bimmubishi]

There are a lot of skilled people on this forum.

 

Just an FYI, you want move "soft" tubing over the exh manifold. This is because the engine moves as you drive and, if you go with to much solid tube the pipes will come loose after a while. It may seem strange but you need it. You also need a fair lengh of it on the run up to the throttle body elbow. Look at the RRE kits, they use silicon tube over the exh maifold for this reason, just like the factory.

 

That's a good point D.H. I didn't give that much thought. If I have problems with it I'll just cut it down a bit and add a longer piece of silicone hose. As for the other ?'s, it's all 2.5 18 gauge mandrel bent tubing except for the transition pieces, those are 16 gauge. All the tubing cost about one hundred dollars not including the couplers.

Tonight I had to do a bunch of laundry and what not so I didn't get to put in as much time in the shop as I wanted, I did get the throttle body elbow made though, I used a piece of 1/2" plate for the flange and after the 90 degree bend

it steps up to 3" for the GM MAF.
Throttle Body Elbow

Bubb Rubb says: "WOOO WOOO!!"

 

I'm not too fond of the huge transition at the compressor outlet, but that throttle body piece is awesome. If you made a bunch of those, they would sell like hotcakes...guarantee it.

Mark

 

Don't tease us with odds and ends, just start mass producing ic pipes. I would definetly buy some. Those look great.

 

I would just do it now. A few of the cars had damage to the turbo mounting bolts, others had their manifold (exh)come loose...... the vibration is just too much. I would hate to see something bad happen to a nice guy like you. The extra few feet of silicon hose on both ends is well worth it.

Just put it in the straight run up to the throttle body elbow and the run over the exh manifold.

 

thats 2.5? damn looks big for some reason. i REALLY like the throttle body ic pipe. GOOD LORD that thing looks good.

how did you manage all that pipe for 100? it looks stainless.. maybe its just the pics or my bad eyes! haha

looking good man

 

[curtis]

I bought a throttle body plate about a year ago from RRE for around 10 or 15 dollars. since almost everyones piping is different this is the best way to go for your application. Mine has an elbow welded on, then a straight piece where the hks bov is welded on. its is angled down and toward the battery. As far as I know they are still selling it, if you order it try to get a 2 1/2 elbow with a long straight piece on one end. One stop shopping.

 

Okay, it's been slow couple of days here in front mount piping land, had a lot going on outside the garage, but here's whats up. I decided to do all this without moving the battery for the air filter, coincidentally I wanted to run the intercooler piping through the water neck and hose. soulution? modify the waterneck and cut apart some eclipse water hoses! here are the pics, the large piece of tube is tacked in the IC piping to simulate the MAF which just showed up, so the next pics will have that intalled.

water hose intalled

close up of modified water neck.

 

Looks Great!!! If your putting those together for sale I will take a set even if it's just rough. I will get it smoothed out and powder coated myself. I don't really want to move my battery.

 

Looks excellent!

If you want to use hard pipe over the exhaust side you can use a hump hose silicone connector.
They provide enough give for engine flex.

 

[spoulson]

If I wanted to do the same, I'd buy mandrel bends, donuts, etc. Then, what tools did you use for cutting and shaping the pipes?

 

Thanks for all the comments guys! Well I got my GM MAF today, so here's what it looks like installed, I also installed the BOV flange. To answer the questions about tubing and what not, I used a vertical metal cutting bandsaw to cut the tubes and a vertical bencht top belt sander to do some fine tuning. This is all "perfered" equipment, but you could do it with less. the big thing is really just patience, if you rush the job you're gonna get rushed results. All the tubing and transitions came from Specailty Product Design in Rancho Cordova California,
916 635 8108. They have great service and are very friendly. All the Samco hoses came from Brits in Sonoma California, www.sporthoses.com

here it is!

 

Looks very neat mate. Do those GM MAF's work with factory ECU's? If so, where do i get a hand on one of these..

 

That looks really good man. Hope to see more great projects like this one from ya.

 

[bazeng]

just wondering.. how do u use those maf's and what are the benifits?..

im assuming u have engine management.. why not get rid of the air flow meter all together?

 

[Hertz]

quote:Originally posted by bazeng:
just wondering.. how do u use those maf's and what are the benifits?..

im assuming u have engine management.. why not get rid of the air flow meter all together? The General Motors MAF can be used in conjunction with a translator that imitates the signals the Mitsu units sent. The benefit is the GM MAF is a million times less restrictive, smaller and readily available.

IF you got of the air flow meter all together you wouldn't be able to drive the vehicle because the ECU would know how much fuel to add without a measure of air.

 

Okay, finished up the front mount piping tonight, here are some pics. Tomorow I'm going to start on the air intake to the turbo which will be 3" tubing with a vortex style K&N filter element, I'm even toying with the idea of making a fake looking air box so it looks incognito when you open the hood... Maybe I shouldn't think so much.... Anyway, here are the pics

after welding before paint....

here's a nice little underside shot showing how I got around the driving light. I did weld on a mount after the pic was taken that bolts up to the stock mounting hole with a rubber vibration isolator.