IC piping- choices of metal

[James]

What type of piping would you choose? Aluminum? Steel? Stainless steel? Anything else? I'm having a friend make me some pipes and I'm not sure what type of piping I want yet, or what side to get! I was thinking like 2.5-2.75. Thoughts?

Goals: 400-450awhp

 

[turbowop]

2.5in stainless, but I'm biased.

 

[James]

I'm fine with bias opinions, as long a you have valid reasons!

 

[rdomeck]

Stainless over mild steel. You can't coat the inside if mild steel tubes and if you car sit's like most of ours do you will have rust start on the inside of the pipes. I just did mine from aluminum. I had them in stainless before. Aluminum is lighter, but more prone to cracking if the tubes aren't thick enough. I used an Evo 8 set up and the factory uses what would be a 2 3/8" .095 wall. Now that is a hard size to find so I went with 2 1/2" .120 wall. Would have thought about stainless, but I had all the tubes from the Evo 8 and I was able to use most of the bends that I needed so I didn't have to buy anything but a piece of straight tubing.

Yes, it's a little thick, but I won't have any cracking issues!

 

[James]

How big of a price difference do you think I'll see between alum and stainless?

 

[JNR]

Stainless steel all the way, realistically...Aluminum needs to be thicker to not crush the ends (had this happen on the POS elbow the PO made) from the clamps, so weight-wise don't think you save much. I have 304L SS all the way, except for my intake is carbon steel and the short elbow right before the TB is (thick) aluminum.

The only problem with metals is they can act as a heatsink, but the nice thing is most of them are away from the sources of heat...

Personally, if it could be made, I believe a nice plastic would be the best, as far as insulating properties go, but it's far more difficult for the average person to do, as it should be molded...not PVC though, but a good high quality plastic that can withstand the psi and not get brittle, etc.

Whatever material you choose, be sure to have the ends beaded, or else risk the couplers popping off; you want the bead to promote the sealing and not the clamps.

 

[rdomeck]

Aluminum will run about $3 a pound and stainless about $1.30 a pound. 2 1/2" .120 aluminum tube is 1.040 lbs per ft and 2 1/2 stainless .065 is 1.69 lbs per ft. If you friend doesn't have a bead making tool you can weld little beads on the end of the pipe. Not all the way around, just in about 5-6 places around the pipe. Works almost as good!

 

[James]

I have no doubts Mr. MADMike can bead the ends for me. So it seems I'll be going to stainless 2.5 short routed. Thanks for the help! Now if only getting my car to idle is this easy.

 

[JNR]

yes, that is pretty close as far as difference in weight on those two sizes, although remember 3xx SS is slightly heavier than carbon steel...I came up with 1.08 lbs. for aluminum and 1.71 for SS on those sizes, per foot, based on in³ volume * .28356, then * .353 for alum., or 1.011 for stainless steel.

So, let's assume you had 6 lineal feet of tubing (not pipe <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ), that's about a 3¾ lbs. difference; 10 feet about 6 1/3 lbs. Not a big difference, I guess.

The other advantage to SS is once you polish it (if you go that route), you do it once...aluminum will want to oxidize unless you coat it and as far as internally, if you do an injection of water or *especially* methane, you risk corrosion on alum. vs. stainless.

btw - IIRC, I believe I am using ~.050 wall or less and in tubing it's measured in OD, so the aluminum will have less area for the air, fwiw, so you're closer to 2 1/4 ID vs. the stainless being closer to 2 1/2 ID, fwiw.

 

[James]

Well I'm not trying to shave 10's of a second off my quarter mile to break into the 9s here. That weight difference is about nothing in my eyes haha.

My friend in Ohio is sending a core back with LunarFX after the shoot out. LunarFX can give it to mad mike, and mad mike can make me my set up!

 

[Barnes]

304L, live happily ever after. No need to over complicate things.

 

[RedTwo]

Aluminium transfers heat easier than steel, can be smoother than stainless steel once polished, is also lighter, more ductile and more difficult to weld.
I went aluminium. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/dunno.gif

 

[curtis]

click me


I bought one of the link above on sale for 89.99 about 4 years ago. The plate isn't thick enough to keep it from deflecting but used a square piece of steel and two c clamps to keep it square. Doesn't do that good on stainless but nothing does unless you get a penultimate performance bead-o-matic. 99% of the IC pipes I do for locals is out of aluminum so works great for that. As you work metal it work hardens so stainless is a bitch, hard on bandsaw blades, cut off wheels etc plus it stinks up the shop. Yes cheaper by the foot and for bends but the price goes up because of wear and tear on tools. I personal hate the crap.

 

[rdomeck]

+1 on stainless being a bitch to cut and form. I personally love to weld aluminum...Yes I'm a little weird!

 

Aluminum, it's lighter, but not by much. Personal preference.

 

[boostin4door]

Im using both...steel [ceramic coated] turbo to fmic and alum [upper pipe bov & tb elbow] in 2.5". No problems with either.

 

[alansupra94]

+1 to Alumium too. I usually will buy the pipes in bulk and get quality couplers and clamps. My welder like to weld alumium as it is easier for him to bend and cut. Also in my uncle's 30 years of racing, he hasn't seen a alumium pipe burst, which makes sense since I would expect a coupler to burst before that or v-band to blow apart.