No Juice

iTrader: (11)

Just wondering if anyone has a non-metal intake or charge pipes on their forced induction car?

Will a fiberglass charge pipe handle say 20psi of boost and 200 degree IAT's?

I want to replace my Procharger air box with a merge pipe similar to the Incon TT "Butt Pipe", but with the complex curves and shape changes it may be difficult to make it out of aluminum or steel.

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

I always thought it would be cool to have carbon fiber piping. It should be able to withstand those pressures and temperatures just fine I would think..

No Juice

iTrader: (11)

How hard is carbon fiber to use vs fiberglass? I'm sure its more expensive.

Tricked-Out-Toy

iTrader: (4)

Ive been thinking about doing this for a while. Heres a start.
http://www.vaglinks.com/Docs/Misc/CarbonFiberHowTo2.pdf

Great link as well
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothrea...ostid=30463164

Fireball

iTrader: (21)

carbon is much harder to work with...need an autoclave to do it right

I'm guessing glass can hold the boost...how would you attach tubing to it?

subarubill96

iTrader: (9)

interesting....

z28boysteve

iTrader: (9)

I put a 90 degree "chromed" plastic elbow in a system once for ****'s and giggles.... 15 PSI and 0 issues, so I left it lol.

No Juice

iTrader: (11)

Thanks for the links but damn! that pdf link looks like a lot of work. But for what I'm doing if I had to make it out of metal first just to end up using it as a mold, I'd just use the metal piping

The VW forum has some great ideas.

No Juice

iTrader: (11)

Well I was thinking that you'd have to mold or form some sort of a bead around the ends similar to guys to just weld a bead around the ends.

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

Awesome!

stevied916

iTrader: (30)

alot of audi guys make their own fiberglass turbo intakes...it's not hard at all. I would shy away from the carbon fiber though

lazylongboarder

iTrader: (2)

I'm gonna keep checking on this one. Anyone have pics or how to's?

ace_xp2

isn't that temp getting near the thermal limit of normal resin?
May want to be careful on the pre intercooler side.

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

The resin I use is rated at 293 deg F. What are the outlet temps of a centri s/c pre intercooler?

No Juice

iTrader: (11)

This custom piping would be post intercooler

No Juice

iTrader: (11)

ttt for some more input

Wsss6

iTrader: (2)

Making your own "butt pipe" sounds like a difficult, albeit fun project.

Know that if you lay up your own fabric your mold doesn't need to be metal, just a rigid material. We often use plastic or even foam cores covered with bondo and treated in our research at school.

I don't know of anywhere to obtain curves from, but I know you can buy prefabricated carbon fiber and fiberglass tubes up to (and probably over) 3 inches ID in straight sections. Search the internet for roll wrapped carbon fiber tubes, these can be had for fairly cheap. Shy away from pultruded tubes as the hoop strength for fibers oriented longitudinally may not be up to the task.

Slightly off your specific topic, but if you did a fmic and got rid of the "butt pipe" you could use carbon fiber straight sections and black silicone couplers. Would be bad *** imo.

Wsss6

iTrader: (2)

So I just looked around real quick and I realized that when I said "fairly cheap" I was referring to the smaller diameter tubes I work with. The big (3") diameter ones are pretty expensive.

ChevyChad

iTrader: (50)

$5-$6 a foot for 3" sleeves doesnt seem expensive at all to me Infact, seems hella cheap! http://www.solarcomposites.com/compo...20sleeves.html

Wsss6

iTrader: (2)

A quote from the website you posted: "reinforcing sleeves expand and contract around a shaft (the tiny binders are made of Spandex stretchable fibers)".

Those sleeves look like they are a single layer of cloth that hasn't been impregnated with epoxy yet. I mean you can make anything work, but with those you'll still have to lay them up around some mold and let it cure before they become rigid. You'll almost definately have to us multiple (probably more than 5) layers to keep holes from forming between weaves.

I guess the advantage of that is that you could potentially make curved sections (bad ***), if you can figure out how to get your mold out of the part once its cured.

An example of rigid tubes I found ($$$):

http://www.carbonfibertubeshop.com/large%20tubing.html

I'm sure there's a Chinese manufacturer somewhere that has the same stuff for a fraction of the cost.