Thanks for the tip, Clint. I may or may not end up ovalizing a 3.5" bend.. I may just ovalize a straight and sandwich it between the elbow and the S bend.. I'll see how fitment is on the car and see how big the transition gap is and what the angular misalignment is like, if there's any need for an oval-transition bend.

No prob Jimbo. I rememeber years ago when I was first trying to do stuff I was just taking stabs at it, and not too many posts showing the setup and how it happens. Obviously clambing a 180* U bend or even worse.. a partially cut U bend, isn't exactly secure, so I try to set up the jig so that there are height blocks on the tube ends, a heigh support at a 3rd point somewhere in the middle of the bend to keep it level, then support the tube ends in a couple places so the bend can't shift. Essentially giving the tube all the locating features to hold it in place, without actually clamping the tube down.. it instead just "clicks" into place and is securely held on the bandsaw fence (or chopsaw table, or mill table, etc).

 

Last year I hand formed a fan shroud out of aluminum. I found the more I bent it, the harder/stronger it would get. I would get to about 45* and it just wouldn't go any further. After applying just a bit of heat from a propane torch it would bend like putty, for another 45*. I could feel it stiffen up as I bent it.
Apply some heat to the part you have already bent and give it another try. With any luck you just might get the result you're looking for.

Ken

 

Got some pretty good progress done this weekend. Since I hacked up my radiator support and I'm free to put the radiator/intercooler wherever I can reasonably fit them, it's been a pretty interesting juggling act adjusting the radiator+intercooler stack up/down and front/back, to best accommodate fitting the grill and having non-weird looking top charge pipe.





I ended up pinching the end of the cut 3.5" mandrel bend, and it blended pretty well with the multi-piece 2.5" elbow that I made. The only area where the profile didn't match was the underside had a bit of a gap, but I think I will notch this underside part of the ovalized bend, to make it flush and give the radiator a bit more clearance..











Here you can see how the edges of the rad are resting on the underside of the charge pipe. I'm going to lower the rad maybe 1/2", which will allow the pipe to flatten a bit, then slide the pipe forward ~1/2" to clear the front edge of the rad, and notch the 3.5" ovalized bend so it has clearance to the back edge of the rad..

 

Then got started on making the intercooler bottom end tanks. These prettymuch have to be a specific size/location, so it's no issue just getting them done away from the car.

I used some paper just to get the rough tapered cut lines in order to have some taper to the shape, but everything after that was just winging it.



Don't have a press brake at work, but do have lots of rectangular and round pieces of metal. Oi did this suck, work hardening 0.100" 5052 around a 2.25" pipe to get a ~2.5" bend...



I needed to pinch the bend tighter as I was only able to hand/hammer bend it to about 4-4.5" wide once the length was cut down, so use an arbor press to pinch it down to 3.5" width..

 

Next I had to trim the subframe horns to make room for the 2.5" turbo->intercooler piping. I'll also be hacking up the bumper support brackets and reinforcing afterwards.











And here is about as much of the stock radiator support I will leave... time to start fabbing in new support structure to reinforce and hold the radiator and intercooler!

 

This is trick as hell man love it

 

Thanks! It's coming along real well, I'm super happy with it. But holy crap, is it time consuming tweaking things till perfection!

 

Happy to see the bottom of the IC isn't below the radiator core support. That will look very tucked when you get done. Also those are some sweet "solid" body mounts for the what's left of the core support lol. Are you going to have some room to cross brace the core support between the radiator and IC?

 

I'm surprised the fenders didn't want to misalign with the core cute out. This looks epic. (nodding)

 

Clint, the plan is to have the intercooler bottom piping completely tucked up behind the bumper without anything hanging down. The radiator will hang about 2" below the bottom of the bumper, and I'll make a scoop/spoiler to have all that fresh air under the bumper jam into the radiator.

I plan to make a U-shaped structure to weld to the remaining core support, that the radiator will mount behind. The radiator won't be obstructed by this U support, which will be outside of the rad core in overall size. I plan for this U support to have a nice flat backside that I can fix some windlace or weatherstrip or some type of sealing to. The intercooler will be 27" overall width (inlet-to-inlet total width on bottom) and the intercooler core is 24" wide.. so the intercooler will sit "within" the U shaped structure to allow it to rest right next to the front of the radiator core.

I'll also still be making a bolt-in top crossmember for the rad support, to close in the open top of the U shape, and to also keep the hood pin center-to-center distance consistent.

Jimbo, I too was pretty surprised how little deformation there was. I did measure the hood pins spring apart by less than 1/8" before/after cutting, but nothing crazy.. I'll ratchet strap the hoodpins together to close the gap back to what is was pre-cutting, as I'm building and tacking together the new rad support structure.

 

Finished the mock up routing of the wastegate recirculation pipes this weekend.



Here is how the driver side recirc pipe is routed.. it's pretty slammed to the exhaust manifold, and merges with the downpipe about 16" back from the turbo outlet. There's still decent room to get a wrench on the UCA cross shaft bolt, and room for camber shims. I'll be flipping the bolt around also for ease of full removal.









Here is the passenger side.. significantly more straightforward. The wastegate recirc pipe merges with the downpipe about 14" back from the turbo.

 

Crazy to think how much time and mental power it's taken just to produce this set of pipes here. Off the car en route to final welding. The passenger side downpipe and wastegate recirc pipe are two pieces (middle two) because I never bothered to tack weld the recirc pipe to the downpipe for fitment, like I did with the driver side.



Last step to do to the turbo piping before final weld was making the merge holes for the wastegate recirc piping into the downpipes.

Passenger side process for this is shown below:

1) I placed the wastegate recirc pipe on the downpipe, and traced the outline of the pipe as a guide. Then used a tiny 1" cutoff wheel to make a cut following this outline but offset about 1/8" inboard (tubing is 1/16")...







2) Then I use this carbide bit to smooth out the cutoff wheel marks and make it closer to finished shape...





3) then I used the nose of Dynabrade air belt sander to really final massage the curvature of the opening...





4) then I used a rounded file to remove any burrs on the inside edge of the hole that may have been created from the previous cutting/grinding...



5) then I buff all the mockup marker lines and other scratches/imperfections, and it's ready for final weld! I'll be fully welding the downpipes and the wastegate recirc pipes separately, and reassemble on the car one last time to tack weld the recirc pipe back onto the downpipe in the exact right location/orientation.

 

I got a little impatient and really wanted to see how the China SS304 would weld without backpurging.. it sugared bad, so definitely had to cobble together a backpurge setup. But it suuuuure does look pretty...

I was only able to do MOST of one pre-turbo hot pipe... using 12' of filler rod... before I ran out of filler... this thing was just EATING up filler material with the heavy 45* bevels on the joins.



The welder at work.. this thing welds as smooth as a dream, it's such a treat to use...



This was the first test pass, just kind of sat down and gave it a shot. I forgot how quiet and calming welding DC is vs AC...



Mmmmm.. pretty colors! This is why I spent time buffing and cleaning pre-weld, because I want to just leave them like this after weld...

 

Real nice looking welds Joe. Was the welders pics from work? Very nice machine. $$$$

 

You've become quite a skilled pipe fitter and welder. That's goddamn beautiful. Brings tears to my eyes. Can't wait to see it all weldered out and making spinny sounds.

It's spring now. Car season has started in Southern California - when does it start for you?
Do you have any events you are trying to make?

 

Hey Jimbo,

Yeah that's our work machine. Very $$$ with the cooler (required) and even the Miller cart as a package... but holy F*** is it nice. We also have an old Synchrowave 250 that is the size of a tank but still works reeeeally nicely. That's a fun machine since the welds are only as good as the user input. Strangely enough, I've never even attempted using the pulse settings on the Dynasty 350.. I guess i'm old school and want to earn those weld bead "dimes" the hard way... still not even close to an expert however.

Hey Clint,

I'm super excited too.. so much gold and purple.. so purdy. I brought a whole case of SS308L rod into work today so I'll be having a solid go again tonight.

Weather took a sharp turn for the warmer/better right around a week ago.. so I'm pushing myself hard to get it together ASAP. There is a cancer/charity cruise on April 28 that it'd be really cool to join in on.. but that's only 5 weekends away.........

 

You can do it! Have you got a list?

Weld out pipes, weld out intercooler, plumb oil returns, mount radiator and fabricate support. Accessory drive. Baseline tuning. What else is there? Any potentially long-lead parts you need to order?

 

Haha I appreciate the support... I REALLY should make full 3.5" oval exhaust... only have the downpipes fab'd up until the firewall.

Then in no particular order I need to (off the top of my head):

- finish and weld bottom tanks on IC
- finish and weld top tank on IC
- tack weld support structure to core support, then remove core support to fully bench weld & paint
- swap the heads (buy new LS9 head gaskets)
- install new valvesprings
- swap oil pan
- make oil cooler lines to an oil cooler I've yet to buy or make brackets for
- measure and order turbo oil feed/drain lines
- make a nice-flowing Y block for turbo oil feed lines off of oil cooler return hose
- reroute FPR to be after fuel rail, not before
- install FIC 1000cc injectors
- make brackets to adapt fuel rails to new 42mm short injectors
- make boost distribution block for 2 x boost sensors (1 Holley, 1 Speedhut) and BOV feed
- relocate the breather can from driver fender to firewall, remake lines
- make charge pipes from turbos to IC
- weld stainless bung to downpipe for Holley WBO2
- weld stainless bungs on hot piping for EGT, EGP
- weld alu bungs on charge piping for pre-IC pressure, and IAT
- wire EGT/EGP, pre-IC pressure into Holley Dominator
- get 2 x 4" air filters and make connector tubes to the 4" 90* elbows on the turbo inlets
- CNC P/S pump bracketry (actually doing that this week) and finished accessory drive install
- make P/S pressure/return lines
- plumb push-lock Nylon lines to BOV from boost distribution block
- make boost lines from Holley solenoid to wastegates.. not sure if I'm doing stainless tube or just run push-lock air lines
- make new radiator shroud with cutouts for new fans
- pin the new fan wires to connect to existing fan relay on car side


On the to-do list but not required before first drive:

- MODIFY AND INSTALL INNER FENDERS
- remove heater box and make cover panel for firewall
- redo fuel system with swirlpot in trunk
- rear firewall behind rear seat back
- wire Holley Dominator for correct output to Speedhut speedo, to finally make speedo work
- figure out weird back-voltage issue in oil temp Speedhut gauge that makes Holley go into limp mode when gauge is connected
- fab tray-like sealing structure that mounts to hood, and closes out gap between core support and underside of hood
- make some type of scoop for the bottom 2" of rad to ram air it fresh air
- install a '69 Camaro chin spoiler I got for cheap of Craigslist

 

I used to hate detailed lists like that because they seem overwhelming, but then I realized how great it is to be able to check items off every day I spend a little time in the garage. Thinking back on how much you've done just in the last two-three weeks, that list looks doable in a 5 week time frame. Of course it won't be the end of the world if you don't make that cancer charity cruise, but it sure would be awesome to debut the new twin setup at a show for a good cause.

 

Thanks Clint.. I'll push hard but not sure if I'll make it! I aim to have ALL turbo hotpiping welded up until the firewall by this coming weekend, as well as the cut P/S pump brackets to install this weekend as well.

Tonight I'm going to pick up the injectors, and going to "borrow back" the engine hoist from a friend who's had it for years. The plan this weekend is to strip down the engine to a short block, lift it up a bit to remove trans, lift it up a bit more to swap the oil pan, then reinstall for good and start hanging things back on!

Spent 1hr on Sunday starting the schedule 40 welding, and another 4hrs last night. I was expecting it to take a while, but took a lot longer than I had anticipated, with all the backpurge setup and breaks. Aim to fusion weld the thinner 16ga downpipe/wastegate pipe stuff later this week.

The welds aren't quite as good as I was hoping, but I fed probably 12+ sticks of 36" filler rod into these, so there's plenty of weld material. They appear a bit more undercut in the pictures than they are in real life, maybe because of poor camera lighting. I was so hot.. 150-180 amps for probably 2.5hrs of seat time.. oi!