Looking at doing a flip manifold setup, my question is where is the best place to buy decent V bands, tubing, and should my first kit be mild steel, if comes out half way decent, have it coated or so S.S?

Thanks.

 

As long as your pre-turbo piping isn't aluminum, go for it.

 

Hey Joe piggy back off your comment. Why not aluminum? I see a lot of the new kits are aluminum for the cold and hot side. I have been doing some research on the same question as OP and was wondering in your experience.

Cheers!

 

Aluminum tubing alloys are not often suitable for extreme heating and cooling cycles, it will Harden and crack. There is AL that will work but its not the common stocked tubing at suppliers.

I know a guy who builds custom headers for folks, he uses very thin Iconal tubing for his best ones.. But I don't live in that $$ range for a car part.. I think he gets north of 5K for a set of open wheel V8 headers.. But they are SOOOO light..

 

Melting point, strength, heat retention. Lots of reasons you don't want a hotside aluminum. Maybe a down pipe .

 

No you havent....

If you can show me a turbo manifold made from aluminium, and that actually survives and works, I'll be amazed

 

I got mine at mandrelbends.com, I went with stainless.

And I agree with others above, aluminum on the hot side isn't a good idea. I have seen some people use aluminum on the turbine outlet with success.

ETA: mandrelbends.com = Columbia River

 

 

Woops gotta lay off the devils lettuce....i see some kits use Aluminum for the cold side NOT the hot side. The kits i was referring to are using mild steel for the hot side....my bad lol.

 

My kit is stainless headers, merge, hot side, cold side, all sides

 

aluminum melting point is around 1200°f. i wonder how that works for a down pipe, because it will get soft way earlier. maybe some exotic alloy?

 

I have seen some aluminum down pipes, but they are short runs, and mainly drag cars. I'm thinking of going with mild steel for my first build. Knowing my luck, it will look half way decent, and wish I would of used S.S.

Still need to source some good affordable V bands.

Thanks.

 

If you see hotsides made of aluminized piping, that's completely different. Its steel with an aluminum oxide coating on it to prevent corrosion. When you grind the aluminum off to weld it, it will rust as normal steel.

There are drag cars with aluminum downpipes. Its not that uncommon.


You can get pretty much everything to make a hotside from somewhere like Columbia River. That's where I get everything I use. I've only made 1 hotside out of stainless. Mild steel is easier to deal with and usually a lot lighter.

 

Columbia River mandrel sells "B STOCK BENDS" for 25 bucks a box of like 25lbs of mild steel bends... one box gave me more than enough for a hotside. Their pipe is good quality and welds great, but the b stock has a few imperfections.

For V Bands I found modern automotive performance on ebay to be good quality. I replaced some china stuff with theirs when the v band bolts easily stripped. MAP's v bands use a 13mm nut versus 10 for the china stuffs

 

ive run full aluminum downpipes from the turbine to the rear bumper. they work but theyre a lot of maintenance. if you cant make them yourself (ie have a tig) its not worth it.
they get cracks a lot. i eventually replaced it all with mild steel because my truck is used as a truck. for a weekend beater id probably do it again, especially if i did the first foot or two out of stainless.

 

Ive only ever used SS on the couple hot sides Ive built. Everything Ive researched on mild steel is OK for hot sides, but it can lead to some nasty rust running through your turbine if you dont have it coated on the inside. You will never know its there till it chews up the turbine wheel. Once I added coating to the cost estimate for mild steel, stainless was just as cheap to build with. This is just what I found out through researching when I first started to build my own turbo piping and I have no personal experience with the mild steel rusting.

 

When you include the cost and skill of DIY TIG welding vs MIG, the price is substantially different.

 

I made a flipped truck manifold twin turbo kit using SCH10 304 stainless 2" pipe. It's actually 2.1" ID and fits perfect in a 2.25" V-band. A couple other friends have used the same material with single turbo kits, but you need a flex joint on at least one bank to prevent cracking. It's also a good idea to brace the turbo if you're using something heavy like an S400.

 

I flux core welded mine with gasless stainless wire from Blue Demon. I use a Lincoln 140 mig welder turned all the way up to get enough heat to get good penetration , but its a strong , UGLY weld that seems to hold up really well. A 1# spool costs about 32 bucks on Amazon. Its Blue Demon 308LFC-0 and works well with all 300 series stainless up to 308. Mine is made of 304 SS from Vibrant.

 

I mig welded mine using 309 wire and helium tri-mix for gas