Some aluminum turbo stuff

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Decided to redo my intercooler this winter. My old setup consisted of a junk ebay core and steel piping since I only had a mig welder at the time. There was definitely a learning curve here as it was my first cast alum welding experience and cast to extruded. Also definitely the thinnest alum Ive ever welded at 16ga. Which turned out to be much thinner than 16 ga along the bend radius, naturally. Here's a picture before to show the piping setup.What you cant see is the lower piping which is double the amount of what you can see on the top. This is because the inlet and outlet to the IC were on opposite ends, and I had to double back. BTW(thats just a carbon fiber wrap on there, not to confuse anyone).So the new core is a treadstone, rated to 1300hp and uses a side inlet and top outlet. I was going for minimal piping and the cleanest look possible. now the pics.Ran outta hands here and had to rig it.More pics next post......
Reply:Notice the cast elbow to IC tank weld here, looks wide and nasty terrible, this is where I learned something ill get to thatIgnore the stainless hose and mess under the hood, many things are unhooked and draped all of the place.So anyway things I learned. 1. Keeping torch angle on tubing sucks, well I suck.2. On the joints I must drift a tiny bit to one side because I see my puddle start to show some bias to one side, then once I correct that, I lose my dead striaght bead.3. I suck at leaving the rod in the puddle when I end my arc on alum.4. This I noticed on the cast elbow. The 3/32 tungsten blew its tip off, probably at 175amps, by 225 it was a nub. The alum was blowing away and burning. AC balance was set to balanced. I thought that was a good all around setting since the "balanced" but I was way off. I figured all my piping was new and clean so Id just turn to max penetration, WOW what a difference, some fine tuning there and it was amazing. This was after my first pipe was welded. wish I noticed before.5. The faster I go the better it looks, but going fast on that tubing is hard because I just lose my torch angle too quick.I learned a lot of other junk too.Settings.Tubing: 1/16 2% lanthanted, machine set to 150 amps, 3/32 4043 rodCast elbow to IC and brackets to cast IC: 3/32 2% lanthanated, machine on 225amps 3/32 4043 rod16ga tubing to cast elbow I welded this right after welding it to the intercooler to keep the heat in the thicker casting, same settings as above but probably set to 175 amps and lots of pedal action.Gas lens was used also about 15cfhIm pleased overall, not terrible for a rookie, and its a cleaner look than before IMOCoreyLast edited by neverfastenough; 02-18-2013 at 09:15 AM.
Reply:Nice work. Now just boost leak test and done. I had to weld my friends piping on his intercooler last month, and I made him stay and handed him a helmet so he was my jig to hold things in place Torchmate 2x2 CNC with Flashcut CNC controlsHypertherm Powermax45 Esab ET220i Razorweld 195 MigRazorweld 200ac/dc TigTormach 770, Tormach xstechRazorweld, Vipercut/Vipermig, SSC Foot Pedal Dealer
Reply:Yea I had my dad over to help a bit but for some reason my second hood, cheapest jackson auto dark, just wouldnt get dark enough for him to be comfortable watching. Maybe it needs its battery replaced, fine for steel.
Reply:Nice job, however I believe you are going to learn about fatigue and what it does to aluminum with the ridged strait intercooler to motor pipe. I hope the single silicone coupler has enough flex in it for you.
Reply:I agree with you, however, its basically solid, the engine mounts are far from factory and the factory limiters have been modified to allow for very little side to side rocking. The headers I built were pretty tight in there so I wanted as little engine movement as possible, without a motor plate.  Its a street car but a 500mile a year street car
Reply:Not bad.   have you considered making an intercooler vs buying?  Cores aren't that expensive. just need to be able to bend sheet.www.thefusionsolution.com
Reply:Yes, I actually ordered just the core you see above. They called and said it was out of stock in that size. They were able to sell me one with endtanks for the same price as just a core, to compensate me for the inconvenience. So I lucked out! I just had to cut their outlet off to get it to work. I was looking forward to getting practice welding a end tank up though...Last edited by neverfastenough; 02-18-2013 at 10:20 AM.
Reply:Gotcha.  it's really not bad. I'm waiting on my buddy to get a me a water/air core so I can start on his..www.thefusionsolution.com
Reply:Ive thought about doing water to air but I figure this is better for a street car. I didnt want a heat exchanger and stuff, and also didnt want to keep buying ice bags haha
Reply:thunder bird build nicesyncrowave 180 sd
Reply:all done
Reply:looks good.www.thefusionsolution.com
Reply:Nice job!
Reply:Originally Posted by blk mk8thunder bird build nice
Reply:Yes its a Tbird, straight from lorain, original owner car. 1990 supercoupeIll keep an eye on pipes. I know several ford engineers and I myself will have my ME degree in a few weeks. Ill be the first to say that this car wouldnt even come close to passing the standards and testing done on new factory vehicles. Build it, race it, break it, repeat. If it happens to let go from some sort of vibration or engine rock abuse, Ill be prepared to fix it. I can say the headers I made are around 1/2 inch from touching each strut tower, and with 2yrs of abuse on them, they havent touched the towers from rocking. Factory motor mounts have been removed, and solid rubber replaced them, and home made limiters were made also just in case.
Reply:Very super nice bird!I have to share now, we have a 30K original mile 92 sport. Has been garaged for the last 10 years, never seen snow, barely seen the light of day. lolIn front of my old 77
Reply:Sissy Paint!!!! Just kidding, looks to be super clean. Most of these cars have long rusted away. Especially the sun roof cars.
Reply:hahaYes they are getting pretty rare to see now days.
Reply:Wow that thing is clean!   I heard one by me yesterday that sounded like a diesel?!Carlohttp://public.fotki.com/Naudi2U/
Reply:Sometimes the supercharger snout bearings go and make a rattle that I guess could sound like a diesel.
Reply:I had an 89 SC with the 5 speed. .... its the only car i wish i never sold actually.... nice to see someone still appreciates the ol birds. If i can find one im going to buy another but its hard to find them in nice shape. Yours is beautiful! What are you turning in the 1/4 mile with it?
Reply:Originally Posted by Naudi2UWow that thing is clean!   I heard one by me yesterday that sounded like a diesel?!
Reply:Originally Posted by BandaidI had an 89 SC with the 5 speed. .... its the only car i wish i never sold actually.... nice to see someone still appreciates the ol birds. If i can find one im going to buy another but its hard to find them in nice shape. Yours is beautiful! What are you turning in the 1/4 mile with it?
Reply:I would be worried about the 40XX aluminum as it is hard and tends to crack. a 50xx or 60xx aluminum would probably hold up a bit better over the long run.i still lover the NM-12 builds and even the Mark 8 stuffsyncrowave 180 sd