Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Forced Induction I'm LIVID ... the saga begins!!!

Enough sitting around ... time to get started on the "hot" side:

It all starts with a T3 turbine inlet flange. In this case, a .500" thick 304L SS tapped unit from ATP Turbo.


After about 30 minutes of careful "smashing" in the vise and massaging with a 5 lb. small sledge, you can make a 2.5" 304SS tube to look something like this:


However, it still needs to be "swedged". This is taken after it was tacked on opposing side.


After swedging.


I then flip it over and tack the nicely reshapped side. This leaves one more side to do ... so, how exactly do you swedge a pipe? With some heat of course!



Here we go again on the opposite side ... before:


Heat that puppy up ...


She is ready to start massaging with a 3/8" extension and the 5 lb. sledge when she is glowing bright cherry red ... this picture was take 5 seconds after and she was already starting to cool to a nice dull orange:


After the "massage":


I then tacked the corners to keep them in place. At this point, I have 8 tacks ... 1 on each side and 1 on each corner. Time to start connecting the tacks:



Not the prettiest I know, but she will hold no problem. Now, on the techincal welding stuff ... butt welding a pipe to a VERY thick flange ... aim the wire at the flange and let it creap up the wall









Now, regardless of the fact that the flange was thick as hell, she still warped pretty badly. So, I decided to heat up the flange for a few minutes and then bolt her to the turbo. I then reheated and let cool twice more to stress releave the built up pressure. I will see how well it worked tomorrow night.









My favorite picture of all:

I forgot to add or take pictures (will tomorrow) of the inside. Since it was butt welded, there was a seam that needed to be sealed up. so, I ran a bead all the way around the inside seam and then ground it down.

This was my second flange/pipe combo. My first setup, the flange was slightly larger (mild steel as well) and I was able to fit the tubing inside the flange. I then welded it up just like you see in the headers ... full seam weld around the inside of the flange and full external weld as well. Inside was then ground down.

I wanted to do that with this flange, but couldn't because the opening was just too small. If I wanted to, I would have to slit one side and notch it and then crush the pipe down and close the notch and then seam weld that notch ... too much hassle. I'm very confident that this butt weld will hold just fine.

Not that butt welds won't work but it's recommended from what i've seen to slide the tube through the flange and seam weld it on the face of the flange and then do supporting welds on the outside (not a continuous weld). Of course this would depend on the how the flange is made... like what size it's machined to internally. It looks like you would have had room to do this in the pics.

Might want to do a little port matching on the turbine housing too if you didn't already plan on that.

But anywho... looks pretty good so far.

Like I said, I did it both ways ... the pictures above are of the butt welding method. I will take more pictures tonight of the my other up-pipe along with internal measurements. Due to the other flange's opening being much larger, I had to swedge the pipe out quite a bit, so I think my other flange is actually wider inside. Both look good ... however, I see a difinite improvement in my welding on this one.

Actually to stress relieve it properly...you heat it until it has a dull red glow..then wrap it with a fire blanket (get them at a welders supply store) and it lets it SLOWLY cool down (we are talking hourse here). Never had a crack while doing this. Also, if you ever need to MIG weld cast iron: preheat the hell out of it, weld it, then reheat it and wrap with same blanket and leave it till morning. Butt welding is not the best idea in an instance like this. Inserting the tube part way and seam weld inside, then as Barge said stitch weld the outter perimeter to give it some stress relief. Weling inherently creates a stress riser and that is wh you se most cracks will be outsie the weld. It is sometimes from overheating the part but mostly due to the fact that is the highest place of stress.



BTW....nice work so far....keep it going....and invest in a TIG welder..its worth every penny

Wow Trevor, you have come a long way since I last checked in on this thread. I'm glad to see things are looking up for you during this whole ordeal.

Are you still going to recoop more losses from the seller?
Have you decided on selling the piping kit or not?

I did a little cleanup ... notice the "hole" in this picture? It was caused by me "skipping" over the tack weld.



All fixed!



Considering all the pipe cleanup that is needed after using a chop saw to cut the tubing, I needed to add a new tool to the arsenal.



It came in VERY handy today when I was able to sand down the warped flange ... completely flat now!

Today was spent cleaning up the garage and trying to get more organized so I could arrange the tools in a "production" type environment so I could cut, debur and weld without much fuss. In order to clear up wall space on the back wall AND to help fabricate the kit, I decided to mount the engine to the spare sub-frame fairly well elevated off the ground. This will aid greatly in the tube running & fabrication:





Back to the tubing ... got started on the front 90 degree bend/socket to go around the oil pan and meet up with the rear bank exhaust. In this pic you can see how much I had to cut down the socket & "leg" off the 90 degree bend. Needless to say, the sander was invaluable!



Everything lined up nice & flush and I was able to bevel the edges (for full penetration of the weld)



A closeup of the tack welds.



I will not be seaming the tacks until the entire up-pipe is complete. I hope to be at that point in about 2 weeks ... I'm still waiting on a shipment of 15 degree bends that I will be using to fabricate my 2" in, 2.5" out 2 into 1 collector. I'm getting pretty good with the welder and have no doubt that I can make this merge collector without much trouble.