Custom FMIC piping

[TaloNKiD505]

Hey, i have a fmic mounted on my car. But the guy i bought it from didnt give me the piping. He said he will mail it when it comes in but im not 100% positive he will. How can i get my own piping made to match the length and angles for the fmic. Or can i buy pre-made piping?
Thanks
Matt

 

[talontd92tsi]

That all depends on what brand FMIC it is. Contact the origional manufacturer and they should be able to supply you with the piping that you need, but hopefully the guy dosent jerk you around and send it to you. It is also possible to make your own i/c pipes but its time consuming and if you dont get the ends beaded you might have problems with them popping off, as well as having to get you CBV flange welded on and all of those other hassles.

Best of luck.

 

[TaloNKiD505]

If i knew who made the fmic i would have contacted the company a long time ago, but the guy said he bought it on ebay and he doesnt even know.

 

[VelocitàPaola]

IC piping's no trouble. Us 420A guys have to make it all the time. Assuming you want aluminum piping: you can do things several ways. You can do it like I did, and buy 6063 aluminum tubing from some sort of metal warehouse. Other types will work too, but 6061 will definitely not. Now, call around and look for a muffler shop that has a mandrel bender. Not many places do, so it will take some effort to find a place. They should be able to bend the piping to your specifications, and even attach a BOV flange. That cost me about $300 + the cost of piping (~$45).

You can also buy pre-bent mandrel bends from any number of online sources. With the right combination (a few U-bends, a 90* bend here or there... its application specific), and a good welder, you can make piping that way too. I considered that option as well, and when I was calling around, $300 seemed like the average price.

Either way, it looks like you're in for about a $300 project. If you can find another FMIC that's comparable, their piping may work out for you. Although, even then, the price probably won't be less than $300.

Personally, I like the way I went. The piping is completely customized (no fitment issues), and its all seemless. If there's one thing you shouldn't do, it's get press-bent IC piping. It'll work, but besides being ugly, the airflow is restricted because of the ridges on the inner sides of the bends.

 

[TaloNKiD505]

I mean, money isnt really a problem, i just need to get the specifications like the lengths and angles,and then ill be set. What companies out there are good for IC piping?

 

[undrboost]

I mean, money isnt really a problem, i just need to get the specifications like the lengths and angles,and then ill be set. What companies out there are good for IC piping?

is there not any performace shops around you. im pretty sure they would be more than happy to help you out. thats how i got mine done. i bought a 24x12x3 intercooler off of forced fab.com and i took it to a local tuner shop down the street and they did it for me. cost was $250 for the piping and they put it on and trimmed the bumper for me.

 

[TaloNKiD505]

The nearest place around me is probably turbo trix, and dsmmotorsport about an hour away. I cant really drive the car right now because he had the fmic already set in the bumper without any piping. So to just get the car running for me when i came to see it, he just ran a tube from the TB to the jpipe. So it runs, but no where near road condition. The core looks really good though, how should i measure it to find out the size?
Thanks again guys, i really appreciate it.

 

[Denji]

The intercooler in my sig is custom made by myself, i just bought a core and some ebay intercooler piping and coupled the bends together to make it all fit. Wasnt too bad, i consider the piping to be relatively easy. If you would like to ask me about it, aim me. my aim name is idiosyncraticguy.

 

[TJGoSurf]

Everyone is telling you its easy and will cost around $300, now lets figure out what you need to do it.

It is christmas time, guess what that means? Plenty of little cardboard tubes, grab alot of those. Figure out your placement, mark it, I'm not helping you with that. There are tech articles on that. Once you have it mocked up in place bend those little tubes to figure out what kind of angles and clearances you'll have.

It's a measure twice cut once type deal. Don't forget to write all this stuff down, and most likely your pipes will be bigger.

 

[mavisky]

Buy a couple of mandrel u bends in 2.5" from a company like JC Whitney or something. Cut the tubing as needed and then mark their orientation and hold the tubing together temporarily with duct tape. Later line up the orientation markings and have someone weld it all together for you. That's the exact method I used to do my fmic piping.

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[TaloNKiD505]

Thanks guys i really appreciat all this. Any suggestions on where to buy piping? Right now im still running the 14b, ill probably be going with a 16g in the near future, will that affect anything?

 

[TJGoSurf]

Thanks guys i really appreciat all this. Any suggestions on where to buy piping? Right now im still running the 14b, ill probably be going with a 16g in the near future, will that affect anything?

Google, you may be able to find some cheaper places than jc whitney.

 

[DiamondStarM]

I bought 4 bends from JC Whitney... two 45deg. and two 90deg. all in 2.25" piping. Cost $45. Then mock it up and cut them and then use a marker to draw a line between the pipes for the angle so the welder knows how they go. Had them welded for $50. Painted them flat black for camo, $5. Total piping cost was $100, excluding the Dejon Tool FMIC J-pipe and Dave Brode UICP, but that was already there.

 

[Flavor-DSM]

IC piping's no trouble. Us 420A guys have to make it all the time. Assuming you want aluminum piping: you can do things several ways. You can do it like I did, and buy 6063 aluminum tubing from some sort of metal warehouse. Other types will work too, but 6061 will definitely not. Now, call around and look for a muffler shop that has a mandrel bender. Not many places do, so it will take some effort to find a place. They should be able to bend the piping to your specifications, and even attach a BOV flange. That cost me about $300 + the cost of piping (~$45).

You can also buy pre-bent mandrel bends from any number of online sources. With the right combination (a few U-bends, a 90* bend here or there... its application specific), and a good welder, you can make piping that way too. I considered that option as well, and when I was calling around, $300 seemed like the average price.

Either way, it looks like you're in for about a $300 project. If you can find another FMIC that's comparable, their piping may work out for you. Although, even then, the price probably won't be less than $300.

Personally, I like the way I went. The piping is completely customized (no fitment issues), and its all seemless. If there's one thing you shouldn't do, it's get press-bent IC piping. It'll work, but besides being ugly, the airflow is restricted because of the ridges on the inner sides of the bends.

Just out of curiosity why cant you use 6061 Aluminum Piping? I'm going to have to make my own intercooler piping and now I'm unsure on what type of metal to get. Whats the best type/grade for intercooler piping?

 

[VelocitàPaola]

Just out of curiosity why cant you use 6061 Aluminum Piping? I'm going to have to make my own intercooler piping and now I'm unsure on what type of metal to get. Whats the best type/grade for intercooler piping?

It has to do with the bendability of the metal. 6061 just doesn't bend very well, whereas 6063 bends well. Call different metal supply companies and see what they can offer you. Specify the inside/outside diameters (2.00", 2.25", 2.50", etc.) and the wall thickness (it doesn't need to be particularly thick) when you call.

Better yet, when you find a place that will do the bending, ask if they can provide the tubing. The place that I found preferred to supply it (obviously), and they were the ones to first inform me that not all aluminum can be bent. I did some research after that, and called the place that sold me my tubes -luckily, it was all 6063 (although, I think I want a smaller wall thickness, so I may buy new tubes from the benders anyway.

 

[96whgsx]

http://www.globaltecheng.com/

This is good place for aluminum bends. They have an "automotive section" for their mandrel bends and another section just for tubing bends. I have no idea what is different with the automotive bends that double the price over the regular bends though.