Intercooler pipes - aluminum vs stainless

[giz01]

ARE told me that HPC coated mild steel was the best way to go & they specialize in aluminium!

[Guest Oz Elitesport]

Same question asked in latest Zoom mag.

For thoughs who have'nt read it:

martin suggested Aluminium for outlet pipe, so heat dissipated from pipe to cooler engine bay. Once cooled by intercooler, use internally coated and externally heat wrapped mild or stainless pipe. keeping engine bay heat out.

A combination makes a lot of sense.

oz.

[GTS-t VSPEC]

giz01 and Oz Elitesport,

Thanks for your opinions guys, I think the combination sounds like a good idea, aswell as the HPC and thermal wrapping, might not look as nice but in terms of performance is a better setup.

See'ya:burnout:

[Nismo99]

Hey all,

sorry to anybody that may get a bit offended, but if we're talking about simplicity/cost in intercooler piping, why even consider ceramic & hi temp coatings? this makes the use of stainless and mild steel pointless to the average user.

Aluminium has the downside of being expensive in the performance world, THATS ALL.

Stainless looks good.... for a long time, with minimal maintenance.

Mild steel is cheap, thats it... may suit many budget builds

99% of us want to drive our cars on the street, in traffic of one form or another. Every time the car comes to a standstill, air temperature rises, no matter what. The important part is how quickly it can cool again, and by far aluminium is the best way to achieve this (without other complicated methods).

After testing the disippation times taken for intake charge temperatures to reduce from very heatsoaked to stabilization, nothing even comes close to the effectieness of aluminium.

If you're wondering "whats the big deal for a few degrees higher inlet temps, there will be no power gains".... you're probably right, there's not much in it! But its hotter air entering the engine every time it heatsoaks, and for the most of us, thats pretty much all the time!! the hotter the air is, the more u limit the life of the motor.... much like revving the nuts off a motor on a hot day

I use aluminium in all my work, regardless of the cost, because its what i feel is best.

For those interested, i could have easily bought a Stainless/Mild Steel DC TIG welder as opposed to an Aluminium AC/DC TIG welder, the price difference is HUGE!! try $1000 compared to $5000. this was my choice

I guess its up to the individual!! we're all engineers!!! hehehehe

ciao,

Jono

[Roy]

with the long weekend coming, im going to have a few hours of hangover time where i can ponder all things automotive.

If someone can tell me what sort of mass flow of air and engine consumes, then i will be able to work out how much the intercooler pipes actiually heat the air. I have digital temp gauges in engine bay near air filter that tells me engine bay temps. I can easily take a temp reading of IC pipes and work out the theoretical temp increase due to hot IC pipes.

I suspect air downstram of IC is @ say 35 degC, then it isnt going to be largely affected by piping at 80 degC. The heat transfer may be 0-5degC, which i think translates to about 3hp.

Not saying its not worth doing, heat should be eliminated, ok, minimised in turbo engines.

I even have a data logger that i built that runs in DOS, i may hook it up to a few thermocouples when i got the Oran Park in a few weeks time. Get some field data

I know i have to do something about the RB20 inlet plenum, that is an awfully big heat sink that gets too hot to touch and stays that way for some time.

Im planning for my new engine HPC coated inlet plenum and fuel rail, aluminium IC pipes HPC coated (i like Martin Donnons idea of no insulation between turbo and intercooler) and also HPC coated turbine housing, exhaust manifold and dump pipe. HPC coating alone is going to cost me close to $1000

[Guest INASNT]

roy

the rb25 plenum is also very big heat sink that gets very hot!

do post up the data when u do it!