Intercooler Piping

[turboedsloth]

after some advice on wat the best size would be intercooler piping wise to suit my setup,

i have a td06 the outlet is bout 1 3/4 inchs, FMIC inlet an oulet tubes are 3 inch and throttle body is stock rb20 which is 70mm i think. the tubing is gona be made out of 316 stainless pipe and the 3 sizes available are 60mm, 75mm and 100mm. would it be better to just run 60mm piping through the system and use adaptors for the cooler an throttle body or 3inch all the way through.

what size does everyone else use?

Cheers

[Aif]

after some advice on wat the best size would be intercooler piping wise to suit my setup,

i have a td06 the outlet is bout 1 3/4 inchs, FMIC inlet an oulet tubes are 3 inch and throttle body is stock rb20 which is 70mm i think. the tubing is gona be made out of 316 stainless pipe and the 3 sizes available are 60mm, 75mm and 100mm. would it be better to just run 60mm piping through the system and use adaptors for the cooler an throttle body or 3inch all the way through.

what size does everyone else use?

Cheers

i got 3inch piping for my cooler and its seems fine, i dont think u'll have any problems with 3inch pipes.

AiF

[rb26s13]

just run 2.5 whole way it will work fine.

and dont bother making it out of 316 stainless just get 304 grade you really really dont need to use 316 grade stainless for your piping

it will cost twice as much for 316 compared to 304

Edited September 24, 2007 by rb26s13

[turboedsloth]

its $35 a mandrel bend an $41 a metre. this projects already over budget a few extra dollars wont hurt

[rb26s13]

theres no extra advantage using 316 tho i pay about $22-25 a bend for 2.5inch 304 mandrels.. 8 or 9 bends in the fmic setup.. it wouldnt suprise me if all up you saved over 100 bux

[TTT]

hot side should be the same size as the turbo outlet, cold side should be same size as throttle body.

[QWK32]

standard 32 throttle body inlet size is 2.75 inch. just run 2.5inch all the way and use reducing silicone joiners. and like has been said, just use 304, cheaper and just as good for what you want it for.

[turboedsloth]

60mm seems to be the go, i'll ask about the 304 option i dont want anything shiny/blingy the 316 looked like the raw plazmaman plenums in the classifieds section thats why i was gona go that way

Edited September 25, 2007 by turboedsloth

[Haines]

I got 2" on the hot side and 2.5 after cooler dont know if it make a difference really

[QWK32]

60mm seems to be the go, i'll ask about the 304 option i dont want anything shiny/blingy the 316 looked like the raw plazmaman plenums in the classifieds section thats why i was gona go that way

316 and 304 can look the same. its all in the finish, im sure those plasmaman plemuns are all polished up to be that shinny. the differance between the two is that, mainly 316 is more expensive, 316 is harder than 304 and more chemical resistant to name a couple.

[SirRacer]

digging up an old threads never particularly popular but i used the search function.

are there any more opinions on this? eg someone who found their piping a restriction over a certain hp level.

My thinking is why buy a bigger throttle body when your piping is 65 or 70mms?

[Adriano]

2 1/4 inch piping doesn't cause any noticeable pressure drop at 220-240rwkw, from the couple of systems ive measured. Therefore 2.5in should flow 300rwkw with similar drop, and stock gtr pipework (3 1/4in!) should be fine for 500rwkw, i imagine nissan had a specific reason for using that size though?

[STR8E180]

i wouldnt go with 3inch intercooler piping personally all ur going to do is cause more pressure drop due to the bigger pipes

on a street car i wouldnt go bigger then 2.5inch

im running a GT35 on my GTR and im using 2.5inch piping with a 115mm intercooler

i personally think my intercooler is abit to thick for a pure street car but i got it at a very cheap price

i also wouldnt pay extra just for stainless piping when alloy does the exact same job

keep in mind that stainless heats up very fast and it also takes longer to cool down

where as alloy will heat up fast but it also cools down faster then it heats up

this is why all intercooler cores are made from alloy and not stainless

Edited May 17, 2008 by STR8E180

[Raysboostin]

i wouldnt go with 3inch intercooler piping personally all ur going to do is cause more pressure drop due to the bigger pipes

on a street car i wouldnt go bigger then 2.5inch

im running a GT35 on my GTR and im using 2.5inch piping with a 115mm intercooler

i personally think my intercooler is abit to thick for a pure street car but i got it at a very cheap price

i also wouldnt pay extra just for stainless piping when alloy does the exact same job

keep in mind that stainless heats up very fast and it also takes longer to cool down

where as alloy will heat up fast but it also cools down faster then it heats up

this is why all intercooler cores are made from alloy and not stainless

agreed.

im not sure why ppl put bigger piping on the cold side of the intercooler. with the air now cool, wouldnt bigger piping create a greater pressure drop?? wouldnt this pressure drop affect throtte response?? i would just use 2.5 throughout. keeps it simple

[GeeTR]

Alloy always.

Increased pipe diam post IC, has cooler / denser / thicker air flowing through it in theory.

As per OP, the threads about pipe size for a td06 on a RB20, not a 450rwkw 26.

[SirRacer]

does it really matter what an old thread is about, if the same topic is of use to someone else?

[GeeTR]

are there any more opinions on this? eg someone who found their piping a restriction over a certain hp level.

does it really matter what an old thread is about, if the same topic is of use to someone else?

LoL, scuze man, I didn't mean to come off rude. I agree It is a rather interesting thread to bring up, just very hard to answer / add to accurately.

When i referred to OP, i meant to imply that 2.5" OD pipe is prolly cool on a maxed out TD05, but maybe not on a ie: T04Z@2bar, hence at a minimum, the power output of the car is a big input factor. Like most things, I woulda thought its about 'using the smallest pipe you can get away with' VS 'accepted flow restriction for vehicle purpose"

The issue is that rarely could i ever imagine someone taking the time to dyno and record pressure in various places in the pipe work, then replace ONLY the pipework and test for a delta. Most of the ppl i know, only change pipe size to match another mod being done at the same time, making "apples vs apples" hard. Reminds me of the thread a few months back "How much do large IC's effect lag / response" ... was lots of "heresay"

Edited May 19, 2008 by GeeTR

[juggernaut1]

I looked into this a little while ago. I came accross a forum that Buschar Racing formed which is into modding Lancer Evo's and they tested intercooler pipe sizes on a Lancer Evo with a Forced Performance turbo equivalent to the GT35. Anyway, this car was pumping out around high 500 low 600 hp and the 2.5 inch in 2.5 inch out piping was less laggy and more hp than the 2.5 inch in 3.0 inch out. From memory we're not talking a huge lag difference and the hp was also only down around 7 hp so nothing really in it at these power levels.

Edited May 20, 2008 by juggernaut1

[Raysboostin]

Alloy always.

Increased pipe diam post IC, has cooler / denser / thicker air flowing through it in theory.

As per OP, the threads about pipe size for a td06 on a RB20, not a 450rwkw 26.

well from what i remember of high school science. as air cools and becomes more dense (or thicker as u put it) its volume/mass decreases. like putting a balloon in the freezer. it shrinks not expands.

[GeeTR]

well from what i remember of high school science. as air cools and becomes more dense (or thicker as u put it) its volume/mass decreases. like putting a balloon in the freezer. it shrinks not expands.

Correct, what i was aiming at though, was that thicker post IC piping might help with the increased viscosity of the cooler gas... in theory.

EDIT: Seems the above confused some ppl. Im not talking about using IC -> TB pipes BIGGER then the OD of either IC outlet or TB. I'm adding weight to the already normal practice, where that pipe ends up being wider then the turbo -> IC pipe.

Edited May 20, 2008 by GeeTR