I was thinking about using small amounts of 2" rubber hose with metal clamps as connectors and mainly using 2" pipe but someone who is an electrician is telling me that in order to bend any 2" pipe (alluminum or otherwise) you need a hydraulic pipe bender and not your regular average manual pipe bender which you can get at home depot or some other hardware store.

Is it ok to use rubber hose only for the intercooler's installation or is using rubber hose only a bad idea? Does anyone here use rubber hose only as the intercooler's air conduit or does everyone use a combination of small amounts of hose with clamps and mainly pipe?

I think that is just fine, if you will notice the air box is using also the rubber hose. I believed that as long as hose can withstand the temperature in the engine bay and the air pressure that runs through it then I can't see problem with that. Opinon only.

Might want to be careful using rubber hose - air temps out of the turbo can reach over 100 degrees celsius on an engine without an intercooler.
Rubber pipes are easier to install, but I'm sure there's a reason that everyone makes their piping out of metal, with rubber just to join the bits of pipe....

u wouldnt want press bent pipes anyway. go to an exhaust shop and buy some pre-made mandrel bends in 2 inch mild steel. Use the bends and some straight sections to make ur piping. Weld most of them but also use hoses in a couple of places to allow for engine movement.

U could make the piping just out of a heavy duty hose. I thought about doing it myself but for long term reliability it is better to go for the steel pipes. It is very easy for the hose to be kinked or squashed or blow out of shape especially when running it around bends like u will have to do for a cooler install.

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WRX 'The cordia of the 90's'

I'd recommend aluminium over steel.

As for the ruubber... hmmm I wouldn't really recommend it. The airbox hose isn't pressurised... it is at atmospheric pressure - and often is at LESS than atmo - so it doesn't need to be able to stand pressures. That's why the airbox uses rubber hose. You'll notice that the x-over pipe is metal and comes from the factory metal... if you could use rubber pipes, companies would have started making rubber piping as it's usually cheaper than metal.

Go with some polished aluminium; looks great, shields heat better than rubber and won't have problems under boost.

Astaroth.

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[size=75]Ich will die Ruhe stören

Bones heal, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever.

This method can be done, ive done it to my GSR and holds 18psi okay, just make sure u get good new clamps which allow u to tighten it up by a bolt instead of a screw driver, this lets u tighten it even more. It only cost me $40 to do my whole intercooler piping. 1.5M of 2" mild steal, $25, and about 10 rubber hoses which i got from the truck wreckers (radiator hoses). It does sound a bit dodgy, but it works, and its cheap

Way

_________________
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"All throttle, no bottle"
AC GSR - Worked 4G62BT (Original 510DIA)-SOLD-
AC GSL - VR4 Turbo (Slowdia NO2) -SOLD-
Honda Civic - H22aT transplant -SOLD
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yes it is ok to use rubber hose for intercooler joins.
i just pulled apart factory vr4 intercooler piping on front cut and it had rubber sections, the longest was probably 30cm long.
david

Spin out

I swear that post originally said that he wanted to use rubber hose for the entire intercooler plumbing, not just the joins... That's what I was replying to.

Rubber joins are fine as long as the pipes sit pretty flush together.

Astaroth.

_________________
[size=75]Ich will die Ruhe stören

Bones heal, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever.

I'm going to have to use heat resistant 90* and 45* rubber elbow couplings along with mainly alluminum pipe in a manner that will alow me to use as much pipe as possible. I'm going to have to cut the pipes and use them straight but i'm sure that with the couplings I can probably customize the pipes to go where I want them to. One thing i'm puzzled by is where the pipe goes into the turbo. The stock pipe that connects to the turbo is held there by a bolt which makes that entrance (or exit... however you want to look at it) a little awkward to work with. For example, how the heck would I get a pipe to connect there? I was thinking of cutting the stock pipe, reconnecting the stock pipe to the turbo, and then connecting a coupling from the intercooler's piping to the stock piping. This is the only way I see this happening as I picture it in my head. If anyone else has an alternative suggestion go ahead and reply.

I'm still browsing places trying to get a thin intercooler no thicker than 2 inches in order to put it in front of the crosssmember support bar but behind the bumper.

I have another question: When the car's turbo starts creating positive boost (I have the stock gauge), if you get a surge after a couple of seconds under this postive boost when the indicator on the gauge gets high, would the lack of an intercooler be the cause of this surge? By surge, I mean the car shakes and clearly doesn't work right. I'm having shakes and hesitation from the car under boost conditions.

You could always try welding it on. or run a 2.5" silicon hose off it, but requires grinding the turbo a bit.

Way

_________________
()...()
(o o)
/ ( ..)
/ ""
"All throttle, no bottle"
AC GSR - Worked 4G62BT (Original 510DIA)-SOLD-
AC GSL - VR4 Turbo (Slowdia NO2) -SOLD-
Honda Civic - H22aT transplant -SOLD
180sx - RB'd -SOLD-
R32 - RB Powered -SOLD-
Honda Civic vtiR, vtec yo!

Thanks for the pic 510DIA.

That pic shows the bolt hole for the stock pipe perfectly. That damn bolt hole is in the way for a rubber hose so that's out of the question for me at least for now. Can't say I have the resources to grind or weld. Maybe I could grind it to fit a hose over the pipe entrance there... but weld it? I'd have to remove that turbo housing and take it to a muffler shop where they have the welding equipment to do that. Welding seems like a very good and secure way to do this though.

It's a little funny looking at that pipe there because it looks very secure and that stock pipe has a lousy rubber ring which i'm like 99% sure it must leak.

I'm going to have to put this idea of intercooling off for now. Maybe in the future. Thanks for all the advice though.

im at exactly the same point, and looking at rubber hoses too.

ive fitted a piazza intercooler behind the bumper, and now just need the piping.

Way, ive had a look at the photos of your car (very nice...) and thats almost exactly what im after for my piping. something CHEAP, and does the job.

agent smith, ill let you know how it goes.

mark

Please do let me know because i'm not planning to grind the stock pipe's bolt hole. Also, I don't want the intercooler bad enough to have to take out the turbo to get a pipe welded on there. I just want a simple solution if possible to the problem of connecting the intercooler piping to the turbo.

buy or use ur stock X over pipe. Cut off the bit at the bottom that attaches to turbo and weld cooler pipe to it. easy

_________________
WRX 'The cordia of the 90's'

I was thinking about that. However, as I took a look at that stock piping coming right out of the turbo, I quickly learned that the piping starts out at about 1" round, then it morphs into a flat pipe style, and then morphs again into a round 2" as it goes into the injection mixer. If the pipe were cut, it'll be pretty hard to connect the intercooler piping to stock pipe in any way, shape, or form, due to difference in sizes. It's not easy connecting a roughly 1" pipe to a roughly 2" pipe. Just for the sake of the argument, if the stock pipe was 2" coming out of the turbo, then that would be a different story because the stock pipe could then be cut and a rubber coupling could be used to connect the modified stock pipe's 2" exit to the intercooler's 2" entrance pipe.

I really can't believe they designed this car without an intercooler. It's difficult to believe that they wanted to reduce production costs for the car. I could be wrong but as I understand it, an intercooler is essential for proper engine performance in a turbo charged vehicle (at least when it's under boost). Stalling, hesitation, and improper engine perfomance could result from that hot air being pumped into the combustion chamber for obvious reasons; lack of oxygen in the hot air. The only thing I can possibly assume is that back in 1986, turbo technology was probably in it's infancy for mass production cars and as such, they probably regarded the intercooler simply as a turbocharged engine performace enhancer and not as a turbo charged engine essential.

Maybe they should've designed the car without brakes too. Hey, no brakes on the car would've saved them a pretty penny too.

well...the piping is on, and it runs...just

i ended up using 2 inch rubber hose from a car place (sprint auto parts). its pretty thick, and about 90c an inch. i used about 500mm. (you work it out)

as for pipe, i got an exhaust place to bend 3 x 45 degrees, and 3 x 90's. $5 each. its only press bent, but the reduction in X-section isnt really that much. for the money, i dont really give a damn if its a bit more restrictive. im not building a racecar. just stuffing around, really.

then the hard bit. i used ALL of the stock X-over pipe, just turned it 90degrees so it runs behind the radiator. i also welded on a bracket to screw into the old mounting point. looks really gay, but it works (sort of). the problem is, i cant get that stupid 1-inch end to seal properly. on boost (even at 1psi) i get a loud whistling, and it splutters. exactly like when i forgot to do up the X-over pipe once before.

so, ive got sealing problems there, but the pipes after the intercooler are COLD, so thats a start.

anybody got any ideas for sealing the compressor outlet? i know its not dead flat...which is a lot of the problem...what about some gasket sealant in there?

mark

Your bolt bracket needs to be slightly longer so that the pipe pulls into the outlet properly.

That's all I can think of. Gasket sealer and stuff wouldn't seal properly I don't think, it'd break under boost and leak again I reckon.

Astaroth.

_________________
[size=75]Ich will die Ruhe stören

Bones heal, chicks dig scars, glory lasts forever.

You can grind the little bit where the factory X over pipe bolts onto, grind that off and fit a 2.5" silicon hose onto it.

_________________
()...()
(o o)
/ ( ..)
/ ""
"All throttle, no bottle"
AC GSR - Worked 4G62BT (Original 510DIA)-SOLD-
AC GSL - VR4 Turbo (Slowdia NO2) -SOLD-
Honda Civic - H22aT transplant -SOLD
180sx - RB'd -SOLD-
R32 - RB Powered -SOLD-
Honda Civic vtiR, vtec yo!

try fitting a thicker o ring and then pack silastic in on top of it. the integrity of this connection is basically solely dependent on the bracket holding it down tight with the o ring just in case

_________________
WRX 'The cordia of the 90's'

my intercooler piping is mostly rubber... works a treat... but a fact to rembmer... it dont look pretty.... not in the slightest.... but it wos and hold 16psi without a hitch... suits me.... i got a couple of mandrel bends outta the intercooler and one a few metal bits here n there and the rest is rubber

Scott

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'70 XW GT, STOCK! (as stock as GT's are)
'94 Silver Evo 2, ross forged pistons, eagle H-Beam rods, Garrett roller bearing turbo, ceramicoated manifold, 272 cams, copper head gasket, 450x300 FMIC, 3" exhaust w/HKS cannon, king springs, 17" rims, Strut brace.