For all the turbo experts here. DO you buy a turbo kit, say from custommaxima.com or other places that sell the kit, or do you buy the parts seperate and modify it your self. Wouldnt it be cheaper getting the parts from say different cars and put it together your self. Or is it cheaper to get the complete kit?

 

i might be wrong here, but piping usually is what ends up costing the most. All the custom mandrel bent piping will sky rocket your costs if you want good workmanship

 

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It all depends. If you can do the piping yourself, it's not expensive to buy the mandrel piping. The labor is where it hurts. On my setup, the piping setup cost less than the turbo itself.

 

I have a welder, thats why I ask.

 

Piping is the cheapest if you go thru a muffler shop. The turbo and other accessories is whats going to start costing. BOV, wastegate, electronic Boost controller, intercooler gauges, SAFC etc...fuel pump. All those items add up over a grand easily. You can pick up all the piping under $250 and thats not BS! I seen over three people make up their own turbo kit under $3800. If you know how to weld handle your business its not hard just a bunch of piping.

 

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You can pick up all the piping under $250 and thats not BS!
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Jay, for under $250 that includes all bends from manifold to muffler. And we are talking 3 inch Stainless Steel??? I highly doubt that... Show me where you can get this for so cheap...

 

if you just used aluminized tubing like this

http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...&storeId=10101

you could proboly do it yourself for under 150$ but it wouldnt last as long

 

Grand Muffler in Marietta, Georgia. I bought a ton of 3 inch mandrel bent 90 degree pipes for about 12 bucks a piece. And the 2.5 inch mandrel bends only cost me about 9 bucks a pop. I had a total of 4 3" bends in the cat-back, two 3" bends on the down pipe, and about 10 3" bends on the intercooler side. The reverse y-pipe has about 3 2.5" bends on it. So it comes to about 220 after tax for me. And the straight piping (6 feet of 2.5" pipe and 18 feet of 3" piping was about 23 dollars. So I spent a little under 250 for the whole thing.

 

Of course not stainless, that stuff costs a ton. Isn't that what you used?

The two Maximas we did both just used regular aluminized piping that were then powdercoated or ceramic coated. Much cheaper than stainless. But one car is in FL, and the other is mine here in GA, so rust isn't a huge concern. If I lived up north, I'd probably say to go stainless...

 

You read that up there right? thats where I am getting my piping too, to make my 2K SCer Piping for my 95 maxima. I know of two welders. One of them just took off on a very important trip and the other is a professional who is now an instructor at the school where my brother attends. Hes going to weld my BOV flange and one Bend

I dont give a **** about rust thats why we use some primer and paint that sucker and wrap it up. This is for performance not show.

 

Ceramic + aluminized pipes > *
Protects from rust, looks hot, and reduces in engine bay temps.

SS = very trick and beautiful but too expensive to work w/ unless you have a big budget.
Only necessary for situations like this:

1,100hp Chevy that was on TLC Rides last night.

 

The aluminum piping for intercooler pipes is going to rust? I thought aluminum was better to used because it is lighter and dissapates heat faster. Is it better to use stainless for intercooler piping?

 

That is beautiful, I wish someone would build a turbo manifold for our car with nice collectors like that!

 

Pretty sure nobody here is running aluminum intercooler pipes. Most of us here use 2.5" or 3" aluminized mild steel pipes b/c they are the cheapest and easiest to weld. Aluminum is significantly more expensive and harder to weld since you need a person skilled w/ a TIG setup. Aluminum is used in most intercooler kits from Greddy, HKS, etc since that is lightest and easiest to mandrel bend. If we had a source that could bend alum to spec w/o having to weld much we would definitely go w/ that.

As for that car, it cost well over 100k and several years to build. They specialize in very trick engine bays and go as far as painting the transmission to match for the perfect looking hot rod.

 

That's right! But why would you invest some much time and money into labor knowing the pipes will rot... Your better off spending the money so the piping will outlast the car...

http://www.jcwhitney.com/webapp/wcs/...&storeId=10101

you could proboly do it yourself for under 150$ but it wouldnt last as long[/QUOTE]

 

Aluminum does not rust... And yes it is better to use it for intercooler pipings, becuase it helps dissapates heat...

 

Up in NY where you are, I'd probably use stainless here. But in places with milder climates, rust isn't as much of an issue. And the alumized coating actually isn't that bad. My feed/downpipe are still uncoated as I'm waiting on a few things and 5 weeks later, no rust at all. And with the ceramic or powdercoating, the pipes are pretty protected against the elements.

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You even used aluminized steel for the downpipe?

 

How about a "custom turbo kit"?

 

Right up there with the aftermarket oem one

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2453316404 is that a alright turbo i just want some punch around like 7-9 psi is that turbo good enought

 

Why not? What do you think most turbo kits use? It's not like regular mild steel has a lower thermal capacity than stainless. It won't melt... Cattman's old Jethot coated pipes were regular steel, Stillen's Y Pipes are regular steel, some of WSP's are steel. Steel pipes are steel pipes.

Check out PFI's kit, or Custommaximas, both are just regular mild steel. Aluminized steel is just regular steel with a coating on it. Most of this coating burns off during welding and you're left with regular steel. If you're going to powdercoat or paint or anything like that, you're fine. As I've mentioned before, I don't live in a harsh climate area and rust isnt' a concern.

Stainless is like triple the cost and my pipes are all powdercoated so you wouldn't even know I had stainless so I don't see the point of it.

 

I wouldn't get it. The seller gives absolutely no specifications. "will handle 15 psi means absolutely nothing". And the fact that it's used and he even recommends a rebuild would keep me away. Unless you're proficient in rebuilding your own turbos, there's no point in buying a used on. By the time you buy a rebuild kit and pay the labor to get it done, you're near the cost of a brand spanking new turbo. And you're going to have issues with the flanges/fittings since it's not a standard aftermarket turbo.

Never cheap out on the turbo. That is the entire heart of a turbo setup, why would you skimp on the most important part? You could have the best designed setup ever, and it will suck if you pick the wrong turbo for it.

 

What about a year or two years down the road?
Doesn't rust cause early catalic converter break down?
Stainless keeps temp down in the engine bay too right?

 

A year or two down the road, the coating will still be there, and the pipes will still be fine. And I'm not sure how rust would cause any problems with the cat. Does a non stainless Y-Pipe cause the cat to break down? The rust will be on the exterior of the pipes, there isn't going to be rust on the inside. Well, there may be some, but nothing of significance.

And stainless isn't going to keep temps down in the engine bay. It has pretty similar thermal properties to mild steel. The ceramic coating on the mild steel pipes will be better for engine bay temps than stainless pipes would.

 

If I made a turbo manifold out of mild steel and got it ceramic coated would it crack?

 

How do all those oem non-ss steel turbo pipes last 100+k miles?

 

Most factory cars use cast iron on the manifold side. Rust won't work fast enough to destroy that hefty chunk of iron. It's better to look at aluminized steel exhaust systems. Most are coated well enough to last the life of the car but muffler shops do exist for a reason. Sometimes the coatings fail and stuff rusts through. But when you're talking about a turbo system, having to reweld a pipe here and there after a couple of years is extremely minor work compared to the swapping of engines etc that everyone else is having to do.

Ceramic coating everything is still a lot cheaper than working w/ stainless especially when you're prototyping stuff and waste a lot.

Shadow isn't about to leave his pipes just in aluminized finish. It looks fugly and wouldn't match the engine bay. Also the aluminized parts don't include the welded sections and there's some very slight corrosion on those parts already. We'll hit it w/ the sandblaster and ceramic everything soon.

 

for those that have built their own turbo kits... what did you buy ??

Please excuse my ignorance, but I thought it was like something you just kinda stuck on your car and presto it was faster.
After reading through some of your posts, turbo would be cool to get. I know a welder that I want to talk to about doing a custom job and my uncle owns a welding shop and bulk buys like 50 tons of stainless steel a month for piping etc....

what would I need to buy in order to make a custom turbo kit, and if I got the piping for free, how much does that reduce the overall cost of the turbo kit ? I wasn't too keen on sinking 4G's into a turbo kit, but if I can reduce the cost significantly, it would be a route I'd like to travel....

Any suggestions or links would be appreciated.
Thanks
Nismo_K

 

Well, if you can do the labour yourself and you are familiar with how turbo systems work and how your car works, then doing your own might be something to consider. If you want something that has been proven and has many of he headaches taken care of, then buying a prefabbed one is the way to go. It all depends on your comfort level.

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