i was looking at ic pipe kits and was wondering what the main advantage of using alluminum piping over stainless steel would be....im pretty sure alluminum dissipates heat better and is a bit lighter, but anything noticeable..
thanks ian

 

Aluminum weighs slightly less.

On your post-intercooler piping you don't want the piping to dissipate heat. You want the piping to insulate the intake gasses from the heat in your engine bay. Stainless would do a better job at that.

But, in all fairness, I doubt you'll actually notice any difference with either ...

 

True, true. The Al is a _lot_ lighter, and some kits are very light at the expense of durability. If you're lookinat at similar durability, I think the weights will be slightly lighter for the Al, mostly coming from the brackets and attachments being lighter, rather than the pipes themselves.

The ideal setup would be aluminium setup with some sort of thermal shielding to prevent heat from going in to the pipes. But anyway, I don't think the difference will be noticable. The flow rate and surface area will make this effect minimal. Would be interesting to see numbers though...