carbon fiber intercooler piping???
and you think this is going to be a 250-500 dollar intercooler pipe kit if Extra layers are used . hey i lay carbon fiber and **** adds up. lol im not paying more then 300 for pipping. paying 900+ for it puts it in ARC territory so are people going to knock the price like they do ARC products??
there is company called Carbonio which makes intake pipes for VW and AUDI applications. When I had my VW GTI I ran their Carbon Fiber intake tubing. Nice piece, but yes expensive. I bough one of the first ones and it was $260. Pipe and filter. The pipe was not flimsy, so if done right it will hold.
I see this being compared to any ARC part: very expensive, doesn't outperform it's cheaper counterpart, but for some reason people still buy it. Using clamps on it worries me, it would probably break easily.
It wouldn't break I assure you of that cf is stronger then metal that is why almost all new aircrafts are composite, it will not corrode it will not breakdown and it is lighter and stronger, not your typical one layer of composite over a fiberglass hood that is the stuff that easily breaks.
Another thing to worry about is if any of the resin on the inside of the tube should flake off...guess where it's going into. I don't personally think it's a good idea, but hondas run intakes made out of CF so I guess why not. Just make sure no material is going to fly back through the TB.
The eighties F1 cars ran up to 80 psi boost. Even with the carbon composite technology in it's infancy, BMW and others ran carbon fiber intake plenums. The airboxes didn't blow up.
Benefits of carbon intercooler pipe? You could do really gradual, flowing curves, the pipe shape could morph from round to other shapes and retain the same cross sectional area, carbon (post intercooler) would absorb less heat from the engine bay among other reasons. Aluminum end fittings, like Wiggins connectors, can easily be bonded to carbon (like carbon driveshafts)
Benefits of carbon intercooler pipe? You could do really gradual, flowing curves, the pipe shape could morph from round to other shapes and retain the same cross sectional area, carbon (post intercooler) would absorb less heat from the engine bay among other reasons. Aluminum end fittings, like Wiggins connectors, can easily be bonded to carbon (like carbon driveshafts)
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Joined: May 2003
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From: Davidson, NC
Hey, Jim. Glad you are doing well. Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply to your PM.
To do this properly you are probably talking several thousand dollars a kit. You would most likely use wiggins clamps at the coupling as mentioned above. You would also have to machine what ever vacuum ports, BOV flanges you would need out of Ti or aluminum and bond them in from the inside of the pipe. You'd probably want a flex coupler or two in there for driveline movement.
Then there's the issue of bag lines. Do you put them on the inside and have them in the flow stream or do you put them on the outside and have it look like ***?
It's a neat idea but, probably not very practical when tubing is so cheap. Although it is probably more practical than a carbon intercooler which was one of my crazy "what if" dreams at one point. Honestly, if you are going to go through the trouble and expense to make it out of carbon I'd probably just make it out of molded plastic.
To do this properly you are probably talking several thousand dollars a kit. You would most likely use wiggins clamps at the coupling as mentioned above. You would also have to machine what ever vacuum ports, BOV flanges you would need out of Ti or aluminum and bond them in from the inside of the pipe. You'd probably want a flex coupler or two in there for driveline movement.
Then there's the issue of bag lines. Do you put them on the inside and have them in the flow stream or do you put them on the outside and have it look like ***?
It's a neat idea but, probably not very practical when tubing is so cheap. Although it is probably more practical than a carbon intercooler which was one of my crazy "what if" dreams at one point. Honestly, if you are going to go through the trouble and expense to make it out of carbon I'd probably just make it out of molded plastic.
Last edited by hotrod2448; Nov 17, 2009 at 09:59 AM.
Hey, Jim. Glad you are doing well. Sorry I haven't had a chance to reply to your PM.
To do this properly you are probably talking several thousand dollars a kit. You would most likely use wiggins clamps at the coupling as mentioned above. You would also have to machine what ever vacuum ports, BOV flanges you would need out of Ti or aluminum and bond them in from the inside of the pipe. You'd probably want a flex coupler or two in there for driveline movement.
Then there's the issue of bag lines. Do you put them on the inside and have them in the flow stream or do you put them on the outside and have it look like ***?
It's a neat idea but, probably not very practical when tubing is so cheap. Although it is probably more practical than a carbon intercooler which was one of my crazy "what if" dreams at one point. Honestly, if you are going to go through the trouble and expense to make it out of carbon I'd probably just make it out of molded plastic.
To do this properly you are probably talking several thousand dollars a kit. You would most likely use wiggins clamps at the coupling as mentioned above. You would also have to machine what ever vacuum ports, BOV flanges you would need out of Ti or aluminum and bond them in from the inside of the pipe. You'd probably want a flex coupler or two in there for driveline movement.
Then there's the issue of bag lines. Do you put them on the inside and have them in the flow stream or do you put them on the outside and have it look like ***?
It's a neat idea but, probably not very practical when tubing is so cheap. Although it is probably more practical than a carbon intercooler which was one of my crazy "what if" dreams at one point. Honestly, if you are going to go through the trouble and expense to make it out of carbon I'd probably just make it out of molded plastic.
no fun, and a huge PITA. The plenums and intercooler end tanks were no problem, but why do it unless there is an endless supply of money to burn. We had to machine and bond any sensor bungs, and all the ICT connections (Wiggen's) lots of fun 
.One more race for you guys...looking good! Tell the guys at HMS hello and great job this year.
Last edited by Indy Evo; Nov 17, 2009 at 10:13 AM.
