I'm going to build my own IC piping and would like to know what should be disconnected before I go tacking pipes together on the car and frying something electronic.

I would think the ECM and battery at a minimum. What else? I've done fab work on racecars before but, never a street car.

On our racecars at work we disconnect the main ground, ignition, distributor, and gauges, and Pi system if it's on there.

 

Ummm if your paranoid I guess you can disconnect the battery ... But I think that would be it in relations to electronics.

 

Anyone esle?

Ginuwine have you welded on your Evo with no problems?

 

Why would you need to disconect anything if you have a solid ground connected to your welder? The only thing i have to go by is the fact that my exhaust was welded up while still connected to my car. That's the way i've ALWAYS done it? Just place my ground clamp ahead of the weld i'm about to do. Is this wrong?

 

Well, I know when we weld at work even if the ground clamp only two inches away from the area you're welding we still disconnect everything and that seems to be the standard.

I was just curious what the standard was on street cars. I figured between body shops and tuner shops on here someone would have an answer.

I mean basicly it's no different than your car being struck by lightining. Which contrary to popular belief can fry the electronics in a car.

 

Murphey's law i suppose? If it can go wrong, it will go wrong. I've never disconected anything before when doing exhausts, but who knows... It's probably safer?

 

you need to either disconnect the battery or get a battery service minder. we got ours through our local body shop supply company. also, (this is pretty obvious) do not ground clamp on any wires. I've never unhooked an ecu for welding purposes at my body shop, and have never had an issue.

 

to be safe pull the batt. cable and ecu harness.. your just tacking everything, and then welding off the car, arent you.. and do too condensation, dont use metal pipes unless there coated inside... rust is a b1tch in the motor..

 

Yeah, just tacking. I'm using aluminum so no rust worries.

I've found threads on other forums going to both extremes. Don't disconnect anything and blaze away and, disconnect the battery, ECM, alternator, and then I'm not sure if they meant to hook the battery cables together or just the ground to the chassis but something about the cables. I didn't get a chance to read all of it.

I was going to use a CNC mandrel bender and just scan the factory piping in and eliminate alot of the flex sections. Then do a little work on lower pipe but, they can only bend 2" not 2.5". They don't have the dies.