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I've found the Ultra Tight Radius 90° mandrel bends on Ebay and on a VW forum, and have some emails and posts out for the same, but could anyone do some searching as well and come up with any place else?
Garrett, do you have a 2.5" - 3" V-band clamp laying around before I go ahead and purchase one? I've got a flange coming already.
Phew, a lot to learn about metalurgy and exhaust pipes!
I'm now leaning towards 2.5" Schedule 10 90° tight radius elbows by Summit Racing, https://m.summitracing.com/parts/vpe-2345, for it has 0.120" wall thickness, which is the thickest I've found so far, at least for the 180° bend coming off the turbo:
I think I got it...(1) pc. new WG housing, (1) pc. 2.5" V-band clamp & flange, (2) pcs. Ultra Tight Radius 2.5" OD, 90° Schedule 10 (.120" wall) SS bends, (1) pc. 2.50" OD, 90° SS 16g (.0625 wall), 2.50" bend radius w/4" x 12" legs, with a TIG welder on stand-by. Everything after that is already fabbed and ready to bolt on!
...for wall thickness, 120 thou is good, it's about 3mm...pretty hefty and should not crack.
That's what I concluded, almost twice as thick as 16g SS, @ 0.625! At that initial bend coming right off the turbine, I figured, was the crucial spot where heat fatigue would be at its greatest, seeing that that's where my downpipe broke as well.
I should have all the parts in my hand hopefully by the end of next week.
exactly my thoughts...further downstream thinner walls are fine, but right at the downpipe, it will be exposed to very high heat, especially that bend, and little cooling...underneath the car is a different story.
Ok, I've had the piping, bends, and hardware for a couple days now, and am progressing a bit on this downpipe...sort of...
Unfortunately, I have to remove the WG lever from the housing and grind down both the pin that the lever rotates on, and the pin on the other end, where the female end of the actuator arm attaches to, reorient the lever, and weld things back together. All this just so it clears the engine block by about 1/8"! I went to the welder today and had him address the WG pin, but forgot about the actuator pin...and he's on vacation till Thursday...imagine that! I was still able to continue mocking up the downpipe and it appears that everything is going to be able to remain in-situ with the new improved downpipe in place. I'm almost done mocking, cutting, marking, and taping the pipes together, and will take it to be tig welded by a local recommendation (different from the welder that robbed me for $1300 back in 2013). Pray for me this time.
Careful when messing with the waste gate, that it remains closed and opens exactly when it's supposed to, or you will have boost control issues...
Yep, I'm good...did the same with the last one.
The two 90° tight radius bends (180°) need to be about 1.50" lower to mate up with the straight run off of it, before it turns 90° towards the rear of the vehicle. When I tweak it to line up, it hits the oil pan. A 1.50" length of 3" Schedule 10 pipe would work, but Im getting impatient to order a longer section of schedule 10 and cut a small piece. I also need a 3" to 2.5" reducer to get this DP into the welder.
Last edited by truthdweller; Jul 4, 2016 at 10:39 PM.
...a long radius bend, connected to the short radius bend, would lower the pipe 1.25" thus, if I did my guess-timation correct, will clear the oil pan...
...and a 3" to 2.5" reducer:
Last edited by truthdweller; Jul 5, 2016 at 07:35 PM.
When I lift the 90° bend that connects to the flex pipe (pictured here), to lign up with the 180° bend coming off the turbo, it hits the upper recess in the oil pan. The long radius bend will lower it 1.25"...
Last edited by truthdweller; Jul 4, 2016 at 11:19 PM.
...and here's a rusty picture of the ghetto rigged bracket, bolted to the oil pan, that holds my WG actuator below the turbo...gonna have to clean that up and paint it or something:
