CFRP intercooler pipes?

[kim0663]

i was JUST thinking, would CFRP (carbon fibre) intercooler pipes work ? Im thinking about making up some custom pipes for the sw20 and had a think of how to go about making it and i think it might actually work ?

Epoxy resin CF , would it hold/resist the pressure/compression the clamps put on it ? is the largest part im worried about.

[Malcolm]

yes but what is your reason for doing it? We made our intake manifold for the FSAE car out of carbon and fibreglass and it worked fine, but unless you have good facilities and a good reason for doing it on a street car, why bother?

[kim0663]

because i will have the time to do it and want to see if i can do it

Just seems like a fun side project.... just a random idea at this stage, will definately be costly than welding up some pipes but everyone does stupid things just for the hell of it ! (well i do anyway... )

won't be for quite some time as i've got other matters at hand at the moment and intercooler pipes aren't exactly a high priority thing.

would stuff like T-BOLT clamps being tightened down to hell crush them? I did think of reinforcing the 'hump' areas on the pipes with a ring (steel? aluminium?) to support the compression the clamps might put on the pipes but i don't know if they are neccessary.

[iOnic]

never seen piping made out of carbon fibre but I've seen plenty of intake manifolds made from the stuff. looks pretty bling but dunno if it's worth the cost haha. ali piping is pretty light if it's the weight that's a problem

[Bling]

There was a 3m length of CF tube on trademe a while back, was around 3" I think. So maybe someone makes it.

[Malcolm]

carbon tube is readily available, but it's more of a structural product and I've never seen it available in anything with bends.

Carbon is stronger than steel or aluminium, so "reinforcing" a tube with one of those materials doesn't make sense. Really you just need to thicken the material around the area you're going to be clamping.

Some words of warning:
- Resin selection will be vitally important. Make sure the resin you use has a Tg (glass transition temperature) above the maximum you expect to see coming out of your turbo/in your engine bay. This may mean you need to post-cure the resin (ie slowly ramp it up to a temperature around 60-80 degrees C).
- It can be tricky to make airtight piping - expect to do 3 layers to improve your chances of not having any holes in the weave lining up. Depending on the weight of material I'd step that up to at least 5 layers where you're going to put big nasty T bolts on it.
- Buy sock. That is, carbon that is woven into a tube rather than sheets. Much better, but don't try to bend it around tight bends in a single piece or you'll get lots of holes on the outside of the bend

Are you planning to male or female mould it? Really you should male mould it, so your smooth surface is on the inside. This wont give you as much bling as female moulding, but it is much easier and better.

[Heylin]

Would be better to get standard pipes and have them HPC coated to stop heat soak.

[kim0663]

Would be better to get standard pipes and have them HPC coated to stop heat soak.

but thats just plain boring and easy,

Thanks Malcolm good advice

[ChaosAD]

You would also want to vacum bag it to do it properly