I'm thinking about using my AEM CAI to run the piping from the intercooler to the engine. But the piping that I've got is only about 1 3/4 inches and the CAI is like 3 inches, or something...all I know is it's a lot bigger. I'm going to run the 1 3/4 piping from the turbo to the intercooler. So will having a larger piping on one end of the IC and a smaller one on the other be a problem with boosting?

 

whoa wasup a fellow big islander i'm doing a homemade turbo kit too...what car you got?? u got AIM man?

 

Its ok to have smaller piping from the turbo to the intercooler but I wouldn't suggest using 3" piping from the intercooler to the throttlebody, it is way to big for a low boost application. You really only need 2 1/4" in your situation. IMO

 

3 inches is too big for low boost. Try to find some 2 1/2 or 2 1/4 pipes.

 

Right on people, that's what I figured. Cool...I guess I'll just sell my CAI and get the piping done right. Thanks for your input.

 

why is 3" too big?
I had planned on doing the same thing...
what problem could bigger piping cause?

 

bigger piping is just gonna add more lag. if u have the choice between two sizes of piping most people will tell u to go with the smaller size to keep velocity high. in our cars we have a long distance to travel from the turbo-IC-manifold. at 3" its probably gonna add ALOT more lag if u think about how much extra volume that is to fill before u can have pressure.

most people on H-T run 2 1/4" piping, and some of the high horsepower guys upgrade to 2 1/2".


[Modified by DIRep427, 3:45 PM 1/16/2003]

 

1 3/4" is fine for a low boost, low $ setup. You can get away with running half small, half large piping. Your throttle body is larger than 1 3/4" anyways, so either way the opening is going to get larger at the end of the 1 3/4" pipe. It might spool up a little bit sooner if you ditch the big pipe though. You can use the CAI, but I would ditch it.

 

What type of charge pipe does the dms's use because they're flexible and pretty easy to work with. Where can I find more of this so I can run it back to the trottle body. Is it just like the radiator hose?

 

i always think of it this way. what creates more pressure and velocity, when you blow into a small straw or a garden hose your mouth? if you have the hp/boost levels for 3" you can go for it but for most low boost applications 2-2.25" is more than enough. i didn't do enough research and ended up getting some 2.5's and there is alot of lag. so, i'm saving up some money and just gunna buy a piping kit from either drag or something similar. i think the diy piping is ok but depending on the install there will be some turbulance and not as smooth of a flow. just my $.02

 

it seems to me with as much cfm as the average t3/t4 turbo flows, the time it would take to fill the extra .5" of tubing (about 8.6 cubic feet in a 4 ft section I believe) of space would be a fraction of a second


when it all comes down to it it makes more sense for me to sell my aem intake while it is worth something and make new charge pipe, I am just thinking theory and I think the aem looks good


[Modified by Phoenix GSR, 12:05 AM 1/17/2003]

 

wassup my fellow islander...im doing a homemade turbo too but ill be using exhuast piping ...2.5" i think

 

sup hawaii! iwouldHITit isn't exhaust piping kinda heavy? I'm either going to find a cheap muffler shop that can make custom pipes...or I'm going to go the junk yard and find them and cut and clamp them together.

 

haha, yea the aem does have some bling bling to it but as i always said, you gotta stick to what works and you'll be fine. anyways, aren't aems 2.5"?