Hey guys, I'm going to be welding up a new turbo manifold and downpipe for my car, but I have a couple questions. I'm a decent welder with my fluxcore, getting good penetration and not too much splatter and I definitely don't do the "bird droppings" when I weld. On the other hand, I can also tack everything together at home and take it to my friend's fab shop and either MIG it (free for me, minus gas) or pay him to TIG it. The same goes for the downpipe.

If there is good penetration, is there any real difference in the strength of a flux core, MIG, or TIG weld on a basic log manifold and downpipe? The head and turbo flanges are 3/8" mild steel and the manifold piping is 304ss schedule 10. The downpipe and flange will be mild steel.

Thanks for the help!

 

this is a common question here..

if you feel confident in making it, go for it.. but its not gonna be pretty, and if you use the typical mild steel wire to weld it, it will most likely crack..

you can always tack it up and bring it to your friend.. which is your best bet.. make sure the tacks get ground down before tig'n though.. flux welds like to pop when the tig arc hits it.

 

It really depends on how good your friend is with his mig. Running pipe roots with short circuit mig is tricky business even on something as small as sch10 4". I vote tack it up and tig it. Is there any way you can tack it with 308 wire? every spot you tack it with carbon wire is a crack eagerly waiting to happen.

 

Yeah, I can get a spare head or car (haha) and tack up the manifold with a MIG then go get it TIG'd up. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

your gonna have the most controll with tig welding and you can fuse tack without even using filer wire. by far have it tig welded.