intercooler

[96strokin]

If you go that route then make sure you find yourself a set of steel pipes. The aluminum ones will rub through. I've seen it before on someone elses truck. If you want to fab your own pipes get some mandrel U bends and make them. You will need 3 or 4 bends. The stock pipes really don't work very well especially on the passengers side. It goes along side the head where all the heater hoses, batt cables etc go and it is a VERY tight fit and everything is hittting on them. If you want to do a nice job start from scratch. If you want to do a medeocre, shoddy shob then start with the stock SD pipes. Or if you want some that are all prebent that work well get the avalable kit.

[GSXRTURBOQUAD]

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When I called all the exhaust shops around here NONE of them had mandrel benders. Regular exhaust shops don't as they are WAY more expensive than the standard benders they usually use and the majority of their customers wouldn't want to pay the prices for the more expensive mandrel bends as a lot of their work it repair work not necessarily performance work. Most likely they could order in some mandrel U bends but you could order them up just as easily and probably for cheaper from somewhere like Summit.

[/ QUOTE ]Buying mandrel pieces is what I meant, there easy to get in town. Only one shop has a mandrel bender, but that wasn't the idea anyway. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smokin.gif[/img]

[AggiePSD]

I thought I read about aluminum pipes, but are they really aluminum all the way through? Would seem odd that Ford would spend the money on aluminum, when aluminized steel is much cheaper. Either way I will make sure to get steel so I can weld them.

Do the custom kits like GTS's really route the pipes that much different than the stock SD pipes? There can't be that much room to route and if I get stock pipes modified to fit good, would GTS's kit still fit that much better? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

Strokerin, LOL, I've made do many times with the stick and hacksaw. Just recently moved up highclass with the mig about a year ago. Paid for itself right away in my 4" exhaust which was it's first project.

[96strokin]

[ QUOTE ]

Do the custom kits like GTS's really route the pipes that much different than the stock SD pipes? There can't be that much room to route and if I get stock pipes modified to fit good, would GTS's kit still fit that much better? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes!

[TimC63]

96strokin,
I did exactly what you suggest. I purchased two different mandrel bent 3" pipes from summit racing, a "U" bend and a tighter radius "J" bend (made by Hooker). I detailed it in my Intercooler Install Webpage.

Travis,
I considered modifying the stock pipes I had but it would have been too many compromises... never could have gotten it right. Ended up using parts of the stock pipes in conjunctin with the "J" and "U" bends I mentioned above.
Somewhere in the past, BigBabyLou had a link to photos of the stock pipes he modified, turned out OK... he installed a 6"-8" (guessing on the length) section of 3" hose or coupler to extend each factory pipe in a strategic place on each pipe...

Hope that helps!

God Bless,

TC

[AggiePSD]

Thanks Tim, I may end up going the route you did. Sure looks nice. I will re-read your install page tonight and may have a couple questions for ya. Thanks for the writeup and good pics.