Hey everyone. I want to install a turbo on my project car while I am building the engine. The problem is, a generic kit or header won't work due to several factors (tall valve covers, A/C, huge turbo, serpentine setup). What would be the best way to mock up the pipe routing, and then take it to a shop to fabricate for me?

I was thinking something like thin PVC with a similar outer diameter. This way I can cut it and piece it together fairly easily, and can number and mark it where they join together.

I'm not sure where to get cardboard tubing with a large enough diameter....

Any help appreciated!

P.S. I have little fabrication experience, and don't have the space for a welder or machinery.

 

Nothing beats having a welder and being able to do it on the fly. PVC or cardboard would be a poor choice, because you become limited with what angles and such that you can mock up. Your best bet would be to get header pipes and flanges, get a welder, and cut and tack weld the pieces so they fit. Otherwise you'll be spinning your wheels, especially once you get to areas where you need a slight angle, as PVC won't work, and cardboard/tape isn't strong enough to support it's own weight and/or it flexes during the design process.

 

_if anything_ is going to work, something like appropriately sized, corrugated hose (vacuum cleaner hose) filled with expanding foam is probably going to be your best bet. The ribs will make it stiff enough that you probably won’t bend it at angles that you won’t really be able to do, and the expanding foam will set the shape once it hardens.

The problem is that it’s very hard for someone to look at a shape and reproduce it from scratch. There are companies that can make reliable copies of something like I suggest, but what they do is take the pieces and digitize them into a C&C bender and then have the computer bend them out of single pieces of pipe.

Otherwise, as much as you don’t want to hear it, your best bet is either getting the bits of steel and tacking them like you want them (my brother bought the $200 harbor freight mig welder on sale for right around $100 and does this with parts and then brings them over to be welded), or in some cases, if it’s not very complicated you can get away with drawing index marks.

OR, just take it to someone that can do the work and pay them to do it the right way.

 

too much work !!!!!! just build the PVC pipe exhuast and use it ..... just kidding ..... There a guy that did this might find it on a web search 1984 twin turbo trans am... he showed some of the process on building his headers