CM intercooler piping kit = failure

[quote]300cars wrote: [quote=OK85ZX]i dont know of any exhaust shops by me that make mandrel bent exhausts. Can we see some pictures of your exhaust? ill bet any amount that you did NOT get a mandrel bent exhaust for that price.

crush bent can look smooth.. it just has 2 slight indents on either end of the bend, and the bent pipe is slightly more oval than round.

Exactly. The ones who actually have mandrel machines are few and far between.. and charge high because of that. Other exhaust shops who make mandrel bent exhausts just take a bunch of ubends and cut/weld them together which is quite a bit more labor intensive, and will charge as such.

Pictures or shenanigans.

that car is stripped now man. as soon as i get my income tax should be about 6000 i'm getting satans manifold a t3/t4 550cc injectors and nistune ill take pics of that exhaust and ill take pics of the guy making my exhaust and ill scan the receipt. just got to wait til feb-march.

I got my 3" mandrel bent exhaust system from CM a month before my turbo failed. I was glad I had a reputable exhaust shop install it, there was cutting and welding needed. Far from bolt on.

Besides that I am completely happy with it. Not only does the car sound great (hi flow cat, no muffler) but my engine runs MUCH smoother, the VG really appreciates good air flow.

Just thought I'd give you all an update. First off, I think I'm going to end up selling my CM kit. Returning it for a refund seems to be a great hassle and I'm sure someone out there will find it useful.

We've opted to send a pipe over the AC as rick88ss does here:

http://www.cardomain.com/member_pages/s … 7_full.jpg

We're using this photo as a template. So far we've mounted the intercooler and fabbed up the pipe that goes over the radiator to the point where you see that coupler. The other pipe is going to go through the fender. The irony of this is that we probably could have saved the stock clutch fan and shroud going with this in the first place, but oh well. The elec fan is already in doing a good job. Will post pictures when it's all done.

i really can't beleive how bad those cm pipes looked. the pipes that you and chris are making are going to be the poop when there all done and powder coated. :-) can't wait to see it all finished and boosting nice and hard like it should.

I'll prolly make my own IC set up unless someone here sells one that is already proven to fit. (you can PM me if selling one)

The black Z in the post above looks like it has the same muffler. Magna-Flow. ( I assume a good turbo muffler since I got it from CM Performance?)

I live 2 miles from Dave's shop (CM Performance).

I took my Z31 to his place about 10 years ago and he removed the cat and put in a 2.5 in system from the down-pipe back including a muffler.
It's done well for the last 10 years. Still no rust that I can see.
I believe it was $325 or so. 10 years ago that was a good bit. I tried to install the pipe myself but couldn't get it to fit but I didn't have a garage or welder back then.
He was pretty good about spending time fitting it at his shop.
In fact, he installed the pipe. He spent about 2 hours with the car and didn't charge me for the labor.
I thought that was pretty decent....at that time. it's been 10 years.
I'll let you guys know.

I'm gonna drop by his shop and see what he'll charge me to sell me a pipe to fit from the Turbo to the place he left off 6 years ago.

Sounds like sound advice.

Just took a quick look…LOTS of kits and Intercoolers.

Are there any vendors of particular IC's that are known to work best?

Por ejemplo....
Here's one that CLAIMS it's for a 300zx (not listed as Z32 or Z33…
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/FMIC-…item4ceaf51acf

or.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/UNIVE…item2eb7b951ce

[quote]Z31Turboed wrote: I wouldn't search for the kits by car, it doesn't matter.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CXRacing … 439601cc8a

It's cheaper than the second one you listed, pipes have the flared? ends. Pretty much the same parts apart from the U bends. I bought a similar kit from cxracing with the U pipes, but without the 90 degree couplers for around the same amount.

About the intercooler+pipe kits I don't know much about since I already had the intercooler.

Thx guys.

I'll check out CX's stuff.

That's one thing I find I like about this forum. Better "quality" people.

Some of the other Z forums all you get is derogatory crap and put downs for everything you ask.

DEAD THREAD.

CX Racing is crap, their intercoolers have such a high steel content % that they're magnetic, and that means you won't get much cooling capability,.so you could still risk detonation.

SCAT ducting, didn't notice that before… good idea

where'd you get this info from?

[quote]sprtcrazy17 wrote: I know I have a link around here, but some racing company did a test between an ebay brand intercooler (CX or some other type ebay company) vs. a reputable brand name one. The brand name one not only kept the intake air significantly cooler over the ebay one, but you can take a magnet to one and it might stick to the actual ebay unit. I could be incorrect if the CX ones are better quality than other ebay brand ones, but a friend of mine who owns a small performance shop here in town showed me a CX one and actually stuck a magnet to the side of it. The newer ones could be made better or with a smaller steel content, but it would have to depend on the unit on a unit to unit basis.

EDIT: Here's a link with the test I was referring to…
http://forums.evolutionm.net/evo-engine … stock.html