rocket 5979
Resident Gearhead
- Joined
- April 22, 2002
- Messages
- 3,994
- Reaction score
- 12
- City, State
- Lake Villa, Illinois
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '03 XLT 4.6
yea it has to be just about that long.i cant get thick walled 3" alum and steel is out the question,all my flanges are alum.i think it will be fine as its not supporting any weight.and its not that long,long leg is only about 10" but again it will not be supporting any weight
Brother I have been building custom supercharger and turbo systems for almost a decade. I have been MIG and TIG welding, doing metal fabrication, and machining for almost as long as that. And also have been involved in one form or another of engineering for 13+ years. I know what I am talking about here and only trying to steer your project into the direction of success. It is not a question of "if" but rather of "when" you will have issues if you use that thin walled stuff with an "arm" that long. Why try to rig some sort of fanagled support bracket up when you can use thicker stuff, like the examples linked below, to do it durably and know you won't have issues? Whether you realize it or not you are making a structural member in that upper intake plenum. Regular intercooler tubing just isn't rated for or able to do the things you are asking it to do.
Ask and ye shall receive. www.globaltecheng.com This is the place where I buy all my "odd" size and extra heavy walled alum and s.s. tubing and pipe. Below are just a few links to some of your options.
http://www.globaltecheng.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=1367&idcategory=64
This one has a .216" wall thickness and is 3" inner diameter. I don't know what your outer diameter size constraints may be so the O.D. being 3.5" might be a little too large or just fine.
http://www.globaltecheng.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=686&idcategory=65
This tubing is 3" O.D. and has a .120" wall thickness which is still over 2x thicker than the tubing you already have so it will be much more beefy.
I don't know how familiar you are with tubing and pipe sizing so one item to note is that pipe is sized by its inner diameter whereas tubing is sized by its outer diameter. If you want a tighter centerline radius then you can filter by that too. Overall a very good place to order this stuff from.