I fabbed some bellowed up-pipes today

[blaze42069]

Was tired of the poor up-pipe setup and like to make my own stuff, so I ordered some pipe bellows and cut up the OEM pipes to fab into a one piece setup. It sure is a bonus having a block on a stand let me tell you.
I have one question tho. I used a 1/2" plate to bolt up to the turbo with where I welded the pipes to. Should I take the pipes to a machine shop and machine the mating surface on the 1/2" plate 100% flat? I did put a steel rule on it to check for light and didn't see any but is it a gamble? Or am I over thinking this? Thanks guys!

 

[FrankTheTank]

Bump for ya.... Can't honestly tell u but I'd think since there is a gasket a flat edge would be fine. But true flat would be even better

 

[Magnum PD]

I'm doing my T4i turbo mount now. I'm hoping my up pipes won't leak under pressure.

Your plate looks a lliiiiittttllle off. Bellows should help mate it up but not for certain.

 

[blaze42069]

I'm doing my T4i turbo mount now. I'm hoping my up pipes won't leak under pressure.

Your plate looks a lliiiiittttllle off. Bellows should help mate it up but not for certain.

Ya it does in that pic, but they were loose sitting in there, I fabbed them up on the engine, it does fit tho when bolted up tight.

 

[backwoodsboy]

Personally I would have machined the plate flat prior to welding.
You can try and have them machined now, but setting up a fixture to hold them in a mill with the up-pipes attached is going to be more trouble than it is worth. Not to mention the pipes are fabricated for the current face angle of the plate. Even if you end up with a true flat surface, if the face angle has changed you could end up doing more harm than good.
I'd say run them as they are. Using a gasket should compensate for any imperfections in the surface.

 

[blaze42069]

Ya hind sight is 20/20 right. Thanks I will run them and see where I get, might havta re-fab some new up-pipes if it don't work.

 

[Magnum PD]

I'm in the same boat as you are now. Bought the flange, welded on it, now the heat has warped it. Gonna have to get it flat some how now.

 

[kanuck15]

The gasket should take up the problem. Kinda curious why you built them like that???

Not knocking just curious. I went the more factory route with mine

 

[lc tpi]

take a flat file to it. might take a little time but it will show low to high spots if there are any.

 

[blaze42069]

The gasket should take up the problem. Kinda curious why you built them like that???

Not knocking just curious. I went the more factory route with mine

Well, I noticed one of the most popular selling up-pipes were fabbed as a 1 piece setup so I went that route. Yours look fantastic! But I hate the poor OEM design with those s****y gaskets, mine wore through in that spot so I eliminated the problem. I have heard of ppl having success with your setup but in my mind it was one less fail point.

 

[blaze42069]

I'm in the same boat as you are now. Bought the flange, welded on it, now the heat has warped it. Gonna have to get it flat some how now.

Wow, how thick is your flange? That sucks, I hope I don't have that issue. I guess we will find out soon.

 

[kanuck15]

Makes sense. I looked into the one piece design but considered the fact of it all being able to come apart. I cant decide if I should run the donut gasket in mine still or if I should make a gasket to go in between the flange and the collector

 

[FrankTheTank]

With the bellows in there they should take all the expansion and contraction. So the donuts should last forever, in theory

 

[Hotrodtractor]

Personally I would have machined the plate flat prior to welding.
You can try and have them machined now, but setting up a fixture to hold them in a mill with the up-pipes attached is going to be more trouble than it is worth. Not to mention the pipes are fabricated for the current face angle of the plate. Even if you end up with a true flat surface, if the face angle has changed you could end up doing more harm than good.
I'd say run them as they are. Using a gasket should compensate for any imperfections in the surface.

Machining flat prior to welding does nothing if the flange warps from the heat of welding. I always plan on surfacing the plates after welding to make sure they are flat. There are many ways to make it flat - so it all just depends on what you have access to. It doesn't have to be perfect, the gasket makes it more forgiving.

 

[jschildm]

Machining flat prior to welding does nothing if the flange warps from the heat of welding. I always plan on surfacing the plates after welding to make sure they are flat.

This! Machining after welding is always better since the heat warps it whether its machined or not. It doesn't happen often in production due to cost though.

 

[Magnum PD]

Friend of mine at machine shop will try to work on it. Gonna have to cut studs off to machine it flat. Just gonna havd to work around up pipes.

 

[backwoodsboy]

Machining flat prior to welding does nothing if the flange warps from the heat of welding. I always plan on surfacing the plates after welding to make sure they are flat. There are many ways to make it flat - so it all just depends on what you have access to. It doesn't have to be perfect, the gasket makes it more forgiving.

I agree.
All I was saying is, from the sounds of it the OP doesn't have access to a machine shop. It would not be hard to build a fixture that would allow it to be chucked up in a mill or precision surface grinder, but unless he has a good relationship with the machinist or is doing it himself the cost involved might not be worth it.
My main concern was that he used 1/2" plate, rather than a machined flange so I'm assuming the tolerances were questionable prior to any welding being done.
Those appear to be mig welds instead of tig, so some warp-age may have been mitigated there.
I've had good success welding flanges by bolting the flange in a fixture while welding, welding by opposite corners , and allowing the flange to cool entirely still bolted to the fixture. There was still some run-out along the surface, but I'm sure it would have sealed without machining.

In no way trying to argue with you, as you're far more experienced with this than I am, just explaining the reasoning behind my previous post.

 

[WishinIWerFishin]

If I had no access to a mill I'd bolt the flange to a flat surface before welding and let it cool down before unbolting it. It won't completely eliminate warping but it will minimize it to a reasonable amount so there's not too much filing work. If your good with a grinder you can identify the high spots, start with a grinding wheel if it's bad then a pearl disk, finish it with a flat file to make sure it's flat, if it's not bad a pearl disc will be all you need. Only problem I see is your removing material in some spots and not others so it won't be a consistent thickness, but the bellows reduce the expansion/contraction so the flange doesn't really have to handle too much stress.

**edit** I guess I didn't read the above post all the way or I would have known my first sentence was already suggested.

 

[mhoagland]

id throw a straight edge on it and see how bad its warped. if its not to bad bolt it up to the turbo and take feeler gauges and see if you can get one inbetween the surfaces. if you cant get one to squeeze between the flanges a gasket will work just fine. i use neverseize on my exhaust gaskets and any fastening hardware. it will smoke untill the grease cooks off. it helps out with sealing any imperfections on the sealing surface, and it makes it alot easier next time you have to do any work with the manifolds. machining the surface is obviously the best route but if its not extremely warped i wouldnt stress over it. exhaust gaskets will seal up some knarly stuff. i like way both of you did your up pipes. i need to decide which way i plan on doing mine.

 

[mhoagland]

i forgot to ask where did you buy the bellows at?