NismoPick

The man knows....

A 2.5" is good, and a bit cheaper cost wise, but if you wanna go all out, 3 inch it.

duowing

Cool. Yeah, I definitely don't doubt Frank. I was more or less wondering if the 3" would give you much advantage over the 2.5", but then again our stock pipes are 2"? So I guess if .5 can make a difference 1" should make a lot.

NismoPick

I fab'd my own 2.5" inch. To get a 3" to fit between the four turbo to downpipe studs, you have to use a 2.5" pipe that enlarges to 3" pipe... like Lifegrddude:



If you can cut & weld steel, you can make one yourself for $30 - $50. To have a shop make one... expect $100 - $500.


EDIT: here's 2 pics of my downpipe:

duowing

Unfortunately I have no idea how to weld, cut, and bend metal to do it on my own. Otherwise I'd just fab up a whole exhaust myself. That's one of the things to learn sometime soon or maybe this summer. I'm debating at some point getting myself a mig welder and just getting a bunch of scrap metal and learning how.

NismoPick

Good call, but you should prolly take a welding class or two. I had to take a welding section in my auto body tech school... it was something like 40 hours of training. Obviously the first few hours were all bookwork, and then practice, but I learned the most from the instructor & my buddy showing me techniques.

And if you buy a welder, make sure you buy an argon/co2 MIG (the welders that require a tank). The ones that don't need a tank (flux in wire kind) suck donkey.

snwbrderphat540

what about a TIG welder? im looking into purchasing a welder so i can just make **** and charge people, im already doing it for painting no i can do fabing lol. harbor freight doesnt seem to have a mig argon/CO2 one they are all flux and the non flux ones are like a grand. so what aboot a TIG, keep in ming i only need to weld like 16 guage steel prolly anything to make exhausts intercooler piping etc.

NismoPick

Do you know how to TIG? Do you have the $$$ for a TIG? You think a MIG is expensive... look at the TIGs.

frank280zx

it is vise versa Nismo haha ... Migs ( go with a tank like said before!)
a good mig set up can be had for 500 to 1000 usd ( get a used industrial type would be my advise)
One that has wheels to roll it around.. im not to fimmiliar with US brands but Elktra Bekum is a pretty good brand in Europe!

Tigs ... well 3000 and up !!

NismoPick

That was the point I was trying to make.

frank280zx

sorry blond me

lww

DO NOT BUY A CHEAP WELDER FROM HARBOR FREIGHT!! (unless it's a Hobart)

They are crap. Cheap welders will frustrate you into throwing it all away. Wire feed problems, splatter, uneven feed speeds... ugh!

A decent MIG in the US market is either a Lincoln Electric or Miller/Hobart.

Miller owns Hobart and it's basically the same welder where some of the internal aluminum parts on the Miller are replaced with plastic parts on the Hobart. Regardless, you can get service for a Miller/Hobart nearly anywhere in the US.

$545 for a Hobart 140 w/cart:

http://www.welders-direct.com/mercha...ct_Code=500505

You'll still need a cylinder of C25 (Argon/CO2 mix), vest, gloves, clamps, wire brushes, pliers, auto-darkening helmet, etc., etc. Expect to pay $1000 for a basic MIG setup and all the "stuff" needed to make it work.

As mentioned, a TIG is going to run about $1700 for a small one like mine, but you'll spend another $500 to $700 on a cylinder of gas and all the accessories.

Also, TIG welding is more difficult to learn to do well than MIG and I only use it for Aluminum which requires pure Argon gas. So the Argon tank sits on the TIG cart and the C25 tank sits on the MIG cart.

Anyway, MIG is what you want to start out with and then if you can hire your welding services out enough to pay for the MIG, you can then start saving for a TIG.

As mentioned previously, a welding class at the local VoTech is well worth the money. You get to use industrial grade machines and you get instruction from old retired welding geezers who can get you going on the right technique from the beginning.

A friend of mine is a retired Navy welder and he saved me about 2 years of screwing around trying to figure out how to do it on my own...

duowing

I had a quick question about my turbo.

Alright so the shaft doesn't move at all or at least nothing I can feel, the fins and everything inside look pretty clean. The main thing I'm concerned about is the spinning freely, I think I'm fine on this, as I can turn the shaft and it all seems to rotate fine, not like there's any resistance, but more or less I can't just turn the shaft and have the thing spin, or just keep moving for more than a moment. Does that matter, or basically as long as I can just turn it by hand without any resistance is all that matters?

snwbrderphat540

spin it with light pressure useing the fins, if you press at wierd angles you start to move teh shaft a little and then you encounter friction, its like shoving it into itself sorta, and then it will feel like resistance, and if you give it a flick or soemthign its not going to just keep spinning