Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

I bought the T3 flange from racing solutions and it turns out to have a oddball ~2.375" ID hole for the downpipe. I ordered a 2.25" ubend for the first bend off the flange, it almost immediately goes to a 2.25-3" transition to 3" tubing. The tubing and transition are all 304SS. The transition i bought is from verocious though and not racing solutions. Racing solutions didn't appear to have a 2-3" transition that I could cut down for 2.25-3". It appears they only sell their transitions in steps of .5".

The dillemma is that I didn't account for the flange to have such an odd size hole . I figure it would have the T3 outlet which is like ~2.2" on my turbo and i could make the 2.25" tubing fit in the hole easily.
Now I'm trying to decided how I transition my 2.25" tubing to the 2.375" hole in the flange while allowing for good welding without ridiculous amounts of filler.

I cut my ubend in half and took i to school and used a torch and a round anvil to flare the end that goes in the flange out. I was able to get it formed to almost the ID of the hole so that it could be welded on the inside. The problem is that the flare does not match up on the outside of the flange so the weld on the outside of the flange would not be very good and would most likely crack under serious abuse.

What is the best way to transition from a 2.375" hole or w/e it is off the top of my head to 2.25" tubing. My DIY flare job turned out like ---- basically and I don't want to weld up some garbage after I spent money on stainless tubing. Next time I'll go with aluminized and just weld some ---- up without a care.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

use a ballpeen hammer to pound the inside of the pipe out just a hair all the way around

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

take it to an exht shop and have em mandel stretch it if you want it to look good

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

you guys like doing ---- the hard way




just cut the reducer back until it matches

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

weld 2.5" on. the ID of 2.5" OD is 2.375"

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

wow thats pretty thick for a DP, 12ga i think

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

13ga .065 wall iirc

.065 x 2 = .125 aka 1/8"

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

Sounds like I should get a 2.5" ubend then. Guess I can do that, I think I need another bend for my exhaust anyway.

Need to email racingsolutions to get them to add that to their T3 flange description so it wouldn't have been an issue.

I tried an exhaust tubing expander, the kind from advanced auto. It wouldn't do ---- around that bend, absolutely nothing. So I took a torch and ball peen hammer and hammered it into a flare. I think i'm better off just getting some 2.5" tubing. I wonder what RS recommends.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

pics of flange. you bought a crushbent 90, correct?

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

I would rather have tubing that would fit in the flange hole so I think I need to flare this tubing somehow even though its on a bend and that seems to be impossible. If I used 2.5" tubing it would be a tight fit to weld the tubing to the outside and still be able to fit nuts on the studs in the turbo.

This flange.
https://lh4.ggpht.com/cjernigan/SBfU...JPG?imgmax=576
This 2.25" u bend, though i'm only use half of it and i'm only using the 90* bend of that without any straight.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/cjernigan/SBfUD...JPG?imgmax=576

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

Would you guys recommend me cutting into the face of the ubend to make some tabs that I can bend out and reweld together? I had someone recommend I do that but I'm not sure of how well it would work.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

do like beau suggested, and just use the round end of a ball peen hammer to flare it out a bit. shouldn't take too much effort.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

That flange was designed to be used with 2.5" OD tube (2-3/8" ID) w/ a .48 or .63 a/r. I'm not sure what size a/r your housing is, but I know depending upon the manufacturer the discharge holes can vary quite a bit w/ the different a/r's. I would suggest going bigger then smaller. For instance, with a certain production kit we manufacture, going to 3" downpipes using a 2.5" to 3" cone immediately after the discharge flange netted 38 horsepower at the same boost levels. Same downpipe geometry, even the same radius, just sized larger using a transition cone.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

get a 2.5" bend and weld it to that dp flange. the opening of the flange does not have to match the piping.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

It's a .48 turbine housing. I have a 2-3" cone I'll be using to transition almost immediately to 3" after the bend off the flange. It will be 3" after the downpipe the entire way.
I guess I'll try flaring the tubing some more with the ball peen and make something that works. If it doesn't work the way I want for a while then I'll make downpipe edition deaux and cut the 2.25" section off. Right now I just need something that will work and last a while so I'll throw it together and make it better the next time around, thanks guys.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

Just get a 3" bend, use a vise to square the tube a bit, and weld it directly to the flange. Unless you suck at welding, you can easily fit flared nuts around it. Otherwise just get a 2.5" bend and call it a day. The in-between fix would be using a 3" bend and half of that cone between the bend and the flange, so that you come off the flange with the ~2.75" OD spot on the cone. Installation is only a bitch once or twice, but the added power from 3" piping can be felt each time your turbo spools (earlier) and makes more power.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

I took a 5" piece of the 2.25" ubends leg to the local muffler place. Had them flare the tubing to fit inside the flange. Then I cut the flare down to like 1.25" long and used it as an adapter. Downpipe is pretty much done, I'll finish it up tomorrow and post pics.

Re: Flaring tubing for turbo flange ID
 

reamer or exhaust tube expander. both are pretty cheap. if your tube is too thin/cheap it will split tho

heh what i did once was take a tapered centering ring off a tire machine and hammered it into the exhaust tube, it worked great