the intake idea is bad no matter how you look at it, they are $40 and dont go to the right place, just get mandrel bends from somewhere and have them welded it will be a lot cheaper, i dont think a silicon hose connector will hold a shiny piece of aluminum under boost too well. also they will be a bitch to weld to without alum rod and tig or gas mig

 

nobody has really answered me, can crush bent piping be used? or does it absolutely need to be mandrel?

 

You could use crush bent but it is very restrictive compared to mandrel. If you use cruch bent (which I wouldn't) go with 2.5 to make up for it.

 

you could use radiator hose if you want but it will flow like ***, same with the crush bent, just the same as you could use a fmu or a standalone.. do you want the extra performance? thats up to you.

 

i have a t3 with a .42 what is the optimum diameter for boost efficiency?

 

O.K here's my $.02.... the way my friends I/C piping is set-up on his oand the way it is on mine is the piping going from the turbo to the i/c is smaller diamter then the one going from the i/c to the throttle body. The reason for this is the force of the air coming out of the turbo compared to coming out of the i/c and going to the t-body is alot more so the piping does not have to be as big coming out of the turbo.. do you follow me. From what I've seen it looks like you'll probally just need 2 or 3 U-bends and 1 or maybe two straights pending on how long and also remember you can get straight pipes from left overs of the U-bends. MY friends i/c on his SR20 that I'm talking about is from greddy so I would trusat they did some research and the pipes are two different sizes for a reason. You need biggere piping going from the i/c to the t-body because the force of the air isn't as great as where it comes out of the turbo. I"m not sure if this matters but it's the way mines set-up and I found it out by looking at my friends SR20 FMIC. But you really don't need that many pipes all depends how long you want your piping to be. Remember the less amount of bends and the shorter length of piping is more effecient if I'm not mistaken.