Exhaust pipe -bending and forming.

[fran9r]

I'm a fair way off this yet, but thought I'd get the question in advance.

2 projects -both being to creating bike exhaust systems, one to include turbo fitments.

What equipmnent will I need to form the appropriate bends, without distorting the inside of the pipe?

Would whatever the answer is vary if the material was swopped from stainless steel to titanium?

Thanks.

 

[Rick]

Not sure what you mean exactly, have a look at my manifold thread in the projects section.

I use thicker wall stuff on turbo manifolds than n/a. Ti is crazy expensive and you'll struggle to find bends.

You need to look at buying bends rather than trying to bend the pipe. You'd need to spend thousands on a decent bender to get half decent results, even then they can't do "bend on bend" which you'd probably need to do if the space is tight.

 

[hotrodder]

As Rick, for manifolds the bends are too close together to be be able to bend each primary from a single length (even with tube benders well over 5 figures) so most cut and weld preformed mandrel bends.

System itself... depends on the wall thickness you're using but realistically looking at a mandrel bender (expensive rotary draw bender + much more expensive mandrel tooling to support the ID) for the wall thicknesses typically used in (especially bike) exhaust systems

Switching from stainless to titanium will make everything harder and a lot more expensive. Won't like turbo manifold heat levels either.

Sand bending is about the only alternative but much more work than cutting and welding preformed mandrel bends- sand MUST be bone dry, more labour intensive, lots of clean up work etc etc. Hydroforming is one of the OE solutions, not easy but can be a DIY proposition... mostly seen on 2 strokes for expansion chambers but we're talking very thin mild steel sheet which is easier to form

 

[michael1703]

find what size the tube is and then order in the bends

a handful of 15/30/45/90 degree bends and cut them on a bandsaw, tack and offer them up, then close off one end, back purge and weld it together