This is nicest FairLady Z I have ever seen...

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http://zparts.com/showcase/engines/pages/q45v8z-testfit.html
 
Why didn't they just mandrel bend the large diameter tubes? I think the welds look lame.

:rolleyes:

Otherwise the car does look clean.

-Jim
 
Jimbo said:
Why didn't they just mandrel bend the large diameter tubes? I think the welds look lame.

:rolleyes:

Otherwise the car does look clean.

-Jim
i think those welds are awsome.can you imagine the amont of work involved to get them that accurate.
 
I think the welds are there for cosmetics reasons...

To me the piping looks pretty smooth on the bends..and there are a few welds on the straight sections of the pipes..
 
To me it looks like the welds are on the curved sections. I suspect they didn't have a large diameter mandrel so they cut out wedge-shaped slices and welded the seams.

The tubes going into the intercoolers must have been pre-bent. It would look nicer, IMHO, to see the unbroken curved tubes.

To each his own, I guess. It just looks to me that they didn't have the right tool for the job on hand.
 
anyone take notice that the multi-welded piping is Titanium?

look at the heat signature around the weld & reflectiveness of the weld bead, and the grain/texture of the metal tubing.

Absolutely beautiful.

-Ray

Just my 2 cents, since my specialty is metal fabrication.
 
Yes, I've noticed on some titanium exhausts (especially Karts) that they weld instead of mandrel bend. I thought it was because they wanted to change the diameter from like 1.5" to 4" or needed tight bends.

Seems like a lot more work than to mandrel bend. C'mon there must be some material engineers or exhaust experts out there!!!
 
With that kind of fabrications else where on the car, I am sure they have the tool to mandrel bend those IC pipes. I think those weld jobs are beautiful. It shows skills and efforts that put into the finish product. It's like asking "why they built the NSX by hand?" (when they can use robots for the job)hmmm maybe somebody on here can answer that.
 
We live in a time where carbon fiber is used more as a decoration as opposed to a valid engineering material.

Hey, I love high-tech, cool solutions but if there's no valid underlying engineering justification I often fail to see the beauty.

Perhaps, if the tubing is titanium, as some have suggested, then mandrel bending isn't practical. I'm not sure.

If it is titanium AND mandrel bending was impractical, then perhaps it makes some sense.
It does seem to be the same material and size that was used on the exhaust, so perhaps they got a deal on X feet of hard titanium tubing?

-Jim
 
Well then maybe they didn't have the larger diameter mandrels?

-Jim
 
Why didn't they just mandrel bend the large diameter tubes? I think the welds look lame.

Its never been popular in japan, even drain pipes and such are welded in such a manner. I've forgotten the reason why they do this. Something to do with flexing?:confused:
 
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