Anyone ever welded up their own V-band clamps?
11-03-2005, 01:39 AM
#1
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Anyone ever welded up their own V-band clamps?
I'm thinking of making a 2-piece x-over and new exhuast tie-ins using all V-band type clamps. They can be made up with either a flush type flat gasket or a OE donut type. What does Lindsey and SFR use? I have a spare exhuast I can do this to before dropping my old 1-piece pipe. Does anyone know the ID/OD of the inner pipe on the lower section of the crossover? I'm wondering if anyone has done this themselves and can offer any advice.
http://www.clampco.com/products/vband.htm
Thanks
http://www.clampco.com/products/vband.htm
Thanks
11-03-2005, 08:17 PM
#2
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Yes I have! The inner pipe diameter is close to 2", if I remeber right, but I went with a 2.5" clamp because the pipe is somewhat oval. Welded closed fine with the MIG. I bought the V-Band set off of eBay. Welded up a jig to hold it in place while off the car, cut it in two, slipped it on, and welded it up. Actually pretty simple. It seems to fit well and line up nice. I left the turbo inlet side and the headers loose then put the calmp on and tightened everything down. I can't say whether there are no leaks as I have it back off after a head repair judgment call caused by some shoddy work from the machine shop. With the work that I put into it, it might be cheaper to just pay what the companies want to do it to yours, but I had to prove I could do it!
Chuck.
Chuck.
11-03-2005, 11:31 PM
#4
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The bands are more than adequate if you buy a good brand. My question is "How is the transition from a round slip-on weld flange to an oval tube done?" I suppose you have to either get a flat flange or grind off the round slip-on section before welding or reshape the tube back to round first?. After that, do you need to grind off any overhanging inside section of flange to match the shape of the tube? I just can't see paying $160 just to have someone else weld on a $15 V-band assembly.
11-04-2005, 05:59 PM
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Originally Posted by KuHL 951
The bands are more than adequate if you buy a good brand. My question is "How is the transition from a round slip-on weld flange to an oval tube done?" I suppose you have to either get a flat flange or grind off the round slip-on section before welding or reshape the tube back to round first?. After that, do you need to grind off any overhanging inside section of flange to match the shape of the tube? I just can't see paying $160 just to have someone else weld on a $15 V-band assembly.
I'd like to know where you're getting stainless V-bands for $15. The cheapest I can find em is about $65 bucks including the flanges. I need to make some changes to my Wastegate dump tube seal and a V-band is far and away the best solution to the problem. (I'd also like to put a test pipe in with em, way easier than any gasketed flange for quick replacement come time for emissions). For any exhaust flanges, V-bands are probably the nicest way to do it if you don't mind them being a bit expensive up front and requiring a bit more labor when designing/installing them the first time. After that they're a piece of cake to work with.
As for the previous question regarding V-band strength, for the sake of illustration, on the CH-47 Chinook helicopters I used to wrench on in the Army, the exhaust tailcone is held onto the combustor housing with one big V-band (roughly 2' in diameter). The cone weighs around 50 lbs and sees pretty significant thermal loads being on the *** end of a turbine powerplant. I never heard of one falling off provided it was installed correctly. On a small one (2-3" diameter) like you'd want to use on our cars exhaust, you'd never be able to get the band around the flanges any way but correctly, there's just not enough flex in the band part of the clamp to screw that up.
Any decent oval-round transition will work, Burns Stainless has those if you don't mind paying way too much for a piece tubing. If you have the facilities to flatten a round tube to the right oval shape yourself, that's the best bet. Keep the V-band flanges round, it would be way more trouble to try and modify them plus you'd have a hard time doing so without impacting the flow characteristics. A smooth transition is going to be way easier to make with tubing than a machined flange.
11-04-2005, 07:22 PM
#6
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Originally Posted by z3bra
I'd like to know where you're getting stainless V-bands for $15. The cheapest I can find em is about $65 bucks including the flanges. I need to make some changes to my Wastegate dump tube seal and a V-band is far and away the best solution to the problem. (I'd also like to put a test pipe in with em, way easier than any gasketed flange for quick replacement come time for emissions). For any exhaust flanges, V-bands are probably the nicest way to do it if you don't mind them being a bit expensive up front and requiring a bit more labor when designing/installing them the first time. After that they're a piece of cake to work with.
As for the previous question regarding V-band strength, for the sake of illustration, on the CH-47 Chinook helicopters I used to wrench on in the Army, the exhaust tailcone is held onto the combustor housing with one big V-band (roughly 2' in diameter). The cone weighs around 50 lbs and sees pretty significant thermal loads being on the *** end of a turbine powerplant. I never heard of one falling off provided it was installed correctly. On a small one (2-3" diameter) like you'd want to use on our cars exhaust, you'd never be able to get the band around the flanges any way but correctly, there's just not enough flex in the band part of the clamp to screw that up.
Any decent oval-round transition will work, Burns Stainless has those if you don't mind paying way too much for a piece tubing. If you have the facilities to flatten a round tube to the right oval shape yourself, that's the best bet. Keep the V-band flanges round, it would be way more trouble to try and modify them plus you'd have a hard time doing so without impacting the flow characteristics. A smooth transition is going to be way easier to make with tubing than a machined flange.
As for the previous question regarding V-band strength, for the sake of illustration, on the CH-47 Chinook helicopters I used to wrench on in the Army, the exhaust tailcone is held onto the combustor housing with one big V-band (roughly 2' in diameter). The cone weighs around 50 lbs and sees pretty significant thermal loads being on the *** end of a turbine powerplant. I never heard of one falling off provided it was installed correctly. On a small one (2-3" diameter) like you'd want to use on our cars exhaust, you'd never be able to get the band around the flanges any way but correctly, there's just not enough flex in the band part of the clamp to screw that up.
Any decent oval-round transition will work, Burns Stainless has those if you don't mind paying way too much for a piece tubing. If you have the facilities to flatten a round tube to the right oval shape yourself, that's the best bet. Keep the V-band flanges round, it would be way more trouble to try and modify them plus you'd have a hard time doing so without impacting the flow characteristics. A smooth transition is going to be way easier to make with tubing than a machined flange.
We buy the bands at work direct from Clampco and I can throw in on an order. I think list price on the parts through a distributor (McMaster-Carr) is almost 20% higher. I haven't checked 'list' price yet but from what you say I will probably be surprised. I know we were getting 3" V-bands with 2-slip flanges for less than $20/set in bulk not more than 6 months ago. I bought a few smaller T-bolt bands for my IC pipes and they were $4.60/each.
11-11-2005, 04:55 PM
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Do you have McMaster part #'s for those? I haven't been able to find V-bands on their site although it's been a bit since I looked. I emailed them to ask about V-bands and they had no idea what I was talking about.
