Carlo_Carrera

The proper welding of aluminum permanently joins the two pieces into one. A shop near me has done literally hundreds of coolant pipe upgrades via welding. Those cars collectively, including mine, have done thousands track days and races in the past seven years and not one fitting has failed, cracked or even leaked the slightest bit. Done correctly it is a permanent fix.

Porsche themselves has used threaded pipe fittings and welds to secure the tubes on their factory built GT1 derived race engines. They have never pinned a fitting on a race engine. The reason they used extruded tubes secured by glue on the street cars was for one reason only. It was cheap to do.

If you feel pinning works best for you by all means have at it, but welding is an equally legitimate solution.

Oak

Im sure welding the aluminum fitting is the most efficient seal, and I can see for racing purposes it is a no brainer. Im sure the actual GT1 casting is a different piece altogether than what is on our street version. To mill and machine an end piece with the same wall thickness as the steel I think would be somewhat under engineered. .030"-.050" walled aluminum would seem susceptible to fatigue at the junction. On our street casted manifold to mill an end piece to would be as strong as the steel would have to be thicker than the steel version I would think, and a thicker aluminum piece would pinch down coolant flow at each fitting. I would love to see what you describe please post photos if you have any...

Carlo_Carrera

I am not sure what you mean by a steel version?

The aluminum billet tubes welded into my car look like this.



The aluminum welds look like this.

Oak

thanks. sorry for the confusion, steel meaning the oem fitting. those pieces look nicely turned. although they look thin.. just trying to get my head around this..

do you know what is the stock fitting made from? I assumed it was some form of steel. I recall someone mentioned welding the stock version was not recommended due to dissimilar metals.

"02996ttx50

camp C is where you don't want to be. e.g don't fix it if they fail lol. this issue is discussed more than it actually occurs. such is the nature of internet lore.

but it's also kind of exhilarating to know of this weakness of design, mostly often times as i mash the throttle. i think to myself. what it if squirts!? and yet, we remain fully continent.

manimal

There are literally RL members and posters in this thread who have had the coolant lines fail on them, and you think that's a useful/appropriate post?

I haven't done my fittings yet, but that is just asinine, I'm sorry. I hope yours and mine and everyone else's hold up, but I'm not about to be cocky about it.

ghostofpain

I dont think its a must to do it. You can do it precautionary. Its like the phenomenon with the lose intermidiate shaft. Sometimes it gets lose sometimes i doesnt. Its all bad luck.

Carlo_Carrera

No worries, I will do my best to explain. The stock, OEM, coolant tubes are extruded aluminum. They are basically very thin walled cheap crap that can not, and should not, be welded.

The aftermarket tubes are milled from a solid billet of aluminum and are much more substantial and have an extra collar of material right at the pont the tube full seats into the water manifold which gives the welder ample metal to secure a proper weld.

The OEM fittings pulled from my car.

Carlo_Carrera

For me it comes down to whether you track the car. If you do you should really have the tubes pinned or welded. A massive coolant loss at high speed on a race track usually results in hitting something or someone very hard. A coolant loss on the street is rarely anything that extreme.

Oak

thank you, that makes things much more clear for me. If for some reason I have no leaks and take the preemptive action I will initially pin since it's a less timely process, once pinned and if I have another leak in the future post pinning I will install new milled and welded fittings.

32krazy!

thats an incorrect statement. i had a competent welder who does aircraft welding use the oem fittings and welded them into the housings. pressure tested and found 2 tiny pinholes. fixed that and yrs later still permanently fixed. fittings arent the issue with welding the quality of the welder is

"02996ttx50

My lack of concern regarding the potential failure of the coolant lines was not directed at or to anyone in particular. Least of all you.

If you don’t “like my post” it matters not. But enjoy your day anyway.

Carlo_Carrera

I have a lot of respect for you and the car you built. It is beautiful inside and out.

The only responce I have is that the shop that weld my fittings, and dozens of others, all using the billet milled replacements has never had go back and repair the intial welding because of leaks. Was that because of the welder or the quality of the parts he was welding?

You can recomend welding the OEM fittngs. I cannot in good faith do that.

theprf

I was under the impression there was no aftermarket fitting for the two curved pipes, and you were forced to weld the OEM fittings. The aftermarket fitting kit above doesn't have the two curved pipes.
If you need to re-use the two curved pipes, is there any difference to reusing the six straight pipes as well?

32krazy!

oem housing are a cast part. just happens at times during the welding process hence the pressure test. was 2 tiny pinholes easily fixed and done. at the time i had mine done years ago there wasnt really any other option for the fittings. in the end its all about the welder. pick a good one and you wont have any issues