Carbon composites CAN be stronger then steel and high strength aluminum.
They CAN also be A LOT weaker, have terrible fatigue life, and be full of internal flaws. I've got a friend that does a lot of NDT work on some very advanced fighter aircraft wings and it's amazing what kind of **** can end up in lay-ups in clean room environments.

Relating what high budget race teams pull off to what we can do at our level is pretty silly. A few years back, several sport compact teams with reasonably deep pockets started building composite intake manifolds. I saw a few first hand...

One had more JB weld on it then you could even imagine. A single backfire split the thing into several pieces. Point is, composites are great, if you have the knowledge and money to do it right. If you don't, have fun as it would still be a cool project.

Also, as far as composites not corroding... BULL **** they don't. They just corrode and fatigue in a different manner then metals do. As far as aircraft being made of composites, the the major structures are still made of metal on the VAST MAJORITY of all aircraft. Most of the SKINS are moving over to composites, and a good portion of the fuselage is composite, but the wing structures and many fracture critical components are still largely made of metal.

One other item not addressed in this is you can't bond carbon to aluminum. You WILL get galvanic corrosion. You have to use an isolator, like fiberglass, between the two to reduce the galvanic potential between the materials.

 

Exceptthe fact that its all mostly composites even wings except for the leading edge but I don't know what I'm talking about I am not a composites fabricator for one of the worlds largest aircraft manufactures. And those intake manifolds were probably built by people who read how to do something on the Internet of course it would fail, I have seen alot of race teams composite parts and it makes me laugh what will pass for their quality.

 

Alright man...it's not that big of a deal and fatigue isn't a huge issue in this situation, this isn't a fracture critical item. But you are COMPLETELY wrong saying it doesn't "corrode." Fatigue is also a HUGE issue in composites.

No doubt the typical automotive stuff is not quality by any means.

So is this going to be pre-preg or wet lay?
Uni-fiber in a particular layup pattern or woven?
vaccum bagged?

I'm very curious of the process you are planning on using to mold and process these parts. I'm actually thinking of doing a composite cold air intake system using a wet layup of woven fabric and vaccum bagging. It doesn't have to hold any pressure, so strength isn't a huge concern. Pre-preg would be awesome for making it as light as possible, but yeah, storing it and processing it is out of my capabilities.

Oh, as for heat, pre-intercooler temps are likely high enough that it would push standard resin past the glass transition temperature. Post-IC temps shouldn't be an issue though.

 

cool idea , but i think he can do a intake manifold on carbon fiber could be a huge drop on temperature

 

sounds like a fun project but u gotta have deep pockets seems like to me. someone mentioned covering aluminum piping with cf, mainly for looks, not quite sure it can keep as cool as aluminum. can it?
it would definitely look nice n the project sounds like lots of fun!

 

it seems aesthetically please but it may crack because of it being brittle. I have seen a couple of various cars using CF velocity stacks on individual throttle bodies and those always crack.

 

The only way I see it working out is if they layed the CF mat over some cheap ebay piping because then it won't flake or collapse under pressure or heat and you'll still get the authentic look but that would defeat the purpose.

 

this is what i think he can do

http://www.advancedinductionresearch.com/

 

good luck when it breaks/chips and get sucked into the head lol

 

I would say go for it! You would just have to test for voids and the strength of the tubes on different boost levels and depending on the outcome, you would just have to add more layers to hold higher boost levels. Also another important tid bit would be the heat/cure process. To handle a clamp on each end just mold in a piece of stainless steel. This is what we do in composite class.

 

That would be pretty cool and JDM YO!!!

But it would be expensive unless it some sh1tty *** Carbon and not just that, would it even last? Ha. \:

 

All i can say is God Damn mang, lol! Hahaha!!

 

Why not just go with titanium or something? Probably be cheaper then doing CF right/thick enough to work. And would still be light and blink.

 

carbon sock. its like the fabric you use for wet layup, but it comes more like a sock, you pull it over your mold, apply resin autoclave it, dissolve the mold out of it, and presto, you have carbon tubes. assuming the resin was distributed properly, the tubes wont leak. also, they will be plenty strong, as the benefit of a round tube is everything is in tension, which is where carbon fibers work excellent. a formula SAE team from helsinki finland used carbon intercooler pipes and carbon intercooler endtanks on their car in 2005. it looked f%ing sweet (which realistically is the purpose of carbon intercooler pipes). the ARC Ti IC pipe is pretty light, and aluminum pipes are pretty light as well. some of the stainless/mild steel pipes i've seen are quite heavy and could stand to loose a few pounds.

 

huh??