Fabrication of all piping

By Clinton HulleyVW Polo Classic Project Car
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The engine was assembled and in the car. Now it was time to fit all the extras. The Supercharger went on and so did the intake manifold with the throttles. I left the plenum off for now as I still had to build the boost pipe between the turbo and the supercharger inlet. Next was the exhaust manifold and then the turbo. The exhaust manifold and turbo was not a final fit as I still had to build the pipe from the downpipe to the wastegate. This would be a bit tricky to build in the car as there was very limited space to work in.

One of my contacts had a small welding inverter with a small argon bottle and tig welding gear. He said I could use this for the build. This would make my life a lot easier and make the build go quicker. All I had to do is go to a shop that supplies all the dairy pipes and bend I need to complete the job. I also had to buy a bag full of 63-millimeter silicone bends and straights.


As this engine will be producing allot more power than what the car used to do I also had to get a bigger intercooler. I bought an intercooler with about double the surface area than my old intercooler. It also had a 63-millimeter inlet and outlet to suit the build.

Pipe fabrication on the build

First boost pipe

To make everything easier I left the nose of the car off for now. I built a 63-millimeter boost pipe from the turbo to the supercharger intake. On all my setups till now I use 50-millimeter tubing for boost pipes. On this build it was a bit different, the turbo outlet and the charger inlet was 63 millimeter. I wanted to get the maximum volume of air to the plenum without any restrictions. On this boost pipe, I also added a dump valve just for a backup. I didn’t want to get to the scenario that boost gets blown back over the compressor wheel if the throttle is closed quickly. This would not be good for the turbo.


The Downpipe

The next pipe I built was the downpipe. For this, I used a 63-millimeter dairy pipe. It was very tricky to get the downpipe around the turbo manifold and down to the tunnel of the car. Once the pipe was tacked up I stripped the downpipe out and the turbo a manifold off. I welded all the seams on the downpipe before assembling the setup again on the ground. Now I could work out the rooting for the wastegate pipe. I fitted a slip-sleeve on this pipe just to help with the expansion and retraction of the pipes underuse. I didn’t want to sit with pipes cracking off due to solidly mounted pipes.

The rest of the boost pipes

Before I could build the rest of the pipes I had to fit the nose of the car. Once that was done the next thing was to get the intercooler mounted. I had to cut out a section of the bumper stiffener to make the intercooler fit. Next, I fitted the plenum on the front of the throttle bodies. I built a 63-millimeter boost pipe from the supercharger outlet to the one side of the intercooler and from the intercooler to the plenum. I welded some bosses with 1/8 BSP thread on the one boost pipe just before the plenum. These bosses would be for the connection of the map sensor and the reference line to go to the fuel pressure regulator.


So what was next?

I got my brother in law to help and tow the Polo to Powerflow exhaust. They had to rebuild my exhaust from the newly built downpipe to the back of the car. They did a full 63-millimeter system. Later that day they phoned me and said I could come and collect the car. The car was getting close to being done. Only a few more things and this sleeper would be on the road again…


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