I've seen a couple cars use these clamps for their intercooler piping never seen them used on a 7 though. They aren't cheap by any means, but from what I've read they are as reliable as you can get for intercooler piping.

Anyone on here use them? What are your thoughts\opinions on them?

http://www.titanmotorsports.com/adwicl.html

http://www.burnsstainless.com/Hardwa...insclamps.html












I've been thinking about going with these. Not a big fan of the purple color, but I can live with that or maybe take them apart and have them stripped and refinished in what color I want.

Some installed pics on a BMW:

 

I don't remember whos car this is.... but it's beautiful.

 

Oh wow, I think there was a thread about that car in the 20b section. Not sure if he ever finished the car. Didn't realize he was using these clamps. I gotta admit the raw aluminum doesn't look bad with all the purple parts.

 

I have stuff here at the shop, I think you'll like the solution better in just about every way.

 

I'm not a fan of wiggins..

Pain in the ***...

 

I somewhat inherited one that's part of my radiator-to-EWP plumbing. I've had it for many years and without a hitch. Being that I run elevated coolant pressure, they seem to hold up well in relatively severe applications.

However, I have to concur with the pros that replied here, in that they aren't the most user-friendly design when it comes to installation and removal. It's quite easy to misalign them. Once slightly crooked they're anoyingly difficult to remove without damaging.



Sean, I'm very just curious about your solution. Please share (publically or privately).

 

regular old t-bolts have gotten the job done for me up to 21psi. Just use only straight couplers (none of the angled kind) with pipes that sit very close to each other.

 

I'm using clone wiggins clamps. They look just as good, and they are way cheaper. I normally don't endorse using cloned parts but I'm a mechanical engineer and I can't find the justification for Wiggins being over 300$ for a 3" clamp, that is ridiculous. There is no way that they are that expensive to manufacture and the design has been around for ever so its about time they lower their price. These are made exactly like those except they don't have the holes on the purple part or the engraving. I compared them to an original version and took measurements and they are the same. I did replace the Orings with high heat silicone ones, the ones that came with the couplers seemed really hard to get on and I wasn't sure of the material.

Here are some pics of the project.

Chris

 

HeHe, I know dude. I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago. I love the solution and I will be going that route for sure after the responses on here. Just thought I'd ask about these because they seem very easy to work with once lined up and installed right.

Thank you sir! What makes them such a pain in the butt though?


Yep, I'd read that they hold up very well under pretty intense conditions.

Thanks for the info, I'll deffinatley be listening to the pros on this. The thing that draws me to them is the supposed ease of use that these couplers are advertised to have.
BTW, everytime I see your Guinness catchcan it makes me chuckle.



I've used T-bolts & couplers without any problems as well. However, I am going from FMIC to Vmount and figured I'd explore other potentially better options since all the piping will be reworked anyway. These have a cleaner appearance in the engine bay(except for the fact that they are an annoying purple color) and I think Seans approach would look even better.


Interesting info. Yeah $300 per coupler is retarded. I wasn't even looking at that price tag on the burns site. Titan Motorsports appears to sell them for $100 less.

 

I want to add also that with the original O-rings they were a pita to install/uninstall. I fixed that by buying Silicon O-rings that instead of 3" ID where meant for 2.875" ID which made them stretch just a bit, enough to make the install easier while still sealing properly. It seemed like the stock O-rings where meant to handle 350psi when in fact they will never see more than 45psi on rotaries and probably closer to 25psi or less for most people. The pack of 10 Silicone O-rings was about 10 bucks and it did the job. New they are super easy to install.

Chris

 

What about flex?

If you engine moves and your IC doesn't... don't you need some give somewhere?

 

The Wiggins design allows flex. The two O-ring ferrules(one welded to each pipe to be joined) fit inside a sleeve that allows them to slide in and out and up to 7 Deg combined deflection. The purple clamp only keeps them from falling out of the sleeve but they can go in and out as well as angle as necessary.

Chris

p.s. also, the price at titan motorsports is confusing. They are selling the clap/sleeve separate from the ferrules so the actual prices for an assembly would have to be two ferrules and one clamp assembly so it ends up being about the same as at burns stainless...

 

I almost forgot, the "clone" ones I bought come in like four different colors. Purple, blue, red and black.

Chris

 

Here is a cheaper alternative.


http://www.burnsstainless.com/Hardwa...t/hargett.html

 

Bingo, I've had them here since the end of summer, I wanted to see who was going to post them up!

 

those are very nice clamps.. A few of my buddies have been using them without issues..

 

300 a clamp sounds like a real waste of money if you ask me. Those burns ones are nice at 100 a piece.

forget the clamps more details on the turbo and sprayed M52 please

 

Doh! I miss read the website yesterday. The prices are ~ $205ish from both places.

And you still went with the purple? LoL, why?


Oh, those aren't what we spoke about before. What we talked about is what's on your car. These Hargett couplings seem a little more user friendly though. You'll have to show me these this weekend.

Good to here.

I missread, they aren't $300 more like $200, but still way too much. Here is more on the M52: http://forums.forzamotorsport.net/bl...1/2136170.aspx




I gotta say, I'm surprised by the outcome this thread has created. I was expecting nothing but good things about the Wiggins stuff. I'm glad I made this thread. Plus it saved be a buttload of money!

 

we use double beaded pipes with T-bolts on Peterbilt / Kenworth installations. The CAT engines hit over 50psi. When the ACERT engines (series turbos) implemented there problems having hoses pop off in the dyno and damaging the hoods.

We designed a pipe spec the calls out a double bead that prevents the hose from poping off and the hose from splitting on the pipe or pipe clamp. But we I am pretty sure we normal T-bolt clamps. We use 8 per truck and sell a bunch of trucks a year. It would cost millions to use an expensive clamp, if it we didn't need it.

I don't know if there is anyone out there who can supply double beaded pipes for such low quanities.

We also use these on the water side to keep the hoses on with CAT engines pumping over 100 gal/min through a 3in pipe.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I am just wasting your time.

 

Small world!

I am the owner of the BMW you showed above. I have 4 adel wiggins clamps which have proved to be AWESOME in terms of installation and removal. I know people say "I get by fine with t-bolts". My experience with any bolt clamp is that you either turn the bolt for ages or you cut the threaded post off. Then if you change silicones you may need to replace the clamp. Either way, you are relying on tension on the line - any thin wall aluminum clamp is going to deform under the pressure of a t-bolt - in my opinion. When I used steel piping I used t-bolts and held around 18 psi fine. I blew them off occasionally at the turbo which is why I went with adel wiggins units this time around.

Yeah they're $200 and some change per clamp, but they're aerospace approved and we use them on projects where I work. Once you install and use one, you will never go back. I am actually looking to add a 4" one to the intake of my turbos so I can make a tube that is easily removable and goes down into the fog light area.

Here is a finished picture of my project:



I mean no offense to anyone above but I feel that most of them saying that T-bolts are fine and that wiggins clamps suck have probably not even seen one in person There are different o-rings based on what you're trying to seal, and they're good to some 200 psi+. I don't think you can get a cleaner connector that is reliable (the accufab ones are junk imho). As stated, they are flexible. Here is a video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=76CEWVXru...e=channel_page

Good luck choosing!

 

Mark those are sitting on my car they're good up to 120psi fluid or air. The ones installed on my car my buddy uses on his compounded diesel tractor pulling sleds, those are rated for over 200psi. I think he's run 210 or 220psi last I heard They offer little flex though.

 

Small world indeed! Thanks for the input. The flexibility demonstrated in that video is pretty impressive. Your car is one hell of a monster. Any dyno numbers yet? Check your PMs.



Really? I could have sworn you were using something else... Would the lack of flex be something to worry about for a car driven on the streets of Chicago?

 

Wow! They spent a lot of $ on tube couplers...

 

^Apparently that image didn't work. Lets try again...