I`ve been looking at replacing every single black rubber pipe with sexy silicone ones for my fd, only problem is the main brands only do the turbo and coolent pipes, i`m even thinking about doing the vacum pipes too. I wanna know if anyone here has replaced theirs with silicone ones, if so can someone post some pics to give me an idea. We painted the engine bay last week, looks fu**ing georgous in bmw dark red. It would look s**t with boring black pipes. Had a look on samcosport and they can do pretty much any pipe in any bore-length. I`ve commited myself now, no turning back so i might aswell do it properly.
I\'ve had some pretty bad experience with vaccuum hoses made of silicone. Two problems with them: one is they crease and fold instead of bending unless the curve you put them in is very gentle and/or they have a really thick wall (which most don\'t, even the Samco ones you have to specify you want thick-walled stuff and eBay tat certainly don\'t have it). Two is that it is very easy to get splits in them that are then completely invisible under most circumstances, it\'s only when you bend them in the right (or wrong. lol) way or put them under pressure that you can see the tear. I\'ve recently had loads of fun, and its cost loads of time and money, chasing random turbo switching problems round futilely when a lot of it was down to ****ing **** vacc hoses that had tiny little invisible tears in them.
The other problem that they cause is that it\'s very difficult to get them to stay put. You can\'t use jubilee clips on them because it cuts them in half, cable ties aren\'t really secure and are a pain to take on and off frequently, and gluing them on isn\'t much good either, particularly not in the rat\'s nest where there are a million of the little buggers, and it\'s soooooo easy to get some glue in a tiny little hose union where you\'ll never get it back out again!
With that said, I have had good experiences using it for hardpipe connectors, replacing airfilter intake hoses, and radiator pipes, which is kinda the applications that silicone hose is best suited for, I guess, anyway! I also use braided steel flexi pipes a lot, for things like AST pipes and that, cos it\'s more robust but almost as flexible as small silicone lines and a lot more durable. Couple of pics for example, if it helps;
[ATTACH]40056[/ATTACH][ATTACH]40057[/ATTACH]
sexy silicone LOL...IMO silicone looks whack in an engine bay....give me some nice black ruber couplers anyday! just my 2p...stick with the rubber stuff
Can\'t beat a nice bit of black rubber, eh, Jit? Ooops, sorry, wrong forum :Laugh!
Are you just sore cos Jason\'s made you help him swap my turbo pack?! Silicone looks loads better than the standard black, but that\'s only any good if it\'s doing the job as well as or better than the stuff it\'s replacing. If it ain\'t it sorta defeats the object!
Unfortunately my labour rate has gone up and doesnt fit within your budget anymore...so im afraid you will have to make do with just jason sorting it out :D I got a world of things to sort out on my own car!!
I prefer black rubber because i cant stand colour clashes! Your bay isnt so bad...but it still contains polished parts, red parts, orange silicone connectors and blue silicone..oh and your strut brace has gold on it and your battery cover is carbon... Would you paint your living room red and then use a black table, a polished tv, blue sofas and orange coffee tables...oh and gold ornaments?
:D
I\'m married, dude, I have no say whatsoever in what colour anything in the house is :Laugh! The pipes are blue because that\'s what colour silcone pipes should be! The strut brace has gold anodised ends because that\'s what colour Mazdaspeed wanted to anodise them. But apart from that, everything is some kind of red or polished, carbon etc, as you say. Don\'t see why polished alloy should be considered a colour clash, it\'s still the colour that metal just, well, is. If that\'s a clash, then surely by the same argument, any colour hose/paint/whatever would instantly clash with all the metal parts in the bay? But, anyway, that\'s my opinion. I think too much red everywhere is, erm, too much!
Anyway, Mr Turbo Boy just asked for examples, so I have provided! I don\'t expect my taste to necessarily coincide with his, besides, he\'s already said he wants it all red to match his new-painted bay, so he\'s obviously avoiding that particular one of my faux pas:yes!
And as for you being outside my budget, you\'re right! This car\'s cost me so much this year, you could work for free and it\'d still be outside my (non-existant) budget!:)
Cheers for the pictures, a very sexy bay i must say, you could eat ya dinner off that!
Somone say silicone?
arghhhh!!! my eyes :(
HAHA...knew you wouldant like it.