Zip Ties on the intercooler pipes

[CREGAN]

Hey, I have been reading about peoples putting Zip Ties around the intercooler piping to keep it from bulging and reducing lag. I did some searching and every word phrase regarding this comes up with about 1500 results. Unfortunately I don't have the time to go through all these results so if anyone has any input on this - could you lend me some of it? Anyone here actually doing this now and would recomend it or warn me not to? I read that the Zip Ties eventually break due to the heat, so has anyone thought of using some form of metal clamps? I was thinking of cutting some aluminum strips and fastening them around the pipes in one inch sections. My concern is that it will cut through the pipe eventually. Thanks

Craig

[jessef]

The pipes are braided so use the widest flexible clamps or thick zipties you can use.

The pipes themselves don't get hot except for the last 2-3 inches at the turbo. You only need the zipties at the bends to stiffen it up although in reality you won't notice a difference but it looks neat.

[pajerry]

It was the easiest 5hp I've ever earned lol. Okay, maybe 3.5hp by the bum dyno... but you get the point.. I also noticed about 10-15% better fuel economy while in the city the first month or so until they stretched a bit.


For $3 on sale at princess auto its an easy way to cut the lag on your turbo by quite a bit. I've had them on for a couple years so they're getting brittle and need to be replaced. They stretch quite a bit and can be tightened if you leave a little of the ends on the zapstraps. I bought a bag of a hundred or more of the widest size I could find (10" to 1' zap straps), and then placed them every cm or less where I could along the intercooler hoses. I recommend taking the hoses off for easiest access as it takes a while. I didn't do this but will when I replace them as you can also get it tighter.

I do recommend spending the couple hundred and have a muffler or fab shop bending a couple custom pipes and using those, but Im just cheap. Half of Tardisdeli was telling me about this steel braided chinese finger trap looking wrap that you can also pickup at princess auto that would probably work better, but I haven't gone that far to track it down.