Well I had a up pipe leaking. No surprise !! So I started to look into the IH bellow up pipes for a Early99 and I almost had a heart attack and fell out of my chair. Incase you didn't know E99 IH up pipes cost over 2x's as much as late99. So I started asking questions like a 3 yr old. And I got alot of helpful info. And a special thanks to BigAl.

So since the trans is out I said I'll add bellows to help the problem and by no means is it as good a fix as IH pipes. But it is still better than stock. Well being a E99 there really isn't a good place to put the bellows so here is what I have.


I started by making some paper templetes to get the placement to where the bellows wouldn't hit anything.


Here is the bellows I used. And when I got them and seen the "Made in China" I was so *#!? upset. It was bad enough Vibrant is a Canadian company but China!!!!

Vibrant #40055s bellow with liner and for those of you that don't know. NEVER use a bellow without a liner on a turbo up pipe or turbo blow off valve. Felpro gasket #8194 And if you look closely you can see I notched the donut gasket since it was in the way of the bolts.

Fitted with bellows to E99 stock up pipes. Ready to weld. And the black paint you see on the flanged end is the VHT Flame proof. I wanted it painted before I install the bellows. And then after welding I'll paint the rest of the pipe but NOT the bellows. Also I am kicking around the idea of wrapping the pipe too.

I'll post more photos after I weld them in and bolt them up. And all I can say to anyone with a Early99 is if you have the $$ switch to a Late99 or H2E set up instead of dealing with the head aches that come with the E99.

 

Nice work Ed, looking great. I wasn't aware they were made in China, apologies.

 

Thanks Al but I have to give alot of credit to you for all your help with this project. It is not your fault they were made in China. Heck a Canadian company and nowhere did it say they were made in China. Vibrant leads you to believe they make them in house. But honestly they are very well built, made of all S.S. and the welds look great.
I tried to rep you but I was told to pass them around. So instead here is a cold one.

 

Nice job Ed. Will you be doing the welding or having someone else do it? Yea...china...humm...can I say anything good about them...humm....NO

 

Well they would have been welded up today but I am having issues with my mig welder. So I am going to see if I can get my hands on another welder. Hopefully sometime this weekend.

 

Looking Good Ed!

 

Thanks Frank for telling me how to post pictures so I could post this. And it was so simple!!Daaa

 

Made In China... bummer
Lookin good Ed, you'll be happy with the finished product.

 

centric screwed me too. their rotors are made in china. pissed me off so bad, especially when i ordered them ahead of time and i was 2 states away from my house.

 

Well to start with I had to ask my neighbor if I could use his welder to weld up the bellows. And since he knows about me being blind in one eye and can't see that great in the other eye he offered to weld them up for me. He is a young guy and I think he didn't want to see me mess it up or mess up his welder. Believe it or not I still can weld. But he did a nice job. Thanks Derek !! My welder is not working correctly due to the fact I let a friend use it and he returned it ALL messed up!!


Passenger side weld needed to ground down so collector flange could slide back enough to fit the Felpro gasket. If you used a stock gasket this would NOT be an issue. Since stock gasket is thinner than the Felpro. Also the piece of pipe I used on the collector side was from the pipe I cut out of the driver's side. Drivers side pipe had 2 9/16 inch cut out and then cut down to 2" for passenger side.

Passenger side collector flange flared to slide up to the weld flange on bellow.

The passenger side flange fitted to pipe so that the felpro gasket would fit in to bolt up the pipe.

The drivers side clearance is about 1/4"

passenger side clearance is about 1/4 inch. That is another reason the bellow could not come back to gain flange clearance. Also I am thinking of heat wrapping the fuel line due to bellow.

Final mock up !! There is no way you could do this with the trans in.

 

Looking great, Derek appears to have some skills too. Very clean.

 

That looks awsome Ed. Great job to you and your neighbor. Just think how much money you saved. I tried to rep you but I need to spread them around.

 

Thanks guys!! And I too was impressed with Derek's skills. Well I can't wait to get this project done so I can move on to the trans issues. (Working my way to the back of the truck)
Now all I have to do is paint the pipes and I am going to wrap the pipes and leave the bellows exposed so all the expanding and contracting will hopefully happen at the bellows. Also my thinking on wrapping the pipes is to hold the heat in to help with turbo lag. That might be an issue since I went with the 1.0 w.g.turbine housing and keep the under hood temps down. I already have the down pipe coated and wrapped.
And if for no other reason it will look cool ! Some good that does since once I put it all together NO one will ever see them.

 

What exactly does the bellowed pipes help with? I have always wondered that. This would be an option for me to do what you did since I also have a early bird.

 

I actually was wondering the same thing.