Pressure Testing a welded pipe? (Home job?)

[wa5]

push bike tube... cut and attatch each end to your pipe... using hose clamps.... shouldnt be too hard to have water in the pipe before you seal it.... could even put the second end of the tube on under water.....

Tube wont take huge pressure without being held by a tyre. but it will take enough...

and it already has an air fitting...

[stradlater]

Wilbo - That looks WAY more sophiscated than my setup. :-) It's just an oil drain. and the welding is SOOOO rubbish that I'm embarrased to show it here... Damn gasless migs and galvenised steel.

Wa5 - That Bike tyre tube is a good idea thanks mate. I will try it out .

[Supra967]

you might be better off grinind the welds out but leaving some small tacks and taking it to a shop for proper welding? Cost you a 6 pack maybe? Good chance that those gasless mig welds will crack with vibration long term, even if it seals short term.

If you want to ship it all the over this side of the country I can tig it at tafe and send it back to you Would beat the hell out of welding the same bits of plate all lesson.

[LeeRoy]

Of all the things i've pressure tested with water it takes the smallest amount of pressure for a leak to appear. The food colouring idea is pretty good but it's easy enough to spot provided you're in a dry wel lit area.

[andrew_mx83]

Damn gasless migs and galvenised steel.

oh thats nasty!
i think you will be very lucky if that seals, i was trying to weld prepped steel with a proper mig for my compressor NO CHANCE of getting it to seal lol!

a) did you grind back the gal first?
b) get an argon bottle and ditch the crappy wire



i have a mate in dandy who is awesome on the tig, but mega fussy... i dont think he will touch it lol, he cracks it if i even tack weld with the mig first

[andrew_mx83]

i know its ugly/dodgy, but this shit works a treat


PC Epoxy

good for about 200degrees

[stradlater]

Supra - Thanks for the offer mate, I may just take you up on that.

Andrew - I might do that too. This thing is shitting me to tears, stupid oil drain...

[Cuts]

When I finished making my plenum obviously it needed to be tested, I put plugs in the threads and bolted the throttle body on, then put a tester I made on the TB, filled it mostly with water and used compressed air to get the pressure.
The tester is like whats in wilbos picture on the first page, but it's made from a 3" long peice of 3"s/s pipe with some 3mm s/s plate welded to one end. With a gauge and a festo control valve on the end, on the control valve is a fitting to go to the air compressor.

Handy for testing piping on and off the car.

[stradlater]

Well... I've just found out, that it didn't seal. ASTRONOMICALLY Badly...

I just sealed one end, put water in, and blew into it with my mouth. That was enough to have water spurting out.

So I ground the c*nt all the way back down, got rid of the welded on bits, and just used rubber hose. I'll have to replace it every now and again, but hey.

[andrew_mx83]

called it!

why not buy a meter of braided hose in the right size and hose clamp it at each end? not perfect but better then rubber hose

[LeeRoy]

Can you post a pic of it please? I'm interested as to what it looks like.

[allencr]

...blew into it with my mouth.

KISS
Ya gotta luv low tech with all the high tech replys.
Did you give it a 'stress test' foreplay arousal before blowing it?
Does it ring like a bell if hammered? Thanks.

[stradlater]

Andrew - I might just do that, but for now it's rubber - CBF with the rest of it.

LeeRoy - It's all dead now... No pictures to be had.

Allencr - I did actually give it a stress test. Banged the shit out of it. It was suitably strong, the big problem was the sealing.

[andrew_mx83]

what size is it? i have to buy some braided line soon for my new fuel system, may have some offcuts left over. rubber wont last long as a turbo drain...

[Supra967]

^^ Is this common knowledge? I pulled my old rubber drain off and was shocked to find it hard as a rock with a massive hole in it. I thought it was bad or old hose, maybe I missed the boat on that one