[PICS ADDED] Bless her heart.. at least she tries (ebay intercooler)

[MA70Snowman]

So... I'm home from Iraq.. feeling bored, installed a Walboro FP I had ordered awhile back. and just staring at my car.. nothing to do..

the next day a nice sized package shows up.. FOR ME! I didn't order anything.. so I open it and Low and behold.. its a Intercooler kit.. complete w/ piping.. Tbands. and couplers.. So I do some reserach and find out my wife ordered it from ebay for me as a surprise.. she was so pleased of herself (she hates the fact I spend so much time on my car) well here's what she got me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=310049569454

this is the kit she ordered.. 2.25 inlet/outlet meh.. not a fan of how the IC routes.. its friggen thick though.. 4 inches! and the pipes are actually pretty good quality.. mandrel bends.. nothing really to sharp. and T clamps instead of worm clamps.

just wanted to see what everyones thoughts were on the kit. and before anyone says.. sell, get another. I love my wife more then my car. so guess what its going on the car so I don't hurt her feelings. I have already removed the bumper.. cut some of the support to get it to sit there. realized the Oil cooler is going to move, and the rad, overflow bottle barely fits there (probably moving also) but problem I'm having is routing the friggen piping.. no matter which way I run this shit, i can't get it. anyone worked w/ this setup before or can guess? lol. I tried looking at the pictures in the auction.. but according to how he's got it setup.. it doesn't work! oh well I'll keep trying at it.. SOOO bottom line after my rant..

1. what do you think of it.
2. how the hell does this piping route.

 

[ArmandoP]

1. You have a kick ass wife.

2. It looks like the installed pics and the laid out pics are different. the pic on the car shows 2 *90 degree bends and the other pic only shows 1*90 deg bend...

3. I suggest starting at the tb and working your way back. from there.

4. Ive always been tempted to pick one of these up, but ended up blowing my motor, so, please take some pics!

 

[MA70Snowman]

1. You have a kick ass wife.

2. It looks like the installed pics and the laid out pics are different. the pic on the car shows 2 *90 degree bends and the other pic only shows 1*90 deg bend...

3. I suggest starting at the tb and working your way back. from there.

4. Ive always been tempted to pick one of these up, but ended up blowing my motor, so, please take some pics!

I've already been taking a couple pictures. More will come along as shit starts developing. maybe i'll take pics of it.. NOT fitting lol. and Ir eally don't want to cut any of these pipes have they have that nice rolled lip on the end to keep the couplers from popping off.

btw.. they ARE larger then 2.25" as they easily fit over my stock pipes. i'm going to guess 2.5" but i'll measure tomorrow. pics will be up morrow afternoon.

 

[suprahero]

Congrats on haveing a supra and a good woman. Good ones of both are hard to come by. I got lucky with both of mine as well.

 

[ForcedTorque]

Anything is better than the stock radiator. 4" Thick is massive. The in/outlet are a little strange though. I think as a community, we all love your wife now! Try some sort of set-up with it running through the snorkel hole to shorten the route. You will realize a gain with this set-up.

AND.........Thank You for serving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CTsupra]

Welcome back

Your wife is awesome! She's a keeper. Got pics? Haha. I would just mount the IC then start form the TB like others have said and work from there. Does that kit have a BOV flange?

 

[chopstickz]

sigh i'm sad now.

 

[Zumtizzle]

It's a pretty badass set up.

Not a fan of the routing but i like it.

Get a big oil cooler in there while you're at it.

Your wife rocks!

Hint: TB is 2.75, and the turbo is 2 inch outlet.

 

[charlesshen]

You have a kick ass wife she got a sister? jk :biglaugh:
it looks good man

 

[suprarx7nut]

First and foremost, thank you for your service and glad to hear you're back and well.

The fact that she got you a kit specific to mk3's at all is AWESOME!!! I think you need to give her a hug from all of us.

 

[A-to-the-J]

sigh i'm sad now.

wtf? lol. Johnny, you're :biglaugh:

1. it's better than stock.
2. kind of a DIY thing.

you've got one cool wife! i remember when my GF at the time tried to surprise me with a shift knob i wanted. i was at her house when i noticed she was taking way too long to get her purse out of my car. i caught her installing it! LOL.

 

[EOS]

First off, let me say thank you for your service and your bravery. I'm glad to hear that you're home safely. As others have said, you've got a great wife there...and, needless to say, I think we're all a little jealous...

After looking at the pics, I'll take a crack at the question about the duct routing. I'm sure you've probably already tried it this way though, so I'm not sure how much help I'm gonna be here...

Looking at the pics on the Ebay page, here's how I think it goes:

IC to TB:

The straight pipe in the first pic is obviously the first pipe out of the intercooler. From there, it looks like the second pipe from the left--a 90 degree bend in the second pic, but in the first pic, it looks like it's roughly a 70-80 degree bend (I don't know which you have, but you can probably make it work either way)--is next in line, and one of the short silicone hose pieces connects the two. As far as I can tell, the next piece in line should be the 45 degree silicone hose. I think this is supposed to be where the duct goes through the inner fenderwell into the engine bay. The next piece looks like it should be the horizontally-positioned piece in the first pic that's lying directly beneath the straight piece. Connecting that to the final piece between the 45 degree hose and the throttle body would obviously be another short silicone hose piece. And the final piece would be the one at the far left in the first pic.

Turbo to IC:

Here's where the problem comes in...from looking at the pics, I don't think the kit supplies all the pipes necessary to go all the way from the turbo to the intercooler. Do the instructions say that the kit is complete from the turbo all the way up to the throttle body?

Anyway, in the first pic, the horizontally-positioned pipe at the bottom of the right hand side is going to be the inlet pipe for the intercooler. From there, my best guess is that you're supposed to do one of two things: (1) use the original cast aluminum elbow under the car along with the factory ducting between the turbo and the aluminum elbow, and use the long silicone hose to connect the elbow to the inlet pipe for the intercooler, or (2) eliminate the aluminum elbow altogether and have your own custom hard pipe bent that would go from the turbo outlet to the inlet pipe for the intercooler, using the final short silicone hose to connect the two. As for the step-down silicone adapter hose, I'm gonna guess that one is supposed to go from the custom hardpipe to the compressor outlet on the turbocharger. Depending on which way you went with this, you'd have a silicone hose or two left over, but no matter whether you used the factory elbow/ducting or had your own hardpipe bent, you'd have all the parts necessary for installation. In either case, this would use all 16 T-bolt clamps.

As for the way the ducting is routed, I wouldn't worry about it too much. The biggest problem I can see would be reverberation of the air going into the intercooler due to the hard right angle of the intercooler inlet. I have a pic of a similar HKS intercooler (now out of production) that used a radiused 90 degree inlet into the driver's side of the IC. If you were really worried about it, I guess you could have a radiused 90 degree inlet welded in instead of the inlet that's there now. That's up to you.

Sorry about the wordy post. I can't guarantee I'm right on all this, but I hope this helps. Good luck with the install, and I'd love to see some pics.

 

[MA70Snowman]

Hey guys. Thanks for the good words, for both the service and the wife. really means alot.

EOS.. very well writen post, an d that was almost EXACTLY what I've been looking at. I don't think the pipes can go from the Turbo -> IC.. just that LONG 90* one and goes into stock piping. as fort he TB -> IC side.. thats pretty much how i figured it.. but I honestly think that straight pipe is to long. if I got IC -> Straight pipe -> 70-80* elbow its sticking out past the passanger fender might just have to cut it.. I will try and go from TB to IC today and see where I get on this.

and for whoever commented on the Radius of the TB, and turbo. there's 2 reducers. one fits on the TB nicely and one would fit on the turbo nicely. (although why F w/ the one on the turbo if ur not even replacing the piping)

Pics will be up mid morning/early afternoon.

 

[tlo86]

thats cool of her to do i know i would be thrilled (i would only be upset if it was the vortex or electric supercharger Lol)

 

[MA70Snowman]

okay Well finally got this routed.. "correctly?" :dunno:

okay write up.

from TB -> IC
using the obvious one w/ the plates welded and approx a 45* bend in it..
next we went for the LONG coupler.. about 6" and then that attatched to the funky squigly pipe. that took some work spinning and bending and twisting to get it to go through the FRONT snorkle hose by the headlight. from there I used the 45* Coupler to join the 80* elbow and that joined straight to the IC.

Turbo -> IC
I haven't looked into this to much. Since now I have a straight Pipe left over. i could quite feasibly go from the Turbo to the straight pipe.. fab up a 90* and then go to the LONG 90* pipe as pictures.. but currently I'm using stock pipe until after the stock 90* from there using the rubber hose to goto a PVC adapter and from that to a silicon coupler onto the LONG 90* provided w/ the kit.

Overall asesment of the Kit..
3*'s

The pipes while, not vehicle specific were at least a cheap attempt at it and made putting it together a little easier.

The IC while 3" thick created a lot of problems for mounting. The hard ware and mounting points were also lacking\

Directions would have been a huge +

Does require relocation of stock OIL pump.

okay here's the pictures

Top view

Routing pictures

45* elbow under headlight

90* elbow

Upper Pipes

Mounting tabs

Cut Support frame

 

[LilMissMkIII]

Wow mate, that looks fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the write-up!

Is this something you would recommend, or do you think it was more hassle than it's worth?

 

[Rennat]

with any big IC like that... you can almost count on a somewhat custom install. but it looks like it went together pretty good!

and you found a keeper for damn sure! haha

 

[ForcedTorque]

Nice write up! But, would it be possible to use the left over straight piece in the place where the pipe comes from the snorkel hole with the slight bend in it is. Then use that pipe coming off the turbo on the way back to the intercooler. You will need some bend down there.

Also, is that black piping in your engine bay your old piping or did you paint these pipes already?

 

[Facime]

first off, congrats on the cool wife, welcome home, thank you greatly for your service!

Nice that you got it to work and Im sure there is no reason to change it, but a buddy of mine has an intercooler with a 90* inlet like that. On his car he mounted the IC so that side was up (pipe runs over the top then instead) and if Im not mistaken that allowed him to go through the front snorkle hole with that pipe. (it makes that 90* side the outlet instead of the inlet.)

Anyway, just an alternate possibility if you felt like messing around with it some more.

Oh and someone asked before as well, but where are you putting your BOV?

 

[Mr.PFloyd]

Does require relocation of stock OIL pump.

Relocate stock what now?