Dougs951S

Earlier this week I installed a rather large FMIC into my car, despite lots of people telling me it couldn't or shouldn't be done. I mounted a sequential BOV just in front of the compressor outlet, on the hot side of the intercooler. The piping is 3" except where it necks down to 2.5" to meet the factory compressor outlet boot. I will be expanding the section just before the BOV to 3" once I get around to installing my HX35. On the cold side piping, a bung was welded in to facilitate the ISV. The factory recirv valve is no longer being used, but was left in the J boot to plug the port. I am running sans a fuel pressure damper so I have an extra vac port off my intake, which is where I am tapping my signal for my vac/boost gauge since my cold side intercooler piping does not have a port tapped. Some slight massaging of the sheet metal around where stock intercooler sits was required to fit all of this. I made some brackets out of scrap steel and bolted the intercooler to the stock mounting holes. In order to clear the piping and allow the hood to close, I had to delete the headlight motor and shim the light buckets up. It's a bit rough at the moment, but it will be cleaned up soon. It dramatically improved throttle response on and off boost, and shaved ~400 rpm off the boost threshold. Once past the threshold, the turbo also spools MUCH faster now. In addition, the first time I got on boost after installing it, I spiked over 20+ psi with my controller set to 1 bar. This intercooler obviously has way less restriction, and after several hard pulls its always right around ambient temps. I have a microsquirt ECU on the way so I'm looking forward to being able to log IAT soon. Just thought you guys would all like to know there are huge benefits from a good FMIC and it isnt a huge pain to install. Now onto the pics. Huge shout out to my good friend Cale, username amiralkhole. He did all the fabrication to make this possible, and it was all his idea in the first place. It turned out better than we both expected. As always, excuse the mess.

Paulyy

You should have searched. There is an aftermarket intercooler that fits well in the 951 that uses less piping and you can keep the headlight motors ect and use the factory piping.

I have one in my car..

travisgreen

you can put an intercooler the size if your car in front, your biggest restriction is still that filter

Dougs951S

microsquirt running speed-density tune with sequential fuel injection and wastespark ignition coming later this week, that will no longer be an issue.

And Pauly, I am aware of that but my intention was to get away from the factory piping. This is without question the largest intercooler that could possibly fit in the car. It measures 32 x 16 x 3 and I got an awesome deal on it, which is why I went with it. The lights are of no concern to me, I'll be moving to GTS lights soon. And when I mean "slight" massaging was needed, I really do mean slight. Nothing drastic had to be done to fit this, and I think it was a better choice for what I intend to do with the car than the intercooler you mentioned.

Paulyy

mine is 24x11x3

Just a note also. Looking at the mounting of the intercooler. How much of an angle is it on?
From the photo, it looks like it's facing up. Which means the wind will actually deflect off the intercooler and not go through it. The air needs to hit the intercooler directly, not at an angle.

Also why is your ICV on top of the intake?

And another note. If you're going Speed Density. You'll still want the airfilter in behind the light, not in the middle of the bay. You'll suck in to much hot air.

Dougs951S

It isnt on too much of an angle, it gets plenty of airflow and I'm going to make some ducting for it out of fiberglass. I could probably adjust the angle it sits at too, just need to mess with the brackets. It was getting late and I was far from home and needed to work the morning after this was fabbed up, so the mounting was kind of rushed. I'll be modifying it later this week or next week when I have the time. As for the filter, I already have a new 3" J boot replacement pipe made up, just waiting to get the microsquirt and a new filter in before I relocate it behind the light. I think I'm going to make an isolation box like Shawn did as well. The ISV is ontop of the manifold because I was playing with it while I was trouble shooting an issue over a year ago. Its a cooler environment where it is and it works perfectly so I never bothered to put it back. I know most of you guys hate it, but my car is 100% business. Its ugly as hell but it runs like a champ.

Reimu

the tb side pipe looks a little nasty with the way it was bent, glad to see you felt such a change though

when you move on to speed density or whatever I can use that afm filter adapter piece

Paulyy

Get it to sit as straight as possible. I wouldn't worry about ducting for it. Because so much of it is getting hit by the air, the ducting wont do much unless you put fins. I'd worry about ducting for the radiator.

Remember it's not how much flow of air can get to it. It's how much flow of air gets through it.

Dash01

Seems to me, rather than using a newer, bigger intercooler, it might be better to 1.) clean the old one, inside and out, for efficient heat transfer, and; 2.) rig a better EXIT path for the air cooling the intercooler. If that air cannot get out, it won't go through.

Could be, the stock intercooler is just fine, but it needs a better outlet vent. As it is, that air just goes back into the already-hot engine bay, then down and out under the car. Trouble is, hot air rises, heat-soacking the intake manifold, which further defeats the purpose of an intercooler in the first place.

lart951

is that a stock AFM? and have you dynoed that thing? so almiralcoca did that? what does he do for living?

Dougs951S

It's been ported pretty heavily, though I'm not sure what it really gained me. The car the motor came out of was dynoed at ~325 whp or something to that affect, I havnt seen the sheet in years. That was basically stock except for a 3 bar FPR, a k27/8, and ape chips on 93 octane. It was tuned to the ragged edge of the fuel delivery curve of the stock injectors @ 3 BAR. Obviously a lot has been done to it since then, but its never been dynoed under my ownership. Once I delete the AFM and get a solid tune with my stand alone, I'm shooting for 360 rwhp with the k27 and 425+ rwhp with my HX35 on E85.

Paulyy

how much boost you planning to run to achieve over 425 rwhp?

Dougs951S

1.5-1.6 BAR. It should be fine on E85 with a good tune although I'm not sure if that will get me there. The compressor is obviously capable of that, so the big deciding factor will be the exhaust side. I havn't decided if I'm going .82 T3 or .58 T4 yet. I know the T4 will easily put me there, I'm just not sure I want to live with the lag. I'm planning on installing a nice big FD RX-7 oil cooler where the stock intercooler used to sit.

Paulyy

That should get you there.
I'd use the .82 T3 housing. Power isn't everything. You'll have a quicker car with a longer torque curve then a lot of lag with more top end power.

As long as you can get air there! it's a good spot. I'd probably retain the factory oil cooler too as it does a good job. nothing wrong with having both.

Dougs951S

This may be a dumb question and really, I already know the answer but I think this thread is an appropriate place to ask it. I am approaching the point in my build where I have to seriously ask myself "will the stock rods handle that?" I know most say they are good for 425-450 rwhp so I fully understand that sooner and not later, I'm going to toss a rod through my block. My clutch, tranny, and turbo are fully capable of handling more power than stock internals can take. What is a good, logical stopping point if I want the 2.5 liter to last more than a few laps? I'll be revving it to probably 6.5k. I picked 425 because thats as brave as I'm feeling at this time.