Righto cunts, thought I would install the heat exchanger (200 SX radiator) for the intercooler today. I self taught myself some sheet metal work & whilst it looks shite, Im happy as it could have been worse.

[IMG]http://imageshack.com/a/img21/8238/lsku.jpg[/IMG]

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Did you hone your sheet metal skills on the bonnet scoop?

That was my first masterpiece. I still have that on the fridge at home, the way that scoop collected the air was revolutionary in its time. I have / will be taking things to an entirely new level this time. I'm allowed to use rivets & bolts. It'd going to be insane.

Forgive me for the noob analysis, and please retort if I am talking shit, but with this configuration, is this the general breakdown:

- Adds extra weight and complexity with rear radiator/fans assy + water
+ More consistent charge temperature to engine, and thus less ping, more aggressive tune
+ Reduced turbo piping to to manifold?, and thus better response
+ Looks pretty hardcore

.. anything else?

Just curious why one would choose this path over a well sorted vmount setup or something.

Cheers

So the hot air from the cabin mounted heat exchanger is going out the boot right?

The bonnet scoop is still the Mona Lisa of your repertoire.

Ok, to answer the questions.

Rich, Yes, you are correct with some of your statements, but I doubt there will be more of an aggressive tune. The weight statement is true, as is the complexity, but I believe the positives out weigh the negatives. If* I install an ice box, I will be able to get intake temps below ambient.

I was finding that with the intercooler being in front of my radiator, my coolant temperatures were starting to get on the high side of where I would expect them to be. I believe that this was due to the radiator being behind, both an intercooler & oil cooler.

The actual intercooler will sit inside the car, behind the fire wall & this will significantly reduce the length of piping needed, as the route will be very short, I am hoping for around 3ft of piping in total, from the turbo to the throttle body.

This will then allow for ambient temperature air to hit the radiator, without it being pre heated by the intercooler. this should allow the temperature of the coolant to drop into the range I want it of around 85 deg c. More stable coolant / engine temps mean that the car will run better & in a much more efficient area of the map, just by dropping the coolant temp 15 - 20 deg.

V mounts are fucking expensive, thats the only reason I didn't get one & to be honest I believe the intercooler core is too small. I know other people have them & its no worries, but I want to do something different.

The only other thing it will do is add more weight to the rear of the car, helping to balance out the overall weight ever so slightly.

This is how the intercooler looks. Imagine the inlet and outlet facing forward, right on the firewall.

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Yeah Dave hot air will be going out of where the licence plate used to be. There is still heaps more work to be done on the rear diffuser also & the two parts of the radiator shrouding & the rear diffuser will tie in together eventually.

Shot looking from under the car with the wheel well removed & the radiator in place. Its still rough (no pun intended) but I will clean it up & finish it off when I get back from work next week.

[IMG]http://imageshack.com/a/img835/1803/yhd3.jpg[/IMG]

licence plate area removed to allow hot air from radiator to leave.

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Or you could race the red open wheeler. ;)

A quick update, a fair bit of progress has been made, although it never seems to be as quick as i'd like. The engine is now complete & ready to be dropped in. & the intercooler install is 70% complete too. I thought I would clean up the engine bay, after I removed the brake booster & clutch reservoir, due to going with a pedal box, as the engine bay just looked nasty.

Still heaps more work to do & with a few things I have got going on at the moment, progress will be a little slow over the next few moths I think. Installing the dry sump will be the most difficult part, but there are lots of other things that are time consuming tasks to do on the car.

Here are a few pics for those interested, of what I have been up to over the last couple of weeks with the intercooler install & also the ,engine bay clean up.

[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img835/1248/e3nc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img841/736/ftua.jpg[/IMG]

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where is the intercooler sitting Simon? i know in your post you said against the firewall but i just cant see how that will sit?