How To: WRX Intercooler Install

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 7:41 am

Sweet mother of pearl. I just got it in and running with all new plus, oil...ect, and let me say whoa. At .5 bar. A gaddam it flies. Sooner or later I'll need to get hard pipes in the back. Prolly next week or so. I'll type the rest up later tomorrow.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:35 am

TTT for completion almost. I'm getting hard pipes. That's that. I hate this damn intercooler and wish that no-one ever tries this adventure ever.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:00 am

Ok, new news. I went to Jack Speed Shop. A local place and he is going to weld me up somthing custom. He's going to plug the Y-Pipe outlets and then cut a 2in hole in the top air tank of the intercooler. Run that down to the turbo. All in all, there should be only two couplers with all 2in SS mandrel bent steel. This man is a god at welding. His beads are perfect. I'll post pics when it's done on Mon or so.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:42 pm

Is he going to try to reshape the end tank at all, or does he believe the current shape will work okay even with the very different direction of inlet air flow?

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:45 pm

You can weld SS to Aluminum?

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:55 pm

I think he meant the pipe would be stainless. Like, there'd be a little aluminum hose fitting on the intercooler, a coupler, a stainless steel pipe, a coupler, and the compressor.

BAC5.2 · Post by **BAC5.2** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:09 pm

ooohhh, lol.

I saw an IC with a setup like that, so I guess it works OK. I wouldn't do it, I don't think, but it probably would be OK.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:12 pm

Nuwan is using only one of the two inlets to his WRX intercooler and it's working well for him, too.

I suppose just having that much thermal mass is such a big improvement over stock that suboptimal airflow isn't really much of a concern, at least at first.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:20 am

vrg3 wrote:Is he going to try to reshape the end tank at all, or does he believe the current shape will work okay even with the very different direction of inlet air flow?

BAC - I ment aluminum.

. I was thinking SS for the exhaust.

Vrg3 - His theory seems to be that the 2 inlet Y-Pipe is a stupid idea. He theorizes that with the 2in mandrel bent pipe comming off the top of the IC is going to flow the same amount of air, if not better. His whole thing is simplicty on an IC system. The amount of air going into the IC though the Y-Pipe vs. though the custom setup isn't going to change. The air is still going through a 2in pipe to the top of the IC. It makes sense to me, but we'll have to see what he can do. This guy is a DSM guru, but he also builds his own turbos and other things. I really trust what he is saying.

I'm also taking my VF-11 to him to see if he can do a little tinkering with that so the boost doesn't die off in the upper RPMS.

vrg3 · Post by **vrg3** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:27 am

Well, I wasn't questioning the airflow through the pipes... I'm just wondering about how well the end tank will work. Ideally, the inlet air will go through all channels of the intercooler equally, right? That way you use the entire intercooler and the air entering the manifold has homogenous density across the cross section of the throttle plate, which helps make sure you have the coolest air possible entering all cylinders as evenly as possible.

I don't know if it's really a big deal in real life. I just thought I'd bring it up.

If this guy's good with intercoolers, maybe you should ask him about constructing a custom end tank for this purpose... You could also make the new end tank thinner to make the intercooler fit in better. My understanding is that it's not that big a deal to make an end tank out of some sheet.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:33 am

I see your concern. I'm pretty satisfied with the set up, the way it is. I'm sure a bigger turbo is in my future and a FM is going to be my setup for that. I'll take some pics and relay and negatives to legacycentral if there are any.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 8:22 pm

All done. The guy who did the hard pipe plugged the y-pipe connections in back, and ran a 2in pipe to the turbo. Seems to be the way I should have gone in the first place. Now I'm out 50 bucks for the Samco hose I fubared.

Binford · Post by **Binford** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:49 pm

That looks really good. I'm planning this out for myself, and I think I'll be using the stock WRX turbo. This would basically make for a bolt on mod as far as turbo to intercooler line goes, as I could use the stock y-pipe, correct? Is the inlet side of the turbo clocked differently than the Legacy turbo? I'm really looking foward to getting this thing on the road!

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 9:53 pm

Binford wrote:That looks really good. I'm planning this out for myself, and I think I'll be using the stock WRX turbo. This would basically make for a bolt on mod as far as turbo to intercooler line goes, as I could use the stock y-pipe, correct? Is the inlet side of the turbo clocked differently than the Legacy turbo? I'm really looking foward to getting this thing on the road!

You're right as far as the clocking thing. The stock y-pipe is crap though. It has a lot of kinks and just isn't performance oriented. I'd suggest a silicone y-pipe of some sort. The compressor outlet is cocked differently and I think that turbo's inlet will not clear our intake runners. Some molding of the intake for the compressor will cure this though.

Binford · Post by **Binford** » Mon Mar 07, 2005 10:03 pm

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out some more.

Brandon Clifton · Post by **Brandon Clifton** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 7:59 am

Binford- the WRX compressor inlet points straight ahead instead of upward. The best thing you can do here is to take the inlet off your turbo and have a machine shop turn the inlet of the WRX turbo flush (using a lathe), then weld your inlet in place. Since this is sort of a one-shot deal I'd take the entire stock turbo with you so as so make sure the inlet/outlet are clocked correctly for your application.

Also- why does everyone say you have to hammer the firewall and ignitor mount? I didn't have to hammer anything?!?

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:11 am

Well, mine didn't fit without hammering it.

greg donovan · Post by **greg donovan** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:35 am

i think we need to figure out what the two of you did differently as i really dont want to hammer anything.

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 3:54 am

I tried my test fit with the stock y-pipe on there and the top endtank simply wouldn't fit without smashing the bracket down and the firewall in.

greg donovan · Post by **greg donovan** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 4:04 am

so w/the stock y pipe you need to rough the car up a little but if you fab up an alternate intake route you dont need to beat the car up?

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 12:11 am

No. The overall height of the IC makes it impossible to fit the IC in there, up to the TB without molding the firewall a bit.

greg donovan · Post by **greg donovan** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 3:49 am

J-MoNeY wrote:No. The overall height of the IC makes it impossible to fit the IC in there, up to the TB without molding the firewall a bit.

so what exactly did brandon do then to get his to fit?

cut bracing from the hood?

NuwanD · Post by **NuwanD** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 4:00 am

you just need to shave some material from the outlet on the wrx i/c, it'll fit once that's done although it's a tight fit... no need to beat the crap outta your firewall

http://spda-online.ca/modules/xoopsgall ... ntercooler

J-MoNeY · Post by **J-MoNeY** » Tue Apr 12, 2005 10:09 pm

You could do that. I really enjoyed smashing shit.

chochocho · Post by **chochocho** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 5:47 pm

pics don't work. can someone rehost?

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How To: WRX Intercooler Install