mx5cartalk.com

heyy
have been doing alot of research into what i should get for the intercooler. ( expensive and easy or cheap and not garenteed to fit)
finally got this.http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Turbo-INTERC ... 662wt_1163

was a 155$ universal intercooler. took 2 days to get here and installed it in a few hours. didnt use and things to make the pipe smaller or anything, didnt even bolt it on... just held inbetween the steel piping which i figured is ok. dont get me wrong it sounds dodgy but it works. ( at least for the last hour :p ) as requested i was told to take lots of pics and a good mate who was helping kindly took a few. ( thx again joel!)
fits almost perfectly! all i had to do is cut the piping. no new clamps or hoses or anything...
basicly ( correct me if im wrong) bigger intercooler= more lag, because more air is needed to push through the larger area. so i was worried that the bigger cooler would make my big lag problem even bigger... but if u look the intercooler isnt actully 10 times bigger, its bigger but just a bit, its more that the old one went like up and wasnt seen( which means not the best place for good air flow). so thats a plus. all and all cost 185$ ( shipping was 30 to the sunshine coast) and im not very smart, and still managed to get it back togeather and working ^^
here are a few pics.














any questions ask and ill be happy to probs not be able to tell u the right way of doing it

ps. RIP alot of zip ties...


James

oh yea didnt mention its a SE. if you didnt relise :p

Does that read "believe in yourself"? Looks great James.

One of the intercoolers I was considering is 1.5 inches taller tan yours, think i'd have any issue getting that to fit?

You really should add brackets to attach the top two intercooler bolt-mounts to your car - these can easily be made from 3mm-thick aluminium strips, this will take a lot of load off the intercooler hoses and provide additional stabilisation.

Good to see that you could re-use the hoses and clamps - at the very least I expected you'd need to use 2 new hose couplers and 2 new clamps since my CoolongPro intercooler's inlet/outlet were wider than my OEM intercooler hoses.

You are a p pplater and have a big front mount, id be dissappointed if you didnt rip a skid afterwards

Well done, the lag is because the stock se turbo system is poorly designed. Its a bit half assed. That intercooler will make no noticeable difference.

Dann

thanks guys!

well mine is slightly to the left because i couldnt move some hose things, i think there would need to be a bit of effort installing a larger cooler, its lowwer then stock and pushing on some shiz so couldnt go any lower, dont recall anything above it being to close so i think a taller cooler would fit? sorry not certain :/

yea the new cooler pipe was a tad smaller but i thourght it would still be fine. heard people talking about the clamps being tight. yea they had become part of the rubber piping connector stuff.. but got them off some how. and yea his foot does say that haha, ( its not me)
got anything against P platers dan? :p and so what if i did drop skids ;) had to test out everything!

James

Okibi wrote:One of the intercoolers I was considering is 1.5 inches taller tan yours, think i'd have any issue getting that to fit?

It is possible but it's going to be a bit of a stuff around and not really worth it.
Mine is basically the same size it works out nicely with the mounts to the body just above it and just clearing the air con pipe on the passenger side, this is probably what James means about having the cooler slightly left (toward the drivers side), see pic.





It heat soaks a bit when stationary but drops quickly when moving, keeps up fine with 230hp at the wheels GT28 turbo.
I also use sections of the stock piping, it doesn't have any badly restrictive bends in it and you don't need piping larger than the turbo outlet.

James definitely make up some mounts to support that thing and consider some sturdier bolt style hose clamps, boost leaks are a pain.
I just ran a piece of C channel across the top of the cooler and tacked on angle brackets to line up with the original mounting holes they are kind of hidden behind the aircon lines but you get the idea.

If you want less lag you really need a better turbo, if you or your mate can use a welder it's not that hard to make a manifold and dump.
I've got a cheap megasquirt to get you on your way if you're up for the challenge, if you can harvest the female end of the loom connector from an old ECU I will make you a harness adaptor.