My DIY Front Mount Intercooler -KZJ78 - Work In Progress (1 Viewer)

[Jolton49]

Starting work on my DIY front mount intercooler kit and documenting my progress...
I begin by picking a universal intercooler the Mishimoto G-line universal intercooler. Going over the specs, this is way overkill and i could have made it easier on myself if i went with a smaller intercooler:

MAXIMUM RECOMMENDED BOOST PRESSURE (PSI)	32
MAXIMUM RECOMMENDED HORSEPOWER	800
OVERALL LENGTH (IN)	24.5
OVERALL HEIGHT (IN)	13.1
OVERALL WIDTH (IN)	3

I first begin by removing the front grill and corner lights followed by taking out the center support bracket for the grill. There are many other mounting points and i plan to 3d-print some support brackets to replace the center support once i've got the intercooler mounted up.

I then place the intercooler in and started mocking up locations that would fit. Due to clearancing issues of A/C components that i do not want to relocate, I have placed the intercooler lower underneath the components and lines.

I am now mocking up 3d-printed brackets to support the intercooler. These will be replaced by metal brackets in the future once i have everything where i want them.


My next steps will be to mock up the lower 2 brackets followed by cutting 2 holes on the radiator support roughly around where the car horns are currently positioned. This will be for the intercooler pipes to pass through and bend down to the intercooler.

Any feedback will be appreciated, thanks!

 

[Jolton49]

I also had to modify the grill slightly by cutting a bit off the backside in order to get the intercooler to fit.

 

[Jolton49]

After mocking up the intercooler, I eyeballed what it would look like if i were to mount it high up in the grill and it would require cutting a significant portion of the backside of the grill so i opted not to do it but i think it would be possible to fit and look decent as well.

 

[Jolton49]

Today's update is a small one....i realized you can't close and secure your hood properly without the center bracket that i removed. When the hood engages the locking mechanism, it will deflect and rotate back so your hood can never fully engage the mechanism. I may just trim the lower half of the center support bracket and reuse the upper portion.

 

[coldtaco]

Been there done that my first front mount intercooler project I ended up installing race car hood pins which worked out pretty good.

 

[Jolton49]

I got the 90 degree bends in. These are 3" at the intercooler and reduce to 2.5" after the bend

 

[GTSSportCoupe]

Nice work

 

[Houser]

Today's update is a small one....i realized you can't close and secure your hood properly without the center bracket that i removed. When the hood engages the locking mechanism, it will deflect and rotate back so your hood can never fully engage the mechanism. I may just trim the lower half of the center support bracket and reuse the upper portion.

I cut my support bracket like this. Its still holding up.

 

[Jolton49]

View attachment 3462210
I cut my support bracket like this. Its still holding up.

Thanks! I did something similar as well! Did you cut yours up for an intercooler? How did that go?

 

[Jolton49]

Here are this weekends updates:
1. Redesigned upper bracket
2. Installed lower brackets made of aluminum and 3dprinted petg
3.) Cut center bracket
4.) A lot of minor adjustments for clearance

 

[Houser]

Thanks! I did something similar as well! Did you cut yours up for an intercooler? How did that go?

Yep. Works good.

 

[Jolton49]

View attachment 3463440
Yep. Works good.

What size intercooler pipes did you go with? And where did you cut out your pass-through holes? Thanks

 

[Houser]

What size intercooler pipes did you go with? And where did you cut out your pass-through holes? Thanks

View attachment 3464934

Well actually, I didnt have to cut any holes. I used a water-air setup and was able to route the water lines under the
radiator frame. I like the direct air setups better but couldn't figure out a nice way to route the 2.5” hoses without a bunch cutting and reorganizing. The water-air setup tends to get a bit heat soaked on a long grade and has additional fail points you wont have with the direct air. If you can figure out a nice clean way to route your air hoses you'll be better off with the simple direct air setup.

 

[Jolton49]

Now that I have the intercooler mounted, my project has stalled as I work on a design for an intake airbox and planning the routing for the intercooler pipes:

 

[Bad Mojo]

Oh man, someone is getting fancy with the 3D scanning. No judgement, I think it is great and I loved the 3D printed prototype of the mounts.

What system did you use to scan with?

What is the thought with the new airbox? More space needed because of the intercooler piping?

 

[Jolton49]

I uses the Einstar scanner, great product for the price. The main purpose of the airbox is to just take up less space in the engine bay to allow for more flexibility of the intercooler piping. With the OEM round filter box, it takes up a lot of real estate and requires bending and cutting the intercooler pipe and front passthrough hole at difficult locations.

 

[coldtaco]

I uses the Einstar scanner, great product for the price. The main purpose of the airbox is to just take up less space in the engine bay to allow for more flexibility of the intercooler piping. With the OEM round filter box, it takes up a lot of real estate and requires bending and cutting the intercooler pipe and front passthrough hole at difficult locations.

I’ve run two intercoolers on two different 70 series and run the intercooler tubing easily low and inside of the headlights. Right side piping runs past the factory air box just fine.

 

[Jolton49]

I’ve run two intercoolers on two different 70 series and run the intercooler tubing easily low and inside of the headlights. Right side piping runs past the factory air box just fine.

That's good to hear! Do you have any pics you can share of the intercooler piping? Hot and cold side? I would really appreciate some reference photos

 

[coldtaco]

That's good to hear! Do you have any pics you can share of the intercooler piping? Hot and cold side? I would really appreciate some reference photos

I don’t have any of the 13BT engine, maybe if you google search 13BT intercooler iH8mud it might show up. For the 75 it’s in my build thread

13B-T intercooler

jzilla Can you post some pics for us?? Noah

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[Jolton49]

I am mostly happy with my intake box project except i made the lid too tall by .5" so the hood won't close properly. I will now revise the 3d printed lid to sit lower and i'll be happy. Much more clearance in the engine bay now.