Front mount intercooler

Fitting a GTR front mount intercooler

I found a GTR fmic for sale and decided to mount it on my S13 200SX.

Step one...  Making space

The intercooler is only about 5 cm narrower than the gap between the headlights so there isn't much room for it.  I removed the front bumper in preparation. This was fairly straightforward, if a little awkward.

When offered up it became obvious that the battery and washer bottle had to be moved out of the way to give access for the outlet side of the IC.

The battery will now sit on the nearside wall in the boot. 

The battery live feed is a really chunky high spec cable which should be able to handle around 180 amps (plenty for the sx, which draws around 80 amps.)

I ran the cable from the battery box, into the offside wing. Over the wheel and into the grommet,  routing over the steering column and into the centre console. Then using the centre console to guide the cable to the back seats, under the carpet and into the boot, where it was tucked under the nearside rear trim.

 

The battery will now sit where the jack access panel was inside the boot.

I was planning to route a cable for the earth but was advised against this due to possible noise induction from having two long lengths of thick gauge cable running all over the place.

So with this in mind I'll try a short earth going onto the body of the car in the boot.

I made a box for the battery out of half inch plywood and this'll be secured in the boot by some large size M12 bolts. The box will be covered in carpet to conceal it.

The next problem was that the windscreen washer bottle sits directly beneath the battery, so this also had to go.

I found a small bottle which will fit in the gap.

I had some aluminium stock sitting about at home so this is going to be made into some brackets to hold the Ic in place.

Photo of front end

Bren of Apex performance came through with the goods and got hold of all of the samco hoses that I needed.

I also bought a dump valve.

New and old picture the std one is in front !! DOH

The brackets were mounted as the picture below shows using existing bolt holes from the front under tray.

The front bumper brace is going to cover almost half of the face of the Ic so some modifications need to be carried out on this. These mods were carried out using a delicate adjustment tool otherwise known as an angle grinder. The result was a much straighter line than I could have cut with a saw.

The bumper was then test fitted, to see where adjustments would have to be made. The bumper is made from soft plastic like a washing up bottle and is easy to cut.

The intercooler itself is secured by 3 mounts made from aluminium with the outer mounts secured on the bolt fixings for the undertray. The centre fixing is by means of the bonnet mount and bent to form a support.

The bumper brace, having now been cut to allow for more airflow, sits level with the top of the ic and a support has been made on this to pin the ic into position.

 

I already had some samco hoses in 80mm bore that would get the pipes into the engine bay so a chat with Bren of apex performance was called for. He managed to get me all of the hoses I needed so in just 1 day I had the pipes ready for me to work out what hardpipes I required to complete the installation. I also ordered one of the pipes with a take off for the dump valve and an outlet for the vacuum hose which regulates idle running.