3SGTE: 2nd Gen MR2 Turbo Intercoolers

[PHOENIX]

^ from my online research, so far I have not found anything wrong with the cores and people really like them. The only thing bad i have read about them is sometimes the mounting tabs are off.

Edit: This is just the core, not he piping and couplers, those are usually junk

[canadam]

Yeah, I haven't heard that for a while. I'm reall considering picking one up.

[Sang]

Originally Posted by PHOENIX

^ from my online research, so far I have not found anything wrong with the cores and people really like them. The only thing bad i have read about them is sometimes the mounting tabs are off.

The cores for all the SMIC kits are roughly the same, it's hard to fudge one up. The main problem I see with the knock of kits is primarily the couplers. None of the kits i've seen floating around come with the proper transition couplers. Add to that, many (but i guess not all?) provide very cheap couplers that cannot withstand any significant amount of boost and therefore have a tendency to pop off. With the advent of what tearstone mentioned with his kit, that they replaced the small bent pipes for couplers, it seems like you'll only have more trouble. Replacing straight couplers are pretty cheap, hump hoses cost quite a bit more. Seems like with the 90* bent couplers would just keep driving up the cost to "fix" the problems with the ebay type kits.

IMHO the KO kit is one of the better kits with this style core. 2-piece piping to minimize the number of couplers used, and all the bits and pieces like the fan, shroud, and vent shroud. Then the berk with cast end tanks, aluminum piping and hump hoses. Then finally, pieceing it together yourself starting from the ebay kits.

[butho33]

I think the ARC intercooler picture posted on the first page is supposed to be a HKS intercooler

I bought the HKS intercooler for 175 but it does not come with pipings. I kept on looking and found 2 pictures

[Tearstone]

Originally Posted by Sang

IMHO the KO kit is one of the better kits with this style core. 2-piece piping to minimize the number of couplers used, and all the bits and pieces like the fan, shroud, and vent shroud. Then the berk with cast end tanks, aluminum piping and hump hoses. Then finally, pieceing it together yourself starting from the ebay kits.

I have been speaking with Kris (KO Racing) and that seems like a pretty good way to go with the piping that they provide there. The only thing that sort of concerns me is that to use that piping you have to unbolt the stock pipe that comes out of the turbo from the head and let it "float" there. The piping kit was primarily designed to be used with their "hot pipe" replacement.

[Sang]

Originally Posted by butho33

I think the ARC intercooler picture posted on the first page is supposed to be a HKS intercooler

I bought the HKS intercooler for 175 but it does not come with pipings. I kept on looking and found 2 pictures

Many manufacturers use similar cores in their kits. There's only so many ways to make a core the correct shape to fit in the stock location. Much like how Apex and Pheonix Power share the same core. the differences lie in the piping, which HKS's suck, and Arc reuses the stockers.

[Sang]

Originally Posted by Tearstone

I have been speaking with Kris (KO Racing) and that seems like a pretty good way to go with the piping that they provide there. The only thing that sort of concerns me is that to use that piping you have to unbolt the stock pipe that comes out of the turbo from the head and let it "float" there. The piping kit was primarily designed to be used with their "hot pipe" replacement.

Right. The angles are fairly tight. A few vendors have tried making 2 piece kits before hand (and trying to get them to fit with TRD strut bars). The fact of the matter is, to mandrel bend the pipes, the turn radius will be quite tight if you attempt to keep the hotpipe in its oem location, and depending on piping size, sometimes nearly impossible without careful work. Personally, I don't really mind that it's slightly different, so long as it works and is functional.

But really, there isn't much of an issue. If you plan to change out the hotpipe for Kris's 2.5" piece, there are no perforations for mount the stay bracket anyways...so keeping them in the stock location wouldn't make much sense if there's no for-seeable benefit other than to just retain the oem piping route.

If it makes any difference, the turbo I am running (because of the adapter to mate it to the manifold, places the compressor outlet in another location than stock. Because of that, the hotpipe is also put into a slightly different location and thus, wont allow me to retain the hotpipe bracket. It's been like this for the past year without any issue and countless others as well.

[Tearstone]

Just to check back in on where I left off. We have a dealer account with Forge Motorsport and went over there to pick up some of their Samco style Silicone hose they offer in 45 and 90 degree flavors.

[Tearstone]

I managed to find couplers from Forge Motorsport and finish up the SSAC intercooler install. Still I found this to be more cost effective than to throw down $300 on piping from KO racing.

SSAC Intercooler shroud from Mr. Bedell



Infamous SSAC Intercooler



Retained the use of the stock fan



Flippin' sweet



Blue couplers provided from Forge, the black couplers are from the stock configuration.



Using the stock hose required me to use part of one of the Forge coupler's trimmings right before the throttle body. Forge did not have any transitions this size when I went over there so this is the current fix.

[canadam]

Why are the Forge couplers better than the SSAC ones, out of curiousity?

[Tearstone]

Originally Posted by canadam

Why are the Forge couplers better than the SSAC ones, out of curiousity?

I could have sworn you posted a reply on I had to get the couplers from Forge at the bottom of Page 2 of this thread.

[canadam]

Originally Posted by Tearstone

I could have sworn you posted a reply on I had to get the couplers from Forge at the bottom of Page 2 of this thread.

Never even heard of Forge The only thing I've heard about the SSAC plumbing is that the pipes could use beads to hold the couplers on better, and the couplers could be hump hoses.

I'm still trying to learn what is needed to get the best out of the SSAC kit myself.

[Tearstone]

Originally Posted by canadam

Never even heard of Forge The only thing I've heard about the SSAC plumbing is that the pipes could use beads to hold the couplers on better, and the couplers could be hump hoses.

I'm still trying to learn what is needed to get the best out of the SSAC kit myself.

The piping does come with beads.

This is a link to Forge: http://www.forgemotorsport.com/

Essentially within the last year Forge has gotten into couplers. The reason I had to get the Forge couplers because they are similar to the Samco style couplers which can be trimmed for a better fit unlike the turbonetics style which are typically very specific on length. The SSAC does not come with any of the right couplers at all. In the picture you can see that I retained the use of the black stock couplers and added a 45 and a 90 degree hose to make up the necessarily length that they cut out with discontinuing the hard 90 & 45 that used to come with the kit.

Even though I had to do a little foot work to get the SSAC intercooler to match up right, I think all in all it is still very well worth in considering how much money you save buying the alternatives.

[karl]

here's a one-off that i made. ebay core (12x11x4) with 2.5" piping. total cost was ~$350.







it relocates the AFM to the passenger wheel well. i just turned the metal pipe around on the intake elbow and joined it to a 3" extension. the extension pipe is polished to reflect heat from being right above the turbo/exhaust, but it doesn't actually get nearly as hot as i had planned on it getting. i'll probably still make a heat shield, but i no longer feel it's necessary. the AFM is offset far enough that it doesn't even get hot.

there's a 1kcfm 12" fan underneath the IC core that's wired on with the ignition, pulling cool air from the side vent. the core gets barely warm after significant boosting..

the couplers are from www.siliconeintakes.com, their prices are very good, their shipping is lightning fast and thus far the couplers are of excellent quality.

the BPV is mounted directly to the IC end tank and vents right into a shortened recirc pipe.

overall i'm pretty happy with it, since i didn't want to lose my trunk. it's a rather massive core (more than double the size of the greddy, about half the monster core used on hyde).

if anyone is interested or has questions on how to build one, just let me know..

[MR2TRD1]

what's with the clear aquarium tubing?

[karl]

only stuff i could find in the garage at the time. most of the vac tubing is cobbled together. i've never had any problems with it, but it is temporary..

[Tycoon788]

Hey tearstone, how hard was that to install?

[b.18tuner5875]

now ive seen an mr2 in a tuner magazine with two side mount intercoolers, one behinf each little side vent. is this setup better? or is it not worth the trouble? and what intercoolers would do this job the best

[Larry70454]

2 Intercoolers?!

[PXEVOMR]

Quick question since this is the intercooler thread.

I noticed on the SSAC website that there are two different intercooler kits for the MR2.

http://www.ssautochrome.com/level.itml/icOid/1438

1 has 4 hard pipes, 1 has 2 but the one with 2 pipes is dubbed "SUPER". Anyone know what the difference is between these two cores? Is the larger size the reason for the exclusion of two hard pipes?