My DIY Intercooler piping.

[Guest]

DAY 1

well had the day off work today
first good weather we've had in 3 weeks....

so what better way to put it to use...then to work on my car!

so i got up early! and went shopping....

this didnt go as planned as i originally wanted to buy stainless steel for my pipe work,

this worked out far too expensive...
went to a few other places, and they couldnt do any better...

then i got referred to a place where they make the bends...

no luck at first as they only did huge orders! Bugga!
and at that i wouldnt even save that much if i was added to someone elses order...

then the guy says we have some 3" alloy imperfects we can do you cheap,
pick what you want....

so i went home with this lot... for $200nz (less than half what i would have paid for the stainless perfects) all 3", and 3mm thick!! and one 2.5" to 3" Stainless enlarger.

then i proceeded to strip the car of its front end and original pipes.

the new 600x300x76mm bar/plate cooler was fitted..

then i wanted to fit the original impact beam... no luck!
cooler was in the way.... so it got trimmed to fit (impact beam)
i'll get a new section welded in later....

by this stage my dad had taken the original Y turbo joiner over to his friends work to get the 2.5" to 3" enlarger welded on

this was quickly fitted by me...

followed by the impact beam...

then i looked at my pile of pipes,
hummed and harr'd....

cut and placed pieces together...

at this stage i stood back and looked at the huge gap on the otherside...

dammit bugger it... its been 8 hours now.... i give up for the day, LOL!

 

[Guest]

DAY 2


well another hard days work...

cut up some more bends,

and got the other side pieced together...
laid the BOV roughly where i wanted it..

then i marked up where to roughly drill the hole for the BOV flange,
and also where i need a bit of solid bar so i can drill and tap it.
to add the nipples for the boost controller and temp sensor for the map ecu.

the BOV flange fitted perfectly,
and taped in place the solid bar,

then the pipe work was all removed, so it can be welded on monday for me
this left it all looking bare...
time to fit the enlarged Plenum and Throttle Body...

only had to extend the return water feed from the TB to the engine so it all fitted together without any problems.

just need to fit the TPS from my original TB and it'll be good to go.

in the mean time the postman had dropped off a large parcel for me...
wonder what it is??

Yes its my cold air box to be,
the filters are a very tight squeeze.... maybe too tight??

and thats where todays progress ended,
now i just have to wait till monday to get all the welded pipes together.

 

[Guest]

ENLARGED PLENUM

this is the enlarged TB to fit the VR4,


its bolts on with no issues...
only thing you have to do is bore out the VR4 Intake plenum...

the TB was stolen from a 2.5L V6 legnum/galant

and it is much bigger than the vr4 item....

heres some pics,

old and new gaskit,

original plenum and gaskit

bored out vr4 plenum,

 

[VR-04-TT]

So you used the TB from a SOHC 6A13 N/A?

The work looks fantastic mate...I'm very impressed!!!!!

 

[Guest]

yes its the TB from the SHOC 2.5L V6 variant of the 8G legnums/galants.
the actual butterfly from the N/A V6 is about 7-8mm bigger or there abouts...

i havent had the car started with it on yet.
maybe within the next couple of days.

decided to do this job myself as its to bloody expensive to get a "PRO" workshop to do it for me.... got quoted 1200-1500 for the same job that ive doing for much less. (not including a cooler)

run down for costs so far, (NZ $)

Intercooler, $205
aluminium pipes $200
Silicone joiners and T-bolt Clamps $150
3 dozen bottles of beer and a bottle of spirts for welding $100

thats $655 for what they would have charged at least 2x as much.

and the money i would have saved ive spent on this lot

$136 on the cold air box,
$300 on a 2nd hand MAPECU,
$70 on a pair of simota filters,
$60 on the N/A TB

 

[Guest]

Can't wait to see the results, have you seen this sort of thing done on anyone eles car? the bigger plenum is a stoke of genius, very good idea

 

[snickells]

Carsten, that's an ace project your working on. Thanks for sharing this info with us, I know it will inspire quite a few people on here!

 

[bradc]

now you just need to learn how to make manifolds!

 

[VR-04-TT]

How hard/easy are these TB's to find? I'd love to get one

 

[Nick]

Brilliant DIY mate, Great pics and plenty of info, I appreciate the effort as I am sure everyone else does. I will do the same when fitting the TRUST kit so all can see.

Thanks again, and it looks HOT! Cant wait to see some dyno figures on this forum.

 

[Guest]

Can't wait to see the results, have you seen this sort of thing done on anyone eles car? the bigger plenum is a stoke of genius, very good idea

pipe work ive seen alot of, but mainly people doing a full 2.5" setup,
and using the small TB.....

i actually did the TB mod 2 months ago shortly after buying the VR4 i have...
just never fitted it as i didnt see the point with stock pipe work,

and i worked out it could be done 1-2 years ago when i still worked on my 25ST.

you can acutually fit the whole NA intake plenum from the V6 if you wanted..
it all bolts on... its a completely different design to the VR4 one.

as you can see here

 

[Guest]

How hard/easy are these TB's to find? I'd love to get one

its not to hard to find..
its just trying to find some one willing to seperate it from the motor thats a pain.

you can probabilly get one from www.kempys.co.nz

 

[Guest]

ITS DONE FOR NOW....

having a couple of issues thou,
the car feels more laggy? and im hitting boost/fuel cut at 10PSI 4-5psi lower than it did before

apart from that nothing else wrong to report,
im gonna do something about the look of the pipe work down the track.

i think the boost/fuel cut is due to the bored out plenum and larger throtal body.

if anyone can comment on this? i think there may be to much flow at a lower PSI and the stock ECU cannot handle this?
and throwing a wobbly?? ideas suggestions??

its actually really annoying as it happens just as the powers building up!
i may have to put the original plenum and TB back on?? would this help??

its not time i invest in a wideband and a FCD (fuel cut defender)

 

[Guest]

Lag is what i thought may be an issues, you have a lot more space to fill before you get the same boost, if you had bigger turbo's i think it would be a big step up, but to get the most out of it all, you will need a ECU IMHO

 

[Guest]

ive got a piggy back already installed,

Map Ecu (www.mapecu.com)

with this i can tune the fueling and get rid of the MAF.

the lag isnt really annoying, its the fuel/boost cut i keep getting!

 

[Guest]

just wondering how you went fiitting the front bumper back on? any problems?

 

[Guest]

the stock bumper went on with no major issues. it was i bit tighter in places.
didnt have to trim it to get it on again...

only problem was the impact bar had to be trimed on the inside.

 

[cittris]

mate bloody brilliant. This is awesome work. Also very nice to look at. im jealous

 

[Guest]

well was still having issues with boost cut today,
so ive applied the MAF mod...
basically it lets more unmetered air past the maf...
i wound it out half way to see if it would halp with the boost/fuel cut im having...
seams to have helped a bit, and ive now fully wound it out...
but havent been for a test spin yet.

the car feels somewhat better to drive, but cant tell if its any faster or even getting there faster? mainly due to boost/fuel cut.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like you are getting there, maybe you need to get this thing ona dyno and get some solid tunning done