Intercooler Piping D.I.Y

What I used:

1 x 600 x 300 x 76 fmic
5 x 90 degree bends
4 x 45 degree bends
approx 1.5 metres of 2.5" stainless steel
3 x 3" to 2.5" reducers
1 x 2.5" to 2" reducer
3 x 3" of silicon joiners
2 x 2.5" of silicon joiners
1 x 2" silicon joiner
exhaust heat wrap (not a must but will help)
and sufficient hose clamps

Tools: Angle grinder + cutting blade (would've been a better idea to use a drop saw but I didnt have one) welder (we did mine with a tig welder, maybe possible with stick but itd probably wreck the piping) gaffa tape usual screw drivers and stuff

Ok how I set about doing this was running the pipe from the tb down to the gap between the engine fan and the engine then down on an angle to a 45 degree bend then thru the gap between the headlight and the body of the car to the cooler. On the other side from the turbo down and made a hole under the pod to the cooler.

I started by mounting the cooler, I dont think there is one certain way to do this but we welded a piece of flat bar to the filler panel between the bumper and the lights and then putting two bolts thru that to the cooler, I didnt bother bolting the bottom two bolts down as I thought with the piping itself it would be held all good

File:Diypiping1.jpg

Ok what i did to put mine together was start it one at a time and gaffer tape all the pieces together so then later you have a general idea when you are welding as to where pieces fit, it is hard to get it exact but if you have the car there then you can do one piece and put it on the car to make sure.

I also made my piping in four different pieces because when we did the welding we were slightly off but enough to be made fine by silicon joiners so its possible you may not even need this. The join on the inlet side is right beside the battery just after a 45 degree bend. On the turbo side its basically right after the 90 degree bend off the turbo, i needed to do this because we were slightly off, but again you may not need to do this.

The sequence I ended up putting my pipes together is like this going from the direction of the flow from the turbo -

2" to 2.5" reducer
90 degree bend
about 20 cms of straight silicon joiner

45 degree bend
straight pipe down through hole in body
45 degree bend towards front of car
90 degree bend to cooler
small amount of straight
2.5" to 3" reducer
FMIC
3" to 2.5" reducer
90 degree bend up
small amount of straight (to about where the gap to the engine bay is)

File:Diypiping4.jpg

45 degree bend into engine bay
Small amount of straight slightly angled to the passenger side of the car
45 degree bend right about where the corner of the battery is
Straight pipe that passes over the engine fan to about the corner of the engine (passenger side)
90 degree bend
Straight pipe (I mounted my BOV here)
90 degree bend aiming towards the TB
Straight pipe to close to the TB
2.5" to 3" reducer

File:Diypiping5.jpg

Thats the path that I followed, I am going to wrap the straight pipe that passes over the engine fan in exhaust wrap so hot air doesnt heat up the cooled piping, this is not necessary but it will help a bit. The hardest part about this job is doing the welding in my opinion, that alone took about 4 hours but we also polished it up real shmick and were using a tig so it took longer but turned out better.

The only other thing I can think you would really need is that you dont need to take out your battery you can just angle it to the side and as long as you remove the battery holding plate thing. The standard battery clamp even holds it down no drilling required.

See also[edit]