[HotSoup]

Since there seems to be alot of interest in these intercoolers, I decided to do a writeup when I installed mine. Total installation time including fabricating, drinking, and bullshitting was about 10 hours. I havent had a chance to drive the car yet(rain), but I should be able to give a report this evening.

1) Take the entire front end of the car off per MKIV.com Greddy 3-row directions(also use the Toyota service manual)
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2)You will have to modify the AC sight glass for clearance purposes

For relocation of the AC sight glass, just remove the bracket and bend it up and over to the right(this will allow clearance of the hood latch:

You can see the sight glass up and to the right in this pic
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3) The next step will be to flatten out the PS cooler. You need to take the bracket on the lower left hand side and move it up one row and to the right. You will then have to fabricate a new mount that will attach to the radiator support as shown in the pic below.

To flatten the PS cooler, loosen all the mounts and get the cooler as straight in a line as possible.

After this take the cooler and hold it with your right hand, with your left hand pull the cooler towards you. This will allow the cooler to be pushed inward towards the radiator. Now push it towards the radiator leaving about an inch or so gap between the rad and the cooler.
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4) Now you will relocate the junction box for the hood latch. To do this, we fabricated a flat piece of aluminum and marked the holes for the jx box, then mounted it on the radiator support. Here is a pic of it installed:

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Here is a pic of the PS cooler relocated, as well as the Junction box, also pictured is the AC line sight glass after being moved up:

 

[HotSoup]

PART 2 Core Mounting

Now the car is ready for the core to be mounted. When you look at the intercoolers on eBay, look closely there are a couple of kinds. I researched alot before I bought mine, and acutally did some measuring from a customer with a Greddy 3-Row to get the measurements I needed to install the core properly.

1) Mock up the core and take some measurements for the top brackets. The bosses on this core are ~14 inches apart, some are farther from the endtanks and will need more difficult fabrication. We took measurements and made the brackets out of steel. Here are some pics of the top brackets and also pics of them installed:

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2) The lower brackets were a little more difficult, but they turned out great. We had to bend the brackets to make them bolt up to the rad support, but it worked great and once again bolted straight up to the rad support with no additional holes being drilled. Here are the pics of the brackets installed:

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Here is a pic of the core installed and bolted down. It is solid as a rock, and fits great.

 

[HotSoup]

For the last part of this article, I will show the overflow tank relocation we did. After looking at the tank shoved beside the battery, we figured there was something better we could do than that. Dale make a bracket out of sheet aluminum and attached it to the fan shroud. I think it looks trick, and just like it would if it were stock.

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I hope this will help some others out with installing this core, as it wasnt very easy but it wasnt the most difficult thing I ever did either. I would like to thank Dale my fabricator for all the help in this. Here are some pics of the core and piping mounted, also a pic of the front end back on the car

 

[racinghart]

Great writeup.

 

[94twinturbo]

nice looks good it's a big ass fmi. how much did u pay for it if i don't mind me asking also wut about the intercooler pipes are they custom bent?

 

[Lintrix]

Whoa thanks for the writup!!!

Is this the one from the same guy as the guy i bought it from?

What kind of piping is that?

 

[93HRDTOPTT]

Nice finger nail mod! I have one of those mods myself!! :bigthumb:

 

[MDSUPERSTAR]

Congrats on finishing the project up Jason. I'm glad to see you were able to fit it well without any major issues.

 

[HotSoup]

Well, I just drove the car back home.......DAMN is all I can say. The butt dyno definately says it makes more power, I may have had a boost leak before. I can hold 21PSI rock solid now, it was dropping off before. I totally reccomend this FMIC, and I should have the car tuned in the next couple of weeks........so dyno sheets will be in.

Jason

 

[quick]

I suspect that if you drive your car hard at all your will boil your PS fluid with that setup. A FMIC is not recommended for anyone who is interested in autox or road racing. Street cars aren't nearly as hard on the cooling system, so it's likely less of a concern.

 

[saabturbo1]

You can always relocate the PS cooler or get a bigger one.

I put a IC like this one but the 3'' version on a KA-T 240SX with a t3/t4.
The temp out of the turbo was 240F and after the IC it was 95F and out side ~90F.

IC is IC its aluminum and I see a lot of people taking crap about these here and there. It's the best bang for the BUCK ever!!

 

[quick]

You can always relocate the PS cooler or get a bigger one.

No -- you can't relocate the stock cooler. Look at the design. Where are you going to fit that piping? The answer is ~$200 and time to install an aftermarket one in the driver-side duct.

I put a IC like this one but the 3'' version on a KA-T 240SX with a t3/t4.
The temp out of the turbo was 240F and after the IC it was 95F and out side ~90F.

Remember that the Supra comes with a sidemount intercooler. That works just fine with stock twins and in some cases small single turbos.

IC is IC its aluminum and I see a lot of people taking crap about these here and there. It's the best bang for the BUCK ever!!

Eh? You're not making any sense with this comment. A front-mount intercooler causes overheating on a Supra on the road course. Plain and simple. It's a nice modification for a street car or a drag car, but not for a car driven on the road course that doesn't invest SIGNIFICANTLY in cooling modifications.

Do you really want to start debating the merits of a front-mount with me? heh.

 

[BU2Soopra]

I was going to comment on the power steering cooler also. Its barely going to get any air in back of 4" of aluminum. I would go with the side cooler, save yourself from buying a new power steering pump or rack and pinion from boiling the fluids. Just my $.02

 

[Celica91st]

now where could we get power steering lines for relocation?

 

[quick]

now where could we get power steering lines for relocation?

Summit Racing. They have pretty much everything you could want.

 

[sonny12]

Nice writeup. How did you get ic piping. What do you guys think about ebay intercooler piping.

 

[zerorecall]

I agree with the all the points that everyone has made, give the guy a few pointer where he could fix the heating problem and give him his props, looks like he did a good job for what he got. Now just get a PS cooler and your good to go.

 

[Supradedupra]

my intercooler will be here wednesday.... I'm trying to find piping for my ic...

.... looking at this... did you take the crash impact bar off permanently?

also... can you post some specs on how we can make these brackets ourselfs? Thanks...

 

[Ex5.0]

Why does it look like you used a reducer coupling on the driver's side? All that piping should be 3" Also, it looks like the IC is sitting right on the bottom of the core support on top, if anything is rubbing, you could rub a hole in the aluminum. Also, the aftermarket IC kits usually mount them a little lower I think. I'm not going to argue that a thick FMIC hinders radiator flow, but they do lower charge temps and make more power on the street or drag racing. I don't think HotSoup mentioned anything about roadracing either. I recall Andi B having a FMIC on his car also, I know he road raced a lot. Also, if the coolant isn't too hot, I doubt the ps cooler location is going to be a problem since it's in front of the radiator. I know the Greddy kit provides a new ps cooler for the drivers side, but the Blitz and HKS intercoolers put a smaller one in the original location. I don't recall anyone posting about problems w/ either setup.

 

[HotSoup]

Why does it look like you used a reducer coupling on the driver's side? All that piping should be 3" Also, it looks like the IC is sitting right on the bottom of the core support on top, if anything is rubbing, you could rub a hole in the aluminum. Also, the aftermarket IC kits usually mount them a little lower I think. I'm not going to argue that a thick FMIC hinders radiator flow, but they do lower charge temps and make more power on the street or drag racing. I don't think HotSoup mentioned anything about roadracing either. I recall Andi B having a FMIC on his car also, I know he road raced a lot. Also, if the coolant isn't too hot, I doubt the ps cooler location is going to be a problem since it's in front of the radiator. I know the Greddy kit provides a new ps cooler for the drivers side, but the Blitz and HKS intercoolers put a smaller one in the original location. I don't recall anyone posting about problems w/ either setup.

Maybe it is just the pic, but the piping is 3" from the passenger fender to the throttle body.

The intercooler is mounted the same height as a customer's 3-row, as I took all the measurements from it and applied it to mine.

I drove the car to Charlotte today in ~80 degree weather and didnt have any issues with heating whatsoever. Also, I never mentioned anything about the P.S. cooler getting hot, I dont think it will be an issue because I dont autocross/road race.

I appreciate all the comments from this, it wasnt that bad of an install as I had alot of help from various documents I had found on the net.

Jason