Gauging interest: Rb intercooler kits

[ch187]

im in the midst of fabricating a fmic kit for an rb25 swap. my boss wanted me to keep the battery for the sake of time and money. we are using a Presicion intercooler which uses a Garrett core. the best you can get. tested up to~400hp yet is small enough to further ease the installation. its short but its thick. the hot pipe runs across the top of the core and a U bend on the end. making the cold pipe as short as possible. cold side being on the drivers' side. minimal piping is in the engine bay for less clutter, keep your battery in stock location. the pipes are made of stainless 2.5" high quality stuff. i enjoy working with it. a final price is still undetermined but he wants to see how many poeple would be interested. i will get some progress pics up hopefully tomorrow before i leave town but im about 12hours into the job and im 90% done the hot pipe and 40% done the cold pipe. note that i did more than just the intercooler. 12 hours sounds like a lot but its been a busy couple of days. thanks guys.

[Adrian gt]

this thread is worthless without pictures

[oneslow240se]

estimated cost and pictures

[Coolwhip]

estimated cost and pictures

[Darius]

Dam! She needs to let those babies breathe! They look like two bald midgets wrestling in her dress.

[ch187]

yeah i agree. i had my buddy stop by and snap some as i was finishing up. i used a shorter core so i could bring the piping over top and keep the hot and cold side on the same side. so if you guys do want a kit, i have a prototype completed. it took me about 15 hours and im pretty happy with it. i'll get pics tonight, im leaving this weekend so i have to go get them.

[240SXinTX]

im in for pics of the boobs or the itntercooler, what ever comes first......

[ch187]

my buddy who has the camera should be hosting them tomorrow. i was just curious if theres even market for it. like, would it be worthwhile to reproduce the kit. and how much you guys would even pay.

[Adrian gt]

(.)Y(.)

[Topless_92]

Got some pictures of the FMIC Kit:

[ch187]

thanks mike. your the ****.

the pipes arent secured in the pics so fitment wasnt exact but they work.. i like how it turned out. its my own design..havent seen any other like it. i can get smaller cores like this, or cores up for up to 900hp and worth every penny.

[fast_s14]

the kit looks very nice! Looks like it took some planning but the end product was worth it

[ch187]

thanks man. i appreciate it. still waiting for the criticism though..

the pipes clear everything. bumper, turning signals, head light, barely..

[Coolwhip]

That looks to be a lot more pipping. And a 180* bend

I've seen similar off the shelf kits that use that route for the Gtt r34's

But I have an idea for a nice pipping set up. I just need to get the motor in and situated to test it out

But looks good I must say.

[ch187]

the 180 bend is the only thing i dont like about the kit but it keeps the battery in the engine bay and think of it like this..would you rather have the hot pipe the longer one or the coldpipe the longer one like in most kits. i honestly dont think its that much more piping but yes the 180 was dissapointing.

i think if i made a kit out of it i would use a more expensive core that the left end tank spands across the top of the core. making the core look like it was a same side but it actually brings air across the top and into the left endtank. unfortunately the shipment was late enough for this core.

[OKRB20DET]

i dunno about having 5 feet of pipe all above my IC...i dont like how it looks.

[Adrian gt]

the 180 isn't that bad but honestly is it that hard to relocate the battery?if you can do a rb swap you can relocate the battery

[Coolwhip]

either use:

a same side inlet intercooler

or

a intercooler that has the end tanks that run across the top and bottom to the same side.

This flow across that flow back is too much craziness

[DriftX]

Nice craftsmanship.

I have a kit where the cold pipe runs beneath the battery tray and under the upper radiator hose, across the engine, bends into the stock intake.

It's crazy and that looks much easier to install and the piping is crazy on it. I would look into it if mine didn't have an intercooler already.

[SeVa-S13]

i dunno about having 5 feet of pipe all above my IC...i dont like how it looks.

Your bumper would be hiding it.

Looks nice. I'm assuming this kit forces the loss of the bumper support?

Edit:

DAMN.

[ch187]

some of you dont read do you. dont tell me what i shouldve done, thats my boss' job. i used what i had,and i think it looks fine. its ok though, ill let this kid have the only kit ever made. you guys can buy your ebay rb20/25 front mount kit and have a 12 foot coldpipe and a tin can of a core..yay for efficency!

there was minimal cutting of the bumper needed and the core completely fills the opening. the car is a bone stock hatch, one of the cleanest ive ever seen. thanks for your opinions.

[Coolwhip]

According to the FMIC diagram the cold pipe shouldn't be 12ft long:



Man you gotta lighten up and see that good, bad, or ugly opinions on this is only going to help you. You are gauging interest on a product you look to sell. If the potential customers don't like the design they're not going to buy it. So this allows you to revamp your design now before its produced.

So that being said, keep your "bone sock hatch" and I'll use my tin can intercooler core. Since precision turbo intercoolers are so hard to source.

Good luck with that one.

[preston240sx]

Drift can you get me a pic of where you drilled the 3 inch hole on the battery side ? I need a pic if you could thxI bought the same kit you have

[Darius]

either use:

a same side inlet intercooler

or

a intercooler that has the end tanks that run across the top and bottom to the same side.

This flow across that flow back is too much craziness

+1

Having a split end tank on the driver's side minimizes piping and that way you can run a taller IC dimension in the same space that would otherwise be taken up by the cold pipe.

[Coolwhip]

Like I said, its nothing new but this way its cleaner, saves your crash bar, and its a off the shelf unit.

But still has crazy amount of pipping compared to other units

(and thats the cleanest RB25 car I've seen to date)

[Urnext]

The kit looks nice but I'm currently dealing with a rb 240 that has a cold pipe as wide as the car and the cars useless under 4 grand. My honest opinion is if you can source these awesome intercoolers why don't you get one with stacked tanks ie inlet tank on top outlet tank on bottom or reversed. This kind of setup cuts the intercooler piping down a whole lot your looking at maybe a foot more of pipe then if you ran a side mount. Another route to go would be make a kit that you have to relocate the battery BTW engine bays look so clean without it, and fab up a different intake setup you seem like your good with welding make a stainless or alum. intake manifold to sell along with an intercooler kit it would be a win win situation for someone looking for short piping and a trick engine bay. Not trying to be d!ck just adding my two sense I'm in the business too and when I go show off what I got I always listen to the naysayers their the people who help me come up with better ideas. You got a good foundation now build upon it.

[ch187]

yeah i appoligize for being a little *****. i dont even remember what kind of mood i was in. this isnt the way i wanted the kit. but we ordered the core before i was even able to tear into the car and come up with a design. i had the idea of the same side endtanks but didnt have the core for it. this was also a sort of rushed project. so i could just say hey i need this core, when **** had to get done.

as for making a kit, i still want to do one just not like this. i want to use a bigger (same-side) core.

the core i had in mind- haha now that im in a better i can explain this..

there are a few different styles of same side intercoolers..first



bad. this is why boss stays away from even ordering. its essentially a very very tall and very very skinny core turned on its side. efficiency is less than optimal. but still could be used effectively.



basically like mine but without the wicked 180 bend. piping still lengthy but with any same side core its something you usually sacrifice.



in this one its all in the core itself

let me know what you guys think. i mainly showed you the one i did so you would get an idea of the core, piping, and craftsmanship. if i were to do one i would want input first and thats why i made this thread. i think i was just a little bitter because i busted my *** for 3 days straight trying to get the customers car delivered. thanks guys

[Urnext]

I know these are ebay coolers but they are the closest to what I would use.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...wItemThat ones cool because the end tank is actually 2 piece so there would be absolutely no leakage.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...wItemThis on is very similar to the first on you posted but a little bigger tanks maybe better flowAlso an advantage to an intercooler set up like this is if you can get the tanks to flow well you will have a more efficent intercooler you see because your flowing up or down instead of across your giving your air more fins to flow though as you make the cooler wider giving it less pressure drop and more surface area. Let me explain that incase it doesn't make sense lets say you have so called normal style intercooler and you have an area that will fit a 30wide by 15high core using a bar plate design lets say you have 20 bars that flow across the cooler with a length of 30 inchesnow if you had a set up like what I posted last there you might have something more like 40 bars flowing down with a length of 15 in thus causing less pressure drop because you have more area to force the air though. In that same aspect lets say you have enough room to go bigger with the normal style you add no flow area because your taking those same 20 bars and lengthing them opposed to with the side setup you area adding more flow bars to increase the cooler size. That may have gotten a little confusing if anyone would like to look further into my madness of boost go by a book called Maximum Boost by Corky Bell it opened up a whole new world for me when i read it a while back. Anyway I never could figure out why more core setups don't add more flow bars compared to just lengthing them but it also depends alot on tank design and its easier to make a tank for the design everyone uses compared to the one that works the best.Don't get me wrong normal coolers work great but I've always tried to use a setup like what i have been rambling about. Hopes this helps and doesn't confuse if i didn't have a mac and had windows i would have added some "paint" pics or something

[ch187]

you've convinced me.. haha. i appreciate that man. i understood that just fine. now all i have to say..pick a core. preferably a precision core. keep the cost down for me=lower cost for you. i weld aluminum also so if i need to weld endtanks so be it. in the meantime i'll search more myself. do some more reading. how much would you guys pay for a kit like that. with nice vibrant couplers and t-bolts. the couplers and t bolts are not cheap. but as short as the pipes will be they will be single piece stainless steel. so 8 tbolts and 4 couplers 6 bends max and a core. whats the max you would pay.

i mean im willing to help you guys out. in a sense that you get quality, hand-made parts, at a fair price, and im not looking to get much profit right now. i look at it as practice and getting my name out. let me know what you think guys.

[Urnext]

well I can get t bolt clamps dire cheap if you need a hook up there I dunno a exact price at the moment but i'll let you know. From **** I've seen the intercooler set up i've seen will take 600+ horse now thats a claim and claims are like the forum or wikapedia you can write whatever the hell you want. I'd say if you can do it for less than 500 you sell them like crazy that may seem low but you make money in quantity not high prices and single sales and your new so lets say I buy one of your kits and you want 900 for it (I myself could make a kit if I wanted to)I get it in the mail and it took me 2 weeks to get it after I ordered it I look it over and I'm not happy with the pipe welds cuz for 900 I want some clean as hell. But if it were for 500 hundred I'd be like wow that was a deal. Not trying to say you can't weld just saying your name has no rep. and someone would rather pay 2k for a HKS intercooler kit then 900 for yours even if yours is exactly the same. Reason being your name is not well known, If you have it lower though someone would normally see pass the rep for the price difference. I'm being extremely hypothetical here and my price might be low but if you could do it for 500 and someone bought it and dynoed the kit up to 600 hp I'd be all over it like 50 cent on a blonde white chick.