Installed my liquid intercooler today. Went pretty smoothly with the exception that I had built all the bracket to mount the radiator to the crash bar and lower part of the core support, only to realize when I went to put the bumper on that my measurements were off and the bumper wouldn't fit. I had to start from scratch and cut the crash bar to move the radiator up. This week I'm going to take the car to the machine shop I use to have them modify my Injen intake to accept a 1" hose so I can recirculate the BOV (The stock BOV uses a 1/2" line and suffers from surge due to the small size. The new BOV is 1"). Right now, I have no BOV, so I have to stay out of boost as much as possible and have the boost turned down to stock. I'm hoping this will resolve the detonation issues I'm having after the stock intercooler heat soaks.
Anyway, enough of my babbling, on to the pics...
Radiator with original brackets that didnt' work
Final installation of radiator. There is about an inch of the radiator behind the crash bar
Top view. I had to move the power steering cooler line behind the hood latch support. Please ignore my hairy leg, LOL!
Original routing of the water lines. I realized they were in the way of the bumper when I went to test fit it and had to move them to the filter side of the bracket. I forgot to take pics of the revised location
Lines coming into the engine bay
Pump that came with my kit. I have the same one on my 240sx. It's a cheap Rule baitwell pump, but it works well and is quiet. Also please ignore the stock bypass valve. It's just on there to prevent a vac leak.
Fill point. Didn't make it as easy to bleed the air out of the system as I hoped, but it worked alright.
Overall view of intercooler installed
The new BOV that I got when I ordered the kit. It's a cheapo that came from the company that I got the kit from. I've got another one of their cheap BOV's on the 240, and it's been working great for year (atmospheric). We'll see how well this one works recirculated once I get the intake pipe modified.
