I bought a used Eastern front mount intercooler for the GN a while back. It came with part of one pipe only, so I traded some intercooler cores for aluminum mandrel bends and made new piping for it.
I bought a used Eastern front mount intercooler for the GN a while back.
It came with part of one pipe only, so I traded some intercooler cores
for aluminum mandrel bends and made new piping for it.
The first thing that struck me when I put it in was the cheesiness of the mounts; they consisted of two bent pieces of strap to hang the IC over the core support cross braces. The intercooler sat so low it was halfway obscured by the bumper.
I decided these wouldn't do and put my mad skillz as a cardboard
fabricator/welder/artiste to work:
This got the intercooler up where it belongs; the brackets bolt to the
core support using the factory clip on nutserts. When the factory
cross braces are removed, the lower nutserts are relocated to a hole
near the top of the core support opening. The upper nutserts stay in place
(at least I think they do..they might have been moved up one hole, I can't
remember). They're pretty much invisible when installed. I took one of
the cross braces and zip tied it low down on the core support directly
behind the lowest part of the intercooler tanks, horizontal to the ground.
This gives the intercooler something to bump into rather than hitting the
condenser.
The last thing I had to do was make up new piping. I used up every last
scrap of two 90 degree mandrel bends to make the IC-inlet pipe. I had to
extend both ends of the scrap of turbo-IC pipe; I also bead rolled the
ends for hose retention while I was at it. I got a friend to weld these;
he won't let me give him credit since he says he can do much nicer work..
hard to believe as these are very nice. Silicone 2.5" ID hoses fit on the 2.75"
pipes with a little creative cussing to get them on. I use a little bit of
dish soap to help get them over the bead rolled in the ends of the pipes.
