91 Dodge Shadow FMIC install

[inmyshadow]

This morning me and a friend mocked up the front end to fit the intercooler I bought.

Basically I'm using a spearco knockoff. It is by "XSpower" bought of ebay. Seems their intercoolers were good enough for the suby world. Since I drive a shadow, its more then perfect for me.

When I visited a friend on the dyno last night, he has an actual spearco fmic. So we compared. The spearco has 8more tubes and the fins are densely packed compared to mine. XSPower has 24 tubes. His cost 550 bucks, mine 164. Dimensions are exactly the same. Overall its going to be better then the stock intercooler, with both flow and cooling.

First picture shows the front end stripped off the car. After modifying that center bracket, I could easily fit the fmic. I had to cut and bend some of the lip on the core support to give me enough room for hoses.

http://members.cox.net/turboshadow/FMICinstall.jpg



Next is close up. You can see the sides of the radiator/intercooler where I cut then bent back the lip of the openning. You can also see my homemade bracket to support the middle of the core support. This way my headlights won't shake. Don't work about the bracket, it will see paint when the intercooler is finally installed. I'm also going to clean up the bottom of the radiator and its brackets.

http://members.cox.net/turboshadow/FMICinstall1.jpg


Then close up of the ghetto bracket. You also see the cutting and pounding needed to level the bracket. The center support was spot welding to it.

http://members.cox.net/turboshadow/FMICinstall3.jpg

Then as I went to close the hood, the safety latch hit the intercooler. My solution was to shorten it. I needed about an inch of clearance. Cutting of the end of the latch created 3inches. Since I'm not about to use hood pins, I used cable ties on the safety latch. The cable ties are only temporary. Once the intercooler is mounted, I can measure up the hook and have it welded.

http://members.cox.net/turboshadow/FMICinstall4.jpg


And thats it for today. I now know what I need to order for parts. I hopefully have those by next friday. My goal is to have the fmic installed for 10 Jun srt4/turbododge day at LVD.

[inmyshadow]

Durning the installed, we test fit the bumper and grill. Man this intercooler is blocked by the bumper.

So my solution is a air deflector for the two openings under the front plate. That will get riveted and have a slight bend to direct more air to the intercooler.

I'm also going to cut the bumper. If you look at the second picture. You will see a small lip on the bumper. I plan to cut that off, only leaving enough to support the fastener part of the bumper cover to bumper. That should let more air hit the intercooler.

And if that doesn't work, I might also install some tabs on for a water sprayer.

[CSXT802]

Get it all back together and it should look like this
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f373/brouss29/DSCF0038.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f373/brouss29/DSCF0039.jpg

[boost geek]

Relocate the front licence plate...
Mine is also XSPOWER and it totally rocks!

[The S is Silent]

Get it all back together and it should look like this
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f373/brouss29/DSCF0039.jpg

That end tank is going to be nice and cool! :nod:

[Marcus86GLHS]

good progress James, cant wait to see it run on 6-10.

[Tony Hanna]

Looks good, but man I gotta keep my AC when I do mine. With what you've got done so far, does it look like there would be enough room for a cooler that size with the AC condenser still in place? I know the plumbing would have to be completely different, but I'm wondering if it would physically fit.

[GLHNSLHT2]

a cummins fits better, requires you to do far far less modifying and parts removal and retains the A/C. Oh and it's under $150 shipped on ebay and raised my shift points by 300rpms at the track vs. the stocker.

[unluckyty]

Nice project:thumb:
I have one installed on my 87 es. Nice intercooler for the price,and I liked the fact that I would keep the piping on the same side.

I cut ,the front center brace, just below the bolt the holds the grill in place. I also keep the stock radiator, but moved it over as far as I could ,towards the pass side, to make more room for the pipes. I had to make a different alternator bracket though, to clear the radiator.

Greg

[inmyshadow]

This is the same reason why I went to this style intercooler. I didn't have intercooler plumbing running all over my engine bay. From the way people do it, you can't access things like oil filter and disturbutor easily.

I made the bracket because I didn't my headlights to vibrate as on my last shadow.


Nice project:thumb:
I have one installed on my 87 es. Nice intercooler for the price,and I liked the fact that I would keep the piping on the same side.

I cut ,the front center brace, just below the bolt the holds the grill in place.

[Directconnection]

If it's not installed completely yet, I'd be willing to do a flowtest on the cooler for you. No charge...just to get #s for the TM/TD people. Compare it's flow to a stock T-II/T-IV/ etc the large NPR I have and this. Would love to do a comparo of the Spearco as well.

Not sure if you're willing to travel 1-hr into maine or not....

[Tony Hanna]

If it's not installed completely yet, I'd be willing to do a flowtest on the cooler for you. No charge...just to get #s for the TM/TD people. Compare it's flow to a stock T-II/T-IV/ etc the large NPR I have and this. Would love to do a comparo of the Spearco as well.

Not sure if you're willing to travel 1-hr into maine or not....

I'd really like to see the results of a test like that. The way that cooler is made with a bunch of short tubes, it looks like it would flow great, but some actual numbers would be really nice. It'd also be really interesting to throw a DSM cooler in too. I know they flow really good, but I've never seen any hard data on them.

[Whorse]

Same with my Porsche 944 IC. I wonder how well it really does flow.

Back to the shadow, looks awesome. I agree with you about keeping all your IC pipes out of the way. I like to keep them on the one side so the car is easy to work on.

[inmyshadow]

I bet it would take me longer then an hour to get to Maine!

It takes 2hrs just to get to boston. Two and half hours to get to NED. Three hours to get to NHIS.

It would be nice to get it flowed. If shipping was cheaper, I'd to that.

later


If it's not installed completely yet, I'd be willing to do a flowtest on the cooler for you. No charge...just to get #s for the TM/TD people. Compare it's flow to a stock T-II/T-IV/ etc the large NPR I have and this. Would love to do a comparo of the Spearco as well.

Not sure if you're willing to travel 1-hr into maine or not....

[Directconnection]

haha...no, I meant 1 hr into maine. I'm roughly an hour and a half from NED.

I think we really need some #s from these different coolers just to see how good they really are. I am contemplating on selling my large NPR and maybe selling some T-II parts, etc and get the Spearco.

[inmyshadow]

Well, you are correct. I don't feel like driving 6 to 8hrs.


haha...no, I meant 1 hr into maine. I'm roughly an hour and a half from NED.

I think we really need some #s from these different coolers just to see how good they really are. I am contemplating on selling my large NPR and maybe selling some T-II parts, etc and get the Spearco.

[boost geek]

If I had your car, the first thing I would do would be to put a bug screen on the intercooler, window screen works great. My intercooler has been mounted for about a year, just hooked up a week ago, not a bug or anything in it.:thumb:

[Whorse]

Will the screen affect air flow much?

[boost geek]

Will the screen affect air flow much?
I doubt it, the mesh wire is so thin, bugs and junk will affect air flow more...

[Whorse]

Hmm, might try that myself. Are you just mouting directly to the metal or going to use some kind of rubber to dampen vibrations?

[boost geek]

Just use the bare mesh without the frame, cut a chunk out of an old window screen. My car is a d.d, sees freeway driving 5+ days a week, my rad is full of junk from years of driving without one, but now wont collect any more debris. Just find somewhere to zap-strap the sceen to.

[Whorse]

Hmm yeah I drive about 150km a day through abbottsford and to white rock, so I could use something. I don't seem to have many bugs in my IC or Rad yet though and I check it a fair bit.

[inmyshadow]

Today I finally finished of the install. Between ordering the wrong parts, to another company only have blue hoses to all the damn rain, its done. Inbetween the fmic install, I added 8.5 magnecor wires, accel coil and solid front mount motor mount.

Overall, car is much better off. Lag was greatly reduced. I don't have the straight to 5lbs, then lag, then 20lbs of boost anymore. I turned down my high boost setting for safety. My low boost setting though, went from 6lbs to 9lbs in all gears. This intercooler dosen't effect engine cooling at all. Seems to have aid it with the slits cut into the bumper. With the TII intercooler removed, my air filter now gets much cooler air. And the finally, the BOV is quite louder.

All my pipes are 2.5in with one reducer down to 2.25in for the throttlebody.

Basically I had two 45 degree aluminum bends welded together. That cost me 65 bucks out the door and it shows. The shop screwed up the welding and only charged enough to cover the welding rod. Glad I wasn't planning on keeping the bends I ordered polished.

I ordered a couple of 90 degree silicone bends from the local advance auto parts. The commercial accounts manager has been ordering tons of stuff for all the local go faster cars. I could make money on the parts he charges me.

The reducer and some of my clamps were ordered online. I also used the same shop for some t-bolt clamps I either forgot to order or needing a larger size.

I cut the front bumper to help airflow to the intercooler. Just two small slits under the grill. When or ever I paint the car, the bumper will be cleaned up. There was 6 layers of paint on it.

[GLHNSLHT2]

Not bad. I'd be covering that big gapping hole next to the rad where all your cooling air goes by. That'll help it cool better.