NPR Intercooler in my Horizon

[Una]

First, sorry about the photo quality (or complete lack thereof). Loaned the camera to my father in law, so I made due with my cell phone. The pictures are great, as far as cell phone's go. Anyways.. I finally got around to putting the intercooler into my Horizon today. I had measured things and thought it'd probably fit around the TBI radiator nicely, I was very right! Fits around that radiator like a glove! The intercooler is sitting in where the condensor would go if this were an AC car (wish it were AC, but oh well). I scooted the radiator over about an inch towards the passenger side, there were actually 3 sets of holes to choose from at the top core support for the radiator to bolt to, I just used the next set over. The bottom of the radiator is hung on a couple straps of metal I screwed down. The driver's side intercooler outlet comes out right below the radiator fill neck. And the passenger side intercooler outlet is right above the radiator outlet (radiator outlet on TBI radiators is REALLY high for some reason. I had to remove the radiator hose from the radiator outlet, and shorten it about an inch, to pull that hose closer to the radiator to keep it from resting on the alternator after the move. The top radiator hose, I chopped up a Daytona T1 upper hose to make one that works. It's not pretty, but it is water tight. I used my good old 2" marine exhaust hose, just like I did on my Daytona when this intercooler was in that car. I had to make a sharp 90degree turn on the passenger side IC outlet, I used some radiator hose to make that turn, which then connects to a bit of steel pipe that Y's off for my BOV (some generic RFL knockoff). I haven't put a rad fan on the thing yet, I have an aftermarket on that'll be going on there, nice and slim.
And then I also managed to squeeze in a nice cold air intake while I was at it. I had this really long flexible duct I grabbed from a 3.0 V6 van at the junkyard, and a K&N filter from one of my old motorcycles. A couple minutes fiddling around and I managed to find a decent place to route the thing to. It's inside the driver's fender, in front of the tire, directly behind the GLH foglights. (Thinkin what I'm thinkin?) Yeah, so I'll be bulding a nice enclosure around that air filter to keep tire mud/dirt/water off the filter, and I think I'll be opening some holes behind the driver's foglight (yes, lights not installed yet) to let fresh air get right at that filter.
Eh? comments?

[Tony Hanna]

Looks good man! It's nice not to have to work your intercooler plumbing around an ac condenser isn't it? My ac compressor finally died (too much pressure with the higher % of propane + already noisy compressor). It's a shame too because that sucker was blowing super cold. I'm now faced with a choice between bolting on the spare compressor and recharging the system or removing the ac to make more room for an intercooler.

[Una]

Eh, toss on another compressor. I always have several spares in my shed, the compressors they used on our cars were just flat junk to begin with. I was looking at my setup, I could probably still squeeze in a condensor, but I think it'd have to be an aftermarket on sized JUST RIGHT and IN FRONT of the intercooler... heh..

[Tony Hanna]

Eh, toss on another compressor. I always have several spares in my shed, the compressors they used on our cars were just flat junk to begin with. I was looking at my setup, I could probably still squeeze in a condensor, but I think it'd have to be an aftermarket on sized JUST RIGHT and IN FRONT of the intercooler... heh..

I probably will. Working ac is just too tempting, especially now that I've seen how much better HC refrigerants do than 134a. Is your car a factory ac car that's had the ac removed or are you considering a complete custom install?

[Una]

The Horizon was a non-AC car, and it'll never get AC.. I don't even run power steering on the thing, or larger brakes. Wanna get as much power to the ground as possible. :) Keep the weight down too. :)

[Tony Hanna]

The Horizon was a non-AC car, and it'll never get AC.. I don't even run power steering on the thing, or larger brakes. Wanna get as much power to the ground as possible. :) Keep the weight down too. :)
Gotcha:thumb:

[Una]

So the TBI radiator doesn't seem to be keeping up with the cooling demands. I'm removing it and taking it to a custom radiator shop tomorrow, they're going to build me a custom radiator that'll fit between the intercooler outlets like this one does.. Should be expensive...

[Tony Hanna]

Yeah, I tried a na Omni radiator in my old Daytona to open up some room for intercooler plumbing. It seemed to do fine for light driving, but any time in boost pulling a hill and the temp would start to climb.
Have you looked into any of the hi-po aluminum radiators? Don't know if you could find anything in exactly the right size, but if you could, it'd probably save you money over a custom job. Might be worth a call to Summit or Jegs to find out.
Just a thought.

[Una]

I need it ASAP.. I'm sure the custom shop will build me something like that. Hopefully they can do it fast as this seems to be my main car since the GLHS is such a lemon.