# Universal Front mount intercooler - Install



## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Just thought I would share my experiences with my FMIC install as it may beenfit others...

Started when I went for a stage 2 map on standard coolers, and discovered they were massively restricting flow (not necessarily cooling) as when we turned the boost up, I got no more power!

So straight on it when I got home figuring out which to get...Forge too expensive for what it is at the end of the day, HG motorsport was a possibility, then a friend of mine had a universal 550x140x65 2.25" inlet/outlet for sale for £30 so I thought this would atleast be a start. Ordered some 2.5" universal kit pipe work for £65 off ebay 3 ply silicone, mandrel bent ali, pretty good stuff. Reducers to 2.25 for the cooler inlet/outlet.

Got it all fitted up after lots of swearing!

Car felt slower! Boosted around the same as before. I drove it like this for 2 weeks thinking maybe it's just made the delivery smoother and therefore doesn't 'feel' as fast. Then one night I had a tussle with a friend with a 190bhp 320lb/ft VRS Fabia, that I used to easily dispatch of, only to discover that I could only just walk away from him in a rolling start race. SOMETHING IS WRONG!

Made my own boost leak tester using a plastic cup, tyre valve stuck in the top and a foot pump. shoved it in the TIP and tried to pump pressure into the system (Girlfriend watching the boost gauge just in case )

0 PSI is all I reached! As soon as i pumped air in in came straight out in a hiss by wheree cooler is. Whipped bumper off and did it again with my head down by the cooler and all i got was a gust of air in my face! turns out my mate used too long of a bolt when he fitted my air temp sensor to the bottom of cooler and it went straight through 2 bars!

Ordered a Toyosports 550x225x65 slightly bigger and with 2.5" outlets this time as I've been told to use full 2.5" piping for best flow. £75 incl. delivery off ebay.

Fitted it up, had to do a little adjusting to pipes and made up some better brackets. By the way I made my own beader by using a 2.5" exhaust clamp and bolt with a dome nut on a vice, works well and no pipes have popped off or even moved (I marked up the pipes)

After a drive I could instantly tell the difference! Was like it had been mapped again! Sure it feels quicker than when I had i mapped too, although I have fitted a JETEX cone filter too.

Been on since Tuesday and haven't experience heak soak or any drop in performance, even after a spiritied drive that got the exhaust so nice and warm I got flames every gearchange! grabbed the pipes and the turbo side of cooler was HOT and inlet side was pretty cool as was inlet. Cooler than I've ever noticed. Ill get a Vag-com soon and do logs.

Recommend it if you fancy saving money and can be bothererd to cut up pipes etc yourself. Good feeling of self satisfaction! Cost £150 if you exclude the £30 for the knackred cooler! £10 for steel bar and bolts.

Heres some pics from fitting the bigger one on Tuesday night. Little washer pipes are feeds to my water spray, that acually works well by the way to reduce recover times from being sat in traffic!


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Also, I've got a Forge map pipe to go on when I get chance to, get rid of that stupid plastic one!! And I think I may have enough pipe left over to go from charge pipe behind headlamp and same on other side so it'll be a full hard pipe system  Just got work out the routing!


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## dubwiser (Jan 12, 2012)

Realy good write up mate.

Bit off topic but i have a 180bhp (single cooler) if i was to get it remaped would it be worth puting on a second cooler (225 standard set up) or am i wasiting my time???

Cheers

C.


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## Adam-tt (Apr 3, 2010)

Looking good buddy but like I said on Facebook I would invest in the badger 5 inlet gasket :-D


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

dubwiser said:


> Realy good write up mate.
> 
> Bit off topic but i have a 180bhp (single cooler) if i was to get it remaped would it be worth puting on a second cooler (225 standard set up) or am i wasiting my time???
> 
> ...


I would love to say yes as mine are obviously now for sale lol But you would need a 225 inlet mani also in order to accomidate the way the pipe work is rooted (opposite way round to yours). Although you may be able to create your own pipework to over come this, but at the expense, it would be more economical to just get a front mount with both the inlet and outlet on the same side!


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Adam-tt said:


> Looking good buddy but like I said on Facebook I would invest in the badger 5 inlet gasket :-D


Yea Ill look into this if I go for big turbo and new inlet. But that will be ages away, I've got a race car to build boy!! lol


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Another thing...slightly off topic

The flames...obviously a sign of the fuel being dumped in on decel, and also a sign of hot exhaust. Now correct me if i am wrong but, obviously with the turbo doing alot of work heat is going to be generated in the turbo itself, obvious, but being connected to the exhaust it can share that heat with the exhaust, again obvious...When I had a standard exhaust after a run I could barely touch the strut brace it was that hot. However now Ive got my custom system on that, very importantly, uses 2mm thick stainless through-out (that 2mm is the important part to note as any off the shelf system and most other exhaust makes only use 1.5mm tops!) it draws a huge amount of heat away from the turbo, meaning my turbo isn't glowing as much and my strut brace doesn't feel as hot to touch as before. This is a good thing surely!!! Flipping hot exhaust, but a kooshty turbo. So what if the exhaust is reaching 800c! (this is exaggertation probably, I have no way to tell this at the moment) The materials used can handle it, It's been on the ramps a few times since it's been done and there are no signs of wear or stress, even if there is, it's got a lifetime garuntee! It's jsut gone a lovely bluey colour at the Y piece at the back before the two back boxes


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## Adam-tt (Apr 3, 2010)

There's a liquid tt in the for sale section for £125 get it :-D


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Adam-tt said:


> There's a liquid tt in the for sale section for £125 get it :-D


Tempting but, I dont wanna loose another airvent lol


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## ttanderson (Jan 25, 2010)

Hi,

Great write up! Ive been looking at these cheaper FMIC kits on ebay for a while trying to pluck up the courage to fit one myself. I worry about how 'DIY' they really are? I'm an engineer by trade so I know my way around a spanner but is there much modification I need to carry out to the existing pipework to make the new piping fit? Also does the bumper fit straight over the top of the installation or do I need to cut anything out/away?


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

ttanderson said:


> Hi,
> 
> Great write up! Ive been looking at these cheaper FMIC kits on ebay for a while trying to pluck up the courage to fit one myself. I worry about how 'DIY' they really are? I'm an engineer by trade so I know my way around a spanner but is there much modification I need to carry out to the existing pipework to make the new piping fit? Also does the bumper fit straight over the top of the installation or do I need to cut anything out/away?


I just made the pipes connect to the standard rubber pipe work off the inlet and charge pipe So if I ever want to change to silicone I know they will fit woithout trimming (hopefully). In terms of modding, I had to relocate the horns which was easy, remove the aliens, and do a little bit of trimming around where they mount on the bumper, as well as trim back one of the clips for the passenger side grill.


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## Mondo (Feb 20, 2009)

Johnclem88 said:


> ...remove the aliens...


Hmmm... Do you have xenon lights? 'Cause there's a theory going 'round that if one does, one also needs a method of cleaning them. I've not looked too closely as I have both and no plans to change that, but I have heard if you have xenons you must have aliens. Not sure, just a thought. Something to do with MOT rules changing on 1st April? :?

Anyway, just a thought.


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## ttanderson (Jan 25, 2010)

Johnclem88 said:


> ttanderson said:
> 
> 
> > Hi,
> ...


Right-o seems like I betteropen my wallet and spend some cash!

One final question.. there is an intercooler pipe on the OEM setup that houses the MAP sensor (passenger side I belief). Did you run the new piping up to this or did you remove/replace the pipe that houses it? Hope that makes sense?

Thanks, Tom


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

ttanderson said:


> Johnclem88 said:
> 
> 
> > ttanderson said:
> ...


I ran it up to the standard MAP sensor pipe for now. 2.5" piping. I have a Forge map sensor pipe that I'm going to fit sometime soon, you'll see why when you see the crap standard MAP pipe ha

Intercooler is still going well, haven't popped off any pipes nor have I noticed performance drop from heat soak


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## ttanderson (Jan 25, 2010)

So I guess the standard MAP sensor pipe is too restrictive!

Good stuff! As your having good results ive decided to go down the same route and go for the slightly larger intercooler (550x225x64mm) and the 2.5" universal pipe kit. I'll knock up some brackets at work so thats no issue. 
Just a bit annoying that the aliens have to be removed, i take it theres no way to work round them?

Tom


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

ttanderson said:


> So I guess the standard MAP sensor pipe is too restrictive!
> 
> Good stuff! As your having good results ive decided to go down the same route and go for the slightly larger intercooler (550x225x64mm) and the 2.5" universal pipe kit. I'll knock up some brackets at work so thats no issue.
> Just a bit annoying that the aliens have to be removed, i take it theres no way to work round them?
> ...


Yea it is but not a problem for time being.

Yea its working really well and you get loads of room to play with. Aliens...probably could but i just got the pipes to sit comfortable with as little joins as possible to lessen chance of hoses popping off, and trimmed bumper where the aliens mounted as and when needed just to get it past them without much trouble. Tis a tighter fit at the passenger side i found.

John


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Mondo said:


> Johnclem88 said:
> 
> 
> > ...remove the aliens...
> ...


Yea ive heard this too but my Mot man understands


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## Adam-tt (Apr 3, 2010)

its not what you know its who you know :lol:


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

Adam-tt said:


> its not what you know its who you know :lol:


You know buddy!


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## Grahamstt (Jul 22, 2008)

Just seen the queries brought up on this thread
If you check out the pic








You want the pipework to run along the bottom edge of the bumper space and the curve up to the original positioned pipes. This way the Aliens can be refitted

The map sensor pipe is worth changing cos I cant believe how bad it is - it's like a twisted tube and almost half the cross section area!!

















Get rid ASAP


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## JS53MES (Apr 11, 2012)

good write up, this will come in handy for when i buy the toyosport intercooler too . Where are you going to get a better flowing map sensor pipe from?


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## Johnclem88 (Aug 22, 2011)

JS53MES said:


> good write up, this will come in handy for when i buy the toyosport intercooler too . Where are you going to get a better flowing map sensor pipe from?


Forge do them mate


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## John_tt (Mar 1, 2010)

JS53MES said:


> good write up, this will come in handy for when i buy the toyosport intercooler too . Where are you going to get a better flowing map sensor pipe from?


You can make a map sensor pipe by using an aluminum pipe 60 or 63 mm with 45 degrees bent and place a map adapter on it like this one... http://www.034motorsport.com/fabricatio ... 13140.html

The oem part is really awful!


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## Grahamstt (Jul 22, 2008)

Use the forge item


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## TT-TOM (Feb 15, 2012)

How much is the forge MAP pipe?


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## Grahamstt (Jul 22, 2008)

Not bad price at all
http://www.forgemotorsport.co.uk/conten ... uct=FMMAPT


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## TT-TOM (Feb 15, 2012)

Seems reasonable for once. So what size do I need for a 225 TT. I'm guessing 63mm diameter and 240mm long?

Might aswell get one and change it when i get my new intercooler


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## Bago47 (Nov 27, 2011)

Hey, so basically I found an intercooler with core size 600x300x76mm for 170€. Now, is this upgrade really necessary? My mapper insisted on upgrading it, claiming that I'm going to have problems in the summer if I don't upgrade.


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## Duggy (May 17, 2005)

Grahamstt said:


> Use the forge item


Due to the options Graham, could you confirm wether it's 63mm or 60mm diameter and did you use the 110mm or 240mm length?

Thanks in advance

John


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## barb (Jul 1, 2013)

Bago47 said:


> Hey, so basically I found an intercooler with core size 600x300x76mm for 170€. Now, is this upgrade really necessary? My mapper insisted on upgrading it, claiming that I'm going to have problems in the summer if I don't upgrade.


Same size one I'm using with good results

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk


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## Bago47 (Nov 27, 2011)

barb said:


> Bago47 said:
> 
> 
> > Hey, so basically I found an intercooler with core size 600x300x76mm for 170€. Now, is this upgrade really necessary? My mapper insisted on upgrading it, claiming that I'm going to have problems in the summer if I don't upgrade.
> ...


This is the one that I'd fit: http://www.bolha.com/nadomestni-deli/av ... 1387584027

What else is needed? It's really my first time playing with the idea of upgraded intercooler.


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## barb (Jul 1, 2013)

Thus is mine. Just need to make two brackets to hold it on then buy 2x76-63mm reducers and a 63mm universal pipe kit. And make it up to suit I welded some of the joins to reduce the amount of silicon joins. Hope that helps

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk


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## fixitagaintomoz (Apr 26, 2013)

barb said:


> Thus is mine. Just need to make two brackets to hold it on then buy 2x76-63mm reducers and a 63mm universal pipe kit. And make it up to suit I welded some of the joins to reduce the amount of silicon joins. Hope that helps
> 
> Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk


Did yours still have room for the aliens? Looking smart with the welds too!


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## BaueruTc (Aug 21, 2011)

I am plan on doing a full write up / fitting guide for my HG Motorsport FMIC once i get round to fitting it. Aliens are meant to be fine with the kit i bought.


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## barb (Jul 1, 2013)

fixitagaintomoz said:


> barb said:
> 
> 
> > Thus is mine. Just need to make two brackets to hold it on then buy 2x76-63mm reducers and a 63mm universal pipe kit. And make it up to suit I welded some of the joins to reduce the amount of silicon joins. Hope that helps
> ...


No I lost the alliens although I do think you could keep them if you faffed around with the pipework.

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