BIGJIM Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 I plan to intercool my zxt, but i dont know how i would route the pipes. i dont want to remove the a/c, so it looks like it might be a tight squeeze. any pics of your engine with intercooler would be appreciated. thanks jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jp 280 Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 The picture dosent show the piping, i cut a hole where the air flow meter sat and the same on the drivers side, been too busy at work to finish it up. Then again, i didnt have much choice the left side goes up in front of the wheel then connects to the throttle body and the drivers side goes up in front of the wheel then across the top of the fans and back to the turbo, hope that all makes sense. later Jeremy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cygnusx1 Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 Poke around my project photos in the link below. I will be adding some more shortly that also show the BOV installed. http://www.hvmp.com/dc There are advantages and disadvantages to the way I did it. Obviously different intercoolers require different routing. Search this site there are many photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slownrusty Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 Here is mine using the Isuzu NPR IC: Hope that helps - Yasin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 4, 2004 Share Posted July 4, 2004 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cody 82 ZXT Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 Heres a pic of when I was fabricating the pipes. http://www.angelfire.com/space/nismo1turbo/Mock_up_of_BOV_and_intercooler_pipe.jpg Here's the link if the pic. didn't post. My pipes are 2" and I also have a 3" pipe for the air intake all coming through the left side of the radiator support. I can be done but, it's a tight fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rags Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 Hey Drax, What was the reasoning behind routing your intercooler opposite way? Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rags Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 Hey Drax, Also, are you having any cooling problems with the stock rad? Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z-Gad Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 It will keep the intake charge as cool as possible, rather than routing it back across the hot radiator after the intercooler.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 5, 2004 Share Posted July 5, 2004 As Z-Gad says, it keeps the cold pipe short and doesn't give it as much chance of picking up heat from the radiator. I had a stock rad that had been recored in place earlier and had no cooling problems with it. (it was 180*, spiked to 190* on hard driving) Then I put my fan through it. The one in there now is an used JY replacement, and temps seem to be hovering around 190*-195* with it, about 10* hotter than my last rad. I wouldn't call that a problem though, it's been quite hot here lately (90*+ ambient). I think I might try some redline water wetter soon and see if that brings it back down a little bit though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2slo4u Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 Those are cool pics. 8) Did the a/c tubes get in the way or did you just bend them? Also wondering where your air intake was? If it is in the engine compartment doesn't that defeat the purpose of an intercooler or does it cool that much to overcome the heat? I want to add an intercooler and also have a cone filter outside of the engine compartment and that seems impossible without slaughtering the core support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drftn280zxt Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 [img']http://www.2gr.ca/pics/Engine%20Sm.jpg[/img] do you have two pipes merging somewhere? (from the intake and the turbo inlet maybe, coming from the I/C) in two places possibly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drftn280zxt Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 Here is mine using the Isuzu NPR IC: Hope that helps - Yasin whats the thing that sits horizontal behind the I/C?(the thing with Z---X on it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2slo4u Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 Maybe it's a homemade air filter box. Looks cool. 8) 81zxturborusybutrunning needspaintthough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 My air inlet goes down and the filter is mounted just peeking out under the radiator. At some point I will fab up a shield to direct strictly cold air to that area, and block warm air. No AC on my car. My intercooler has no 2->1 merges at all. It is layed out: air filter -> turbo -> across engine bay to intercooler -> out of intercooler into TB. Pretty standard setup. The other option for an air filter depending on the size of your oil cooler/intercooler is to run the air filter out through the lower hole of the rad support on the drivers side, and run the IC pipe through the upper hole on the same side. I did that with my smaller NPR setup but didn't have room for that this time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jersey Posted July 7, 2004 Share Posted July 7, 2004 Now i have another question for ya Drax (because i was contemplating which way to do my IC pipes, which ended up opposite of you) With your setup, doesn't the air get heated up when crossing the radiator just the same? I just figured it would be basically the same end result... Lets say (just easy #'s here) 200deg out of the turbo, IC pipe cuts across the rad which raises temp another 100deg, IC cools it 100deg = 200deg to the intake or with the IC pipes routed opposite: 200deg out of turbo, IC cools it 100deg, IC pipe cuts across the rad which raises temp 100deg = 200deg to the intake Just curious if you or anyone has done this both ways and measured intake temp differences? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 I have mine routed from turbo to I/C ran it across between radiator and engine then thru passenger side into my NPR I/C then outlet of I/C (cold air side) ran from I/C thru driver's rad mount side into TB...Basically because I seem to remember Scottie-GNZ measuring the temps as you say and found them a bit cooler that way so I did it that way. Was more of a hassel but Oh well!...If you click on my photos below under 280ZXT you can see the routing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drax240z Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 Well I'm not sure there is much of a difference actually... though I think my way may be the easier method for fabrication. Jersey, you are assuming that the IC will cool the charge the same amount regardless of the beginning temperature. What MAY in fact be happening is something like this: Scenario 1 (plumbed my way): 200* out of the turbo, 20* gained across engine bay behind radiator (10% gain), 150* dropped by IC (50% reduction), leaves 70* intake temp. Scenario 2 (plumbed your way): 200* out of turbo, IC cools it to 100* (50% reduction), and it gains 10* again crossing behind the radiator (10% gain), leaving a 110* intake temp. The way I look at it, (and my thermo is rusty at best) is that the intercooler will cool the charge a fixed percentage (well, reasonably close to fixed) depending on its overall efficiency. The same can be said for the cross pipe behind the radiator, though I would hope it would transfer heat at a much lower efficiency than the IC. Given that the IC is more efficient than the piece of tube (a safe assumption) it stands to reason that Scenario 1 would result in lower intake temperatures. I get the sneaking suspicion that my logic is flawed though. Someone around here must be a thermo guru. Set us straight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jersey Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 That makes total sense to me, by using percentages the way you did. I hope someone that has tested this both ways or a "themo guru" will chime in. I'd love to find out that i can cool the intake temp more just by fabbing up some new pipe. Funny, you mention that it might be easier your way but, one of the reasons i did it my way was for ease. lol. Reason being, I have my air filter out front which runs through the rad support right below the IC to TB charge pipe. It'll pretty much get in the way if i do change the IC piping up but i'd like to keep it where it's at out front, catching cooler air. I was talking to ScottyMIZT a week or so ago and i think with his air filter in the bay, he was reading something like 170deg's going INTO his T3! BTW - great looking clean engine bay drax. After posting my pic i thought "WHAT A MESS!" And boy, i need to find a non-egr intake. They just look so much cleaner. Big Jim, sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post. Maybe we should start another? Admin??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 2slo4u Posted July 8, 2004 Share Posted July 8, 2004 What about wrapping the return tube with insulation and you won't have to worry too much about the heat coming from the radiator. Running the return tube across the radiator seems to be the most logical route to me also because of room and the air doesn't have to make an abrupt u-turn while in the intercooler. Has to make some kind of difference anyway, right? And if the tubing between the i/c and the engine could be made of some type of plastic that is resistant to high temps., that would also reduce heat absorption, right? Hmmm.... Hope to do this one day, anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.