Custom Universal Intercooler Installation

by Mike D (totaleclipse_05)



OK, I have posted this writeup since Ive noticed many people are wondering how to incorporate their intercooler and piping with their custom turbokits on a 420a. This writeup and pictures are from my first turbo install on my Eclipse and worked for me so hopefully it can be of some help for you.

I broke it up into 2 parts, mounting intercooler and cutting and installing piping (another writeup).

MOUNTING THE INTERCOOLER ON THE CAR:

Alrighty, the first thing I noticed with my FMIC I received was there was no brackets included with it so I had to come up with a way to mount (and secure it) onto the front of the car. I made my way over to the hardware store (Home Depot, Lowes, Menards, whatever is closeby you) and went into the door section. I found some brackets that I dont know what you would use them for, but made them work for my car. They were 90* metal brackets with some holes to screw something together. Here is how I incorporated them onto my car.

I had to bend this bracket to make basically two 90* bends on it. A vise and hammer would make this very easy and very similar to the other one for the other top. I took one of the bumper bolts and flipped it so I could mount the bracket securely as I figured 3 bolts holding the bumper in the front would be sufficient enough.


Here is a picture of how I mounted the brackets for the bottom.


I recommend you doing the top first and getting it centered before doing the bottom as you can loosen the bolt holding the brackets for the top and sway the IC from left to right to get it centered. This part took a lot of measuring to get everything lined up and right. Mount the bracket so the IC kind of sits on them to relieve some of the weight of it. I had to drill some holes in the brackets to secure them to the IC so make some marks to know where to drill before removing them from the car to do it. I know I only used one screw to hold them to the radiator support, but once all bolted up, it was quite sturdy and would not move.

Here is what the brackets should look like after all mounted up:


Here is a pic of what the finished product should look like after mounting the intercooler:




You will probably need to cut your front bumper to fit it back on as the FMIC tends to hit the grill area of our bumpers. I used a box cutter and some good ol elbow grease to get it cut to fit.


That is it! Just install your piping and you are good to go. Contrary to what people would think, the IC was VERY stable and secure using these brackets and would not move at all. The next writeup I will post is how to route your custom IC piping for this type of setup. Hope this helped out some people who were wondering what to do


















All credit for this writeup goes to: totaleclipse_05