R32 FMIC in Type M bar

[Baz]

Not sure if this has been asked before.

Basically in the near future I will be going FMIC and will be using the Type M front bar as a place to mount it. As usual it has the centre support bracket which obviously would have to be cut out. What is the largest size intercooler you can fit inside one of the Type M bars? I'm just curious to know whether a 600x300x75 would fit easily in it. Also to take into consideration is the space needed for the piping as well.

Cheers

[HCR32]

Hey Scott

funny you mentioned that, i will be fitting my intercooler this weekend (if i manage to get all the piping). I have the type m front bar and have a 600x300x76 cooler arriving this week.

Keep a look out next week in the DIY thread for my posts. I know i will have to cut abit of the bar out at the bottom and yeh it does look like a tight fit but i think i can manage.

Also what i plan to do is re-allocate my air filter to where the existing small stock intercooler is after i have removed it. Should be sweet.

[Baz]

Going off topic a bit, I was originally thought it was going to be a great idea putting a huge mofo air filter in place where the original intercooler was until I asked around and heard of a thing called hydrolocking. Basically putting your air filter in that position gives it awesome cold air intake but also makes it heavily prone and give no protection from it sucking up a whole bunch of water. So go through a nice large puddle, the air filter sucks up a lot of water and its bye bye engine due to the fact that you cant compress water and you'll end up bending your rods and destroying your motor. Theres a couple of solutions to help prevent this from occuring such as here - http://www.prepsparkplugs.com/hydrofix.htm but there is no gurantee. Probably just a better idea to make a cold air intake in the engine bay just to be safe.

[HCR32]

yeh thanks for that, i know what your talking about...

i could fit it bit higher up or like you said make a cold air intake for it.

[DLuded]

u will need to either take the support bar off or cut some of it off. the 600x300x75 is too thick to slide it up in between. it shouldnt be too difficult to get an angle grinder and cut it

[predator]

pod exposed is bad idea.. sucking up water, will, and has destroyed engines.

I just finished my intercooler install today.. mine was slightly smaller (450x300x75) but a 600x300x75 one would fit. All you'll have to do is cut the support bar, and bar a bit wider than what you see in the photos below. What will annoy you most is cutting the front bar satisfactory to get it all on - took me quite a few hours (too many!). You just have to cut bits out, piece by piece.

If you go the "up and over" piping, you will need to cut a hole just under your battery. If you use the "back and under" piping (to me thats a bit messy), you won't need to.

(bit dark sorry, will take another pic tomorrow)

[Cubes]

Dluded,

I'm not sure I understand what you mean with regards to the thickness not fitting?!?

i.e my FMIC, no cutting mods to the support bar.

My FMIC uses the stock IC piping route.

The bar & plate FMIC end tanks have the inlet and outlet positioned in the center of the core.

This leaves plenty of room for the inlet pipe (Drivers side) to enter the FMIC after a 180degree bend.

The outlet that is on the passengers side simply goes up the stock IC piping hole and plumbs in to the cross over pipe.

Resulting in a dead stock looking engine bay, and no illegal cuts to the body.

Unless you modify the cross over pipe there is a zero reduction in piping by doing the piping that way I have.

[predator]

cubes: do you even have a support bar? how you getting cool air to the top of the cooler?

You don't necessarily *have* to cut the support bar, but it will block the cool air to the top.. although my number plate does that quite nicely (but can be removed for drag or track days)

[Cubes]

I have a support bar, it can be seen above the IC core and below the front bumper. Its that little bit of metal inbetween.

I don't have air going in to the top of the cooler.

Very much like every other GTR, they too don't have air going to the very top of the cooler.

By the looks of you end tank design (inlet/outlet at the bottom) less air will be traveling through the ic at the top of the cooler anyhow so I really doubt you would see any real world results by having the top of the fmic blocked from direct airflow.

I run a bar/plate IC, Even after a really hard push through the hills I've never had the oulet be warm, its always cold to touch, the inlet is usually hot to touch that fades off to cold by 1/4-1/2 of the way down the core, so its working quite well.

The back and under piping route is good IF you have the end tanks in/out located in the center of the core, or have the FMIC upside down so the end tanks are located towards the top instead of the bottom, otherwise the 180degree turn will be very sharp.

[Gts-t]

If you go the "up and over" piping, you will need to cut a hole just under your battery. If you use the "back and under" piping (to me thats a bit messy), you won't need to.

I would have to diagree, i think changing the piping to the up and over is not an appealing look, nor is there alot of clearance around the fan, or radiator top hose. There is also more pipework in the hot engine bay....

No offence pred but i would say the hole you cut for "your up and over"is a little messy, shoudl get your hands on a circle cutter thing (specific i know). i use the attactment in air powered tools but id imagine you could get one to suit a powered drill. It has a drill in the center and obviously a circle around it that is serated like a saw. It will cut you perfect circles all day long.

Also there is a perfect circle waiting to be cut near the battery for the up and over pipework, you just have to look closely. I imagine it is what nissan cuts out for the gtr pipework.

I say all this becase i have changed from the up style pipework to pipework that retains the two standard intercooler pipes in the engine bay (excluding crossover). I will have these made up in polished alloy in the near future. My pipework now features less bends, less pipework in the engine bay, has less lenght of pipework between intercooler outlet and throttle body, and has a more stock look.

Some food for thought perhaps....

[predator]

I would have to diagree, i think changing the piping to the up and over is not an appealing look, nor is there alot of clearance around the fan, or radiator top hose. There is also more pipework in the hot engine bay....

I Just wondering why Apexi, HKS, Trust, etc for the most part use that method. If it was so bad, they wouldn't be using it? As it means more pipes to produce. It makes getting access to the CAS a bit painful though but there is plenty of clearance around the fan (which has the shroud anyhow). Not that I really care about the bling in my car too much, but the stainless is very bright and attention grabbing in the engine bay. I had a HKS "over" kit in my old car, and don't think there was too much issues with that.

No offence pred but i would say the hole you cut for "your up and over"is a little messy, shoudl get your hands on a circle cutter thing (specific i know). i use the attactment in air powered tools but id imagine you could get one to suit a powered drill. It has a drill in the center and obviously a circle around it that is serated like a saw. It will cut you perfect circles all day long. Also there is  

a perfect circle waiting to be cut near the battery for the up and over pipework, you just have to look closely. I imagine it is what nissan cuts out for the gtr pipework.

lol.. true. It was perfectly square at one point, but unfortunately I had issues with the piping that I got (hence that 2nd black join), and had to make it more retangular to angle the piping. Some rubber around the edge will neaten things up later I hope. A circular hole would be nicer, if you know exactly where to cut and have the right tool... I have a feeling I would have had several holes along trying to get it exact and right for the piping. Nobody can really see it from that angle, and from the engine bay it looks ok.

To be honest, there is no real way to make the whole thing look "neat" utilising the stock bar, as so much cutting is required.. an aftermarket bar (maybe one day) will change things there, although I do like the plastic.

Some could claim such a hole weakens the chasis, but there are two such holes over the other side for the stock piping, and the chasis rail is underneath still. I cannot see that being an issue in reality.

I say all this becase i have changed from the up style pipework to pipework that retains the two standard intercooler pipes in the engine bay (excluding crossover). I will have these made up in polished alloy in the near future. My pipework now features less bends, less pipework in the engine bay, has less lenght of pipework between intercooler outlet and throttle body, and has a more stock look.

Some food for thought perhaps...

I'm not sure about less bends (probably about same), nor length (its about the same, if its shorter it would not be a massive amount). But I do agree about the heat somewhat.. however there was talk previously about how moving air will not be sitting long enough to be heated in the piping setup itself. What is over is just under, and you have a large 180deg turn in there..

What I don't like about that look is often you an see the pipework trailing under the cooler. Also it lowers the ground clearance by a couple of centimeters. With roads the way they are, one big dip at 100km/hr could be very painful. I've killed 2x front bars on my 10cm (legal height) R33, clearance is important to me and the way I drive.

You also have on the RHS a nice space to run a decent cold air feed from the front bar direct to your airbox, whereas if you do the "under" method this makes things difficult.

Those are just my thoughts too. Maybe I'm just justifying them to myself, but I did think about them

[Cubes]

My pipe work doesn't actually travel under the cooler it travels behind it, it doesn't block airflow as the bottom of the IC doesn't receive any air due to the bumpers lower lip.

At WOT the air is traveling through the pipework so fast that I would think virtually zero heat will transfer to the air. At idle cruising around in traffic I do think it will make a slight difference but at those load levels once again it probably wouldn't be noticable.

[predator]

with ground clearance.. I've just been looking at the threads on DIY under method - thats what turned me off a bit.. I guess there are different ways to do it.

This pic.. and this pic..

[Cubes]

lol.. Thats nasty as hell. lol

As I said earlier my end tanks in/out are in the middle of the IC's core, this makes it so much easier to get a 2 x 90degree bends lined up nicely so the lower pipe fits nicely behind the ic.

[DLuded]

cubes, my cooler is 550x300x60 and i cant fit it behind the support bar without cutting it

there isnt enough room

[KILL HSV]

i wouldn't like to be a pedestrian getting hit by that, it could cut someone's leg right off

doesn't a gtr reinforcement fit? or is the gtst front bar a diffent shape?

[Cubes]

Dluded,

As in the thickness? (See my attached pic a few posts up)

Or am I looking at the wrong part???

Or is it because of the size (width) that causes issues with the end tanks fouling the section of the support bar that bolts on to the chassis?

[CerealKiller]

If it doesn't rain on the weekend I'll rip off my front bar and take some pics, I have a Blitz LM fmic which has a pipe running below the fmic, the bend is just an extension of the end tank so no excess pipe bending.

[DLuded]

i had a 600x300x75 cooler and it didnt fit awell so i bought one which was 60mm thick and that still didnt fit.

i was going to cut some of the support bar light5 predator did but not as much

[Cubes]

I've found a pic of the front of mine, unfortunately no underneath pics but I will do soon.

Its a small thick bar/plate FMIC that apparently flows 580hp worth of air with a 1.5psi pressure drop.