Hi,

as my slow buidl creeps forward, I think I need to start thinking about the intercooling piping. Now I find two comon routes:
1) Underneath with many twists and turns.
2) Over the top of the radiator, buy lowering the radiator or butchering holes in the bonnet.
While I was relocating the washer bottle and removing the e-vap thingy, I thought of another route. Let me explain:

Did I re-invent the wheel, is this comon practice, did I miss something that makes it impossible, please let me know.

Cheers,

Hugo

 

Most cars would have an A/C condenser core immediately in front of the radiator as well - I can see by your lack of fans yours doesn't have A/C though. The only other problem I would see with tilting the radiator back is lowering the water level in the radiator compared to the head, which makes bleeding more of a pain. But my own opinion is you're mentally overcomplicating the "twists and turns" route when it's pretty straightforward once you're looking at the area.

 

Yup, no AC. It's usually cold and rainy here, the heater is more in use... Actually, uprighting the radiator raises the water level in the radiator compared to the head, it goes from / to | making it stand marginally taller. I am not against the twists and turns route, this just seems shorter. And shorter means less volume to pressurise, quicker spool-up.

Hugo

 

Honestly I think you're trying to justify the fight for 10's of RPM's in spool time, not 100's like you think you are.

 

I see no reason you cannot do what you are suggesting. However, with no power steering and no A/C , the standard
routing will be quite easy.

Yse, you must prevent any air flow from bypassing the radiator.

DNM

 

I did mine that way for the same reasons you've mentioned. Can't really compare to a classic setup because I never had one. The only downside I see is that I'll have to cut the bumper and the reinforcement, and/or fabricate some deflectors to enable airflow to the upper side of the IC.

 

My pipes go down from the turbo out around the side of the radiator through the ic, then out the side again around the rad then in and up to the manifold. It spools fine. Reaches 8 psi by 3000rpm on a vf10 turbo. Don't over think things

 

For an NB with no A/C, it's SUPER easy to do the over the radiator routing like you're proposing, and I think it is the best option.
Even with A/C it wasn't too hard.
I just switched from a "regular" setup to this over-the top routing and haven't noticed a huge difference in spool. There is definitely some improvement in flow though because without changing my manual boost controller, I gained a couple PSI. I did also make a cold air intake to replace my hot air intake, so that would cloud my results.

 

And potentially the fact that it is a completely different FMIC.