my intercooler bracket and build thread
 

Ok i recently bought a used intercooler 18"x12"x3" bar and plate. I did some looking and research and found lots of cheap ways to mount the intercooler. However, I'm not the type of person who will hang his intercooler using Zipties and shelving brackets, not to bash on anyone who has ever done that, more power to you.

I bought two 1/8" x 1and 1/2" x 3' strips of aluminum and some various bolts washers and nuts all for about 20$. I bent the two stips so that they had a 90 degree bend at the end. Then cut them shorter to make the two smaller bends for the top. Once i bolted them together I trimmed and this is how they turned out.

Any comments are welcome. I know the strips across the back will cause some turbulance as air moves through. Also there is about 6" of aluminum at the top to mount to the core support. Do you think that will be enough? I'll post more pics of the install and piping route
https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/mem...ms/116/517.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/mem...ms/116/518.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/mem...ms/116/519.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/mem...ms/116/520.jpg

https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/mem...ms/116/521.jpg

Nice, only thing is while I dunno if it will cause cooling deceasre, but seeing how the plates cover some of the fins I would rather set it up so they don't. I haven't looked to much into mounting a FMIC in the miata but thats what I would look at doing so not to cause any distrubance in airflow, esp if its gonna go infront of the radiator and ac consider if one.

Just my thoughts on it.

inefficient. mount bottom of the intercooler under the radiator or something like that

Looks upside-down to me.

I wanted the end tanks near the top for the routing of the piping. I'm doing a type of over the rad.

Do you really think that the two strips will cause that much decrease in flow? There is about a 1/2" gap between the fins and alum. strips.

I just mounted mine up and I'd be worried that your mounting will allow fwd/aft movement at the bottom of the intercooler. The top two brackets look great and they will support the weight of the IC fine (up/dwn movement). Just run the bottom brackets underneath the radiator and mount one each to the bottom bolts that hold the fan to the radiator to prevent fwd/aft movement.
I'll try and get some pics up of my arrangement, but it's basically similar to the Stripes kit instructions.

thanks i would like to see how you mounted it. I just want the intercooler to be secure and not moving around. It's a good thing i made to be able to take apart.

GL with install. I am curious to see the final product & i wouldn't mind seeing clay's pics too.

It's not heavy enough to need four straps from the top, so you can ditch the two running along the back of the core to the bottom if you'd like. You might, however, choose to stabilize the bottom of the cooler out to the sides, downward, or to the rear to reduce fore/aft motion. This might not be terribly necessary if the piping is firm enough to help secure it.

Good luck.

You should be able to just use the two top mounts, the pipes hold it place good. then just secure the bottom to prevent it from swinging back and forth.

I had the same IC and only used one L-bracket to hold it up...

I duplicated Joe Perez's intercooler mount, which worked very well I think. No obstruction of the cooling area.

His thread on it, with lots of pictures
https://www.miataturbo.net/forum/t17032/

what brain said

I'll see if I can upload some pics tonight, but really the bottom brackets are just there to prevent fwd/aft swinging as Brain mentioned. It's just basically an L bracket with the long leg attached to the bottom mount holes and the short leg going up behind the radiator and bolted to the back of the radiator by the fan mounting bolt. The pipes might even do a good enough job on their own as that's the way FM does theirs.
For the upper brackets I just copied FM's bracketry shown here:
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/300...untingbrac.jpg

Thanks for the help and pics. Its hard to find old threads that still have the pics attached. I'll definitely take the two off the back since the top two should hold. I'll hold off on the lower bracing until i get the piping on and see how it does.

Any updates?

Only thing holding up my ic are ic pipes.

I thought about doing that but mine seems really heavy. I changed the way it will mount but everything is on hold right now. I'll post pics once i get it in and done.

I should make mount but it's working and I'm lazy, so....

go to ace hardware they have the metal strips cheap.

It's not a matter of money, its a matter of motivation. Got a store I can buy that at?