I just bought my pipes. I finally got tired of doing research for something cheaper and just spent $94 for 4 pipes and 12 Tbolt clamps. In know that sounds crazy, but there's really nothing cheaper. I bought 1x70* and 3x45* 18"sections. I bought from CXRacing. The pipes were $14 each and the clamps were $22 w/$175 for shipping.

I think I'm going to buy my silicone from Reef Lights via eBay. They've got quality stuff and comparable prices. I need 1x45*, 3x90*s, 1x2-2.5"coupler, and a hump connector... plus a straight coupler just in case I need to splice in somewhere. It looks like that's going to run me 113.50 after shipping. That puts my total IC cost, including the mounting hardware at about $330 total.

I'm at work now... can somebody with a DSM T25 w/the 90* compressor outlet measure the damn thing and confirm the compressor outlet is 2".

"Roger.... Checking."

2" yes

You could upgrade your intercooler. ;)
Too bad it was all such PITA. Can't believe how poorly represented your IC was in the eBay. Congrats on overcoming the hurdles with a nice looking set up. Now's the fun part. :skid:

i saw this post and decided to do this myself because i hated my current intercooler mount, so i did it this weekend. Like he said it takes a while but it really does give you a satisfied feeling when you are done. I used 1" L brackets instead of 2" and then cut some pieces to make it to have a place to screw into. I am really pleased, so thanks for giving me the idea.

Very nice man. Congrats on the beautiful job. I decided to not go the intercooler route, yet.

Nice looking bracket, rharris. Looks like we have another member of the amateur MIG welding society among us. ;)

Glad I could provide a public service.

very nice intercooler bracket

I'm surprised you even purchased this looking at the ad I couldn't help but catch some spelling errors:

2: Messure of cooler
3: Alunium Bar Plate

I'm sure everyone at m.net would agree with you... but around here, there's nothing wrong with having english as you second language... I mean, we do drive Japanese cars right?:bigtu:

i have honestly never heard anything but positive stuff about e-bay intercoolers. Im even thinking of ditching my starion and doing a DIY just like u guys.

Your workmanship is outstanding. With the aftermarket getting so huge (blame f &f I guess) so much is such junk. I look at cars for sale online and I assume they are hack jobs because 99% are. What you have done reminds me more of a hot rodder. While I don't have a huge interest in v8 muscle cars anymore, I do respect the level of pride in their workmanship. I wish I had your skills and patience.

awesome work!

you have inspired me to do a FMIC setup to replace my crappy saab 900 set-up over the winter months.

my set-up looks like this:

http://www.**********/Saab%20IC%20kit.JPG

However it looks allot better from the engine bay view as you can see!!!:bigtu:

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...67_54_full.jpg

would you care to comment exactly what I would need with regards to 90 degree bends, couplers etc and what size intercooler pls?

Rotaryjunky and Tabs, I appreciate the kind words.

You got me to thinking about the whole hot-rod scene as it stands today. For the most part, it seems that the images portrayed in the media are mostly about the “wheels-n-chrome” set, who mostly pay others loads of money to do their work . And what little attention is paid to the DIY crowd focuses on bolt-ons. You know: “I gained two and a half HP with this hi-performance air intake” and so forth. Thank God hydraulics and neon have fallen out of favor.

It actually makes me wonder if, outside of a few small sects such as our own, the shadetree hot-rodder still exists anymore. You know, the guy down the street who can fix damn near anything with an oxy-torch, a socket set, and a pile of parts that used to be a ’52 Merc.

I really hate hearing people bitch about how hard it is to work on cars nowadays, what with computer-controlled EFI and such. What, like jetting Weber carbs and futzing around with distributor weights was easy? I’ll take a wideband 02 sensor, MAP, and a dash-mounted tablet PC any day!

Where I work, there are two other guys who I’d classify as motorheads. One is a serious Mustang fanatic, the other has gone through an RX-7 and a ‘Vette and is currently flogging a very nice ’82 911SC. What bugs me though is that neither of these two are hands-on; Dave (the Porsche guy) doesn’t even change his own oil, and Jon (Mr. Mustang) paid someone to install a Vortech. C’mon, a Vortech install can’t be that hard! And these guys aren’t dumb- Dave is a CAD draftsman, and Jon is a serious electrical engineer who, among other things, designs ICs.

At any rate, I really appreciate the comments. Honestly, my car isn’t all that special (it's actually pretty ugly in places), I just enjoy tinkering.


Tabs, I guess you’ve noticed that this server filters out the domain name of the guy whose link you posted. That’s how much we don’t like Jim. ;) But to answer your question, I posted a pretty complete inventory of materials used (and vendors who I bought them from) in the first and ninth posts of this thread. But to summarize, I used the following:

3x 2” 90° aluminum bend
1x 2” 45° aluminum bend
1x 2.25” 90° aluminum bend
2x 2.5” 90° aluminum bend
1x 2.5” 90° steel bend (to weld idle and BOV fittings onto)
2x 2.5” 90° silicone elbow
1x 2”-2.25” silicone reducer
1x 2.25”-2.5” silicone reducer
4x 2” silicone coupler (cut from 12” length of 2” silicone hose)
3x 2.5” silicone coupler (cut from 12” length of 2.5” silicone hose)
1x steel heater nipple (for the idle hose, it was either .625” or .75”)
Misc fittings and pipe for BOV (varies by which BOV you use)
Whole lotta clamps

With the intercooler itself, you’ve got some freedom of choice size-wise. I’d recommend less than 27” overall length (end to end, not core length) and if you use one with something other than 2.5” ends you’ll just need to adjust the size of a few of the pipes and couplers. You should look for 2.5 to 3” thick for the core, height is whatever you think reasonable. Mine is about 6” tall.

And for the record, there’s a guy on this list called Stripes who sells a complete intercooler kit comparable to mine for about the same money as what I’ve spent on parts. His banner is at the top of this page – MX5projects.com

As an aside, here are some pics of the new pipe I made to go between the AFM and the compressor inlet. I didn’t want to drill out the stock aluminum piece since I still need it to pass smog. This is a piece of 2.5” steel exhaust tube, mandrel-bent 180° on a 3.75” radius (the tightest I could find). Summit part SUM-621008. I cut a wedge-shaped piece out of the middle to open up the angle a bit and then welded it back together- it maintains pretty much the same geometry as the stock piece. The air filter is a K&N RU-4950. It’s all rubber (no chrome) so it doesn’t chafe the underside of the hood.

thanks for replying!:bigtu:

There was some renewed interest in this in another thread, which led me back to this old post. I realized in retrospect that the tight shots of the piping that feed the I/C could be a bit confusing- some of them were taken from odd angles such as straight up from the ground.

I happened to have the nose off of the car today, so I snapped a couple of new shots that give a better overall perspective on the lower part of the tubing. Back when I first started studying this I remember having a hard time visualizing how the pipes should route around the radiator- others had done this before me, but I just couldn't quite see it. So hopefully these will make it a little clearer.

A wide shot. The pipes don't really extend as far down as they appear due to the perspective of this shot. They just barely go lower than the radiator:
http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/8818/wideqw4.jpg


Close-up of the left (US driver side):
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/7...fttightty2.jpg


Close-up of right (US passenger) side, in which the water injection pump is visible as well:
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2...httightco8.jpg

Yours is the pretty version of mine
https://www.miataturbo.net/showthrea...410#post151410

Only 2 minor differences I saw:
1> I have a bend coming off the turbo, where you used a 90 and kept it high to maintain the AFM position. I don't have CARB here, so that wasn't an isssue for me
2> I went from 2.0" to 2.5" on the hotside directly, where you transitioned trhough 2.25" first.

Awesome post...thanks for the info and pictures.

Wow! What a great job Joe !

I'd like to see an over the rad setup thread like 18psi and a couple of other guys did, only with the same detail as Joe's thread.