Ducting for a noob
 

After seeing some splendid examples of ducting in the cooling thread I decided it was my turn. The car is a 1991 1.6 with AC and PS. I have a Greddy turbo kit with a Starion intercooler added on the front. I'd consider this "old tech" but I am planning on eventually doing a K swap so I don't really want to update or rip anything out for the time being.

I understand the general concept, make all air going through the front bumper pass through the multiple layers of heat exchangers. What I am having a hard time visualizing is how do I do that with all the AC and intercooler plumbing in there. I was hoping someone could help me define my approach. What materials should I use? Should I be concerned about sealing each exchanger to the one behind it? What is the best way to work around the AC lines? Etc. Etc.

Here's what I'm dealing with:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/413/32...0923e24d_c.jpg
Untitled by sicklyscott, on Flickr

Might want to explain what your application is, completely different approach depending on street vs. track, 200hp vs. 300hp, stock radiator vs. double core aluminum......

In general you want to seal heat exchangers to each other or divide up the flow path to each cooler so that air won't bypass one for the other.....Path of least resistance and all. I personally don't like stacking coolers, you end up severely comprising flow through the intercooler and half the radiator but it's the easiest way, seems to work on street cars. If you agree with that thought process ducting gets complicated quickly, v mount setups aren't easy to package. If I didn't do the v mount I would have divided the nose inlet 25/75 and sealed the inlet of the intercooler to the 25% and let the exhaust of the intercooler rejoin the rest of the fresh air to go through the radiator

You certainly want to seal the cooler stack to the nose otherwise air will bypass the whole darn thing. You'll see folks use metal a lot for ducting. I used HPDE sheeting which has its pluses and minuses.

Thanks for that.

Specifics, 1.6l with a Greddy kit pushing 10-12 psi. Let's call it 200 whp though it's probably lower. It will have the TSE dual triple pass crossflow radiator with the FM oil cooler kit by the steering rack.

Car will be be used for HPDE for the time being. 20 minute sessions with ample cool down between them.

Does thst hat cover everything?

That intercooler outlet isn't too low? You don't knock it around when driving?

I've only owned the car for 3 months but it hasn't hit anything on my watch yet. It does look like it scraped a few things in the past. I'll either end up with a k24 swap or completely new turbo build by the end of this year so it's not really worth upgrading at this point.

use cardboard and mock everything up. Measure, measure, measure. Make sure to seal the sides as well. sheet aluminum is good to use; ducting only needs to be strong enough to hold its shape (usually 1/32" is sufficient if you build it right).

Coroplast works well for sealing around the intercooler, radiator, etc.