Front mount intercooler fab

Well had to make a new account for handle reasons. Anyways...

Recap:
Hello, first post on here. Picked up a 2017 sho a couple months ago and have been tinkering with it. Ordered plug and a tune the day I picked it up. Installed a meth injection kit with a 07 nozzle and got a new tune for it from gear head. Last mod was a aftermarket intercooler. I was unimpressed with the iats I was seeing after having dropped a decent amount of money so I figured I’d take a stab at making my own.


Was eyeballing the treadstone trv259 but cheaper out and went with a mishimoto r line intercooler instead due mostly to the price and prime shipping. Ordered a 2.5” and 3” universal pipe kit and some assorted coupler (some of which ended up being wrong I should have measured everything but just eyeballed it before I started, such is life).


Started by removing the intercooler and relocating the condenser back a bit to make some extra room (though I don’t thing it was entirely necessary since I had to make new mounts for it anyways might as well trim the front of the radiator mount.


got a piece of tubing and some misc metal scrap bits from a metal supply place and started playing around. Bent up a piece of tubing and cut some plates to mount it.


Still need to cut a support gusset for it but it’s suprisingly solid the way it began


got the intercooler positioned where I thought I wanted it and decided to run the passenger side piping through the original area that the stock ic ran. Had to trim the fiberglass radiator crossmember a lot in some places but left enough that I’m not concerned with it having any weak points. Fwiw 3” piping fit without too much effort.


Made a mount for the intercooler which I’m going to have to beef up as it’s not as stout as I thought it would be but it holds it just fine for mocking everything up.


started on the hot side of the charge piping and was less than thrilled with the packaging constraints. Had a hard time getting things where I thought they fit well and would be serviceable. Eventually I settled on how I would run it and spent what felt like forever fabbing up a y pipe to merge the 2.5” to 3”


I haven’t welded aluminum or anything with a TIG in a LONG time and it felt like it and showed in the welds. Eventually I came up with this and the rest of the pippin was fairly straight forward.


I’ll have to snap some more pictures as I almost finished up the hot side ( waiting on a coupler to complete it). The cold side it mostly done. Have to make a bunt for the meth kit and make a bing for the tmap. I’ll update when I can get some more photos to update


hoping to see some improvements in iats and less issues with heat soaking. We shall see...

 

Some progress:
Worked on it some more, finished almost everything up. Had to beef up the intercooler mount a bit as it wasn’t as sturdy as I thought it would be. So extended it out further back to the crossmember mounts to shore it up.

Made some mount for the adaptive cruise which ended up interfering with the lower grill so have to decide if I’m going to fiddle with it or get a different lower grill.

Took it for a short test drive but the last few tanks of 91 I have got have been garbage so didn’t have a great comparison boost wise. My adaptive octane was sitting at -.96 until recently it has been increasing and was at -.47 at the end of my short drive so that’s not so great. Not sure if it’s the winter gas finally or quick trip is screwing me recently? I’ll run this tank down and try Costco next time.

Either way the new intercooler doesn’t heat soak while idling as I let it idle for Probably 20 minutes to burp the coolant and put the bumper back on and the iats were less than 120 degrees still so that’s nice. Once I can get some actual logs I’ll update back here.

 

I like the crash bar and bracing you made for it. Did you make the crash bar too?

To get OAR back up unless it’s truly bad fuel....this works every single time.

Usually only need to do this after a new tune flash.

Start the car put in manual mode 10-12 or Sport mode 13+. Drive up to 35 mph and put into manual 5th gear. 5th gear works the best. Make sure you can monitor OAR while you do this. If you have to connect a laptop to the car then do so.

About 35mph in 5th press firmly on the peddle but not too hard, you want a slow and steady acceleration for about 7-10 seconds. Let off. Slow down and repeat. Sometimes it takes a couple tries....once you see OAR start to go up...it should go back up 15-20 every single time you do this until you are back at -.96.

I have this down to a science lol! I changed the route I take to the road I do datalogs on. It’s a little hill which is even better. So I’m able to have it in 5th going up the hill in a 35mph zone, speeding up to about 45, I can let off and bc of the hill I slow down and I’m back in on the peddle in 5th. I can do this in traffic and it’s not a big deal. Less than 10 min later I’m at my little highway at -.96 and I can get a solid log in. Hope this helps with your OAR.

 

I got aaron schwartz's intercooler setup. Using a treadstone intercooler. What people dont realize is its made for a smaller intercooler but gives enough room for a larger one with a little of your own thinking. Not crazy like @skyshadow07 with a custom crash bar but a little smaller.
Not my car but what his setup is capable of with an easy install. I have a larger intercooler installed with a little extra work, 700hp intercooler spec size

 

Appreciate the Info on the OAR. I’ll give it a try. Both my vehicles have AO tunes on them and both have been lower than usual. They usually sit at the-.96 but as I said the last few tanks I’ve been seeing it wander down. The sho has meth injection so I’m sure it will be able to bump itself back up doing what you suggested so long as I’m in a little boost so the meth is engaged.
I did fab up the crash bar and all the bracing and piping. Went to the local metal supply place and picked up all the stuff for the crash bar and a peivlce of aluminum for the tmap for around 20 bucks. Still have a lot of left overs as well. Used a harbor freight pipe bender to bend up the crash bar.

 

I saw a few of the front mounts like the one you posted. The stock crash bar just takes up too much realestate for what it is. If I used a thinner core than the one I did I may have been able to fit something with just relocating the condenser back like I did.

With the limited options for these cars I decided to just make something when I had some extra time. This is what I ended up with but is by no means the be all end all of front mounts. I cheaper out a bit on my intercooler as there are nicer things than the core is used.

 

Moving on from creating super spies and assasins to intercoolers. How the mighty have fallen.

 

Tired to get the oar up a bit today with limited success. Filled up with 12 gallons or so from Costco and didn’t have time to mess with it much but driving home it still seemed like there was knock under light load leading me to think we just have shit gas for the winter now. Refilled the meth and when I have time I’m going to fill up a couple gallons of e-54 and see what it does. Should improve otherwise something else is amiss.
On another note cruising IATs were about 20-25 degrees over ambient on a long drive so at least there’s that.

 

Looks good brother. You really went all in, very quickly! I like the crash bar. So I take it the GH IC is for sale?

 

Yessir. I haven’t had time to post it but it is for sale