AbaZ

Alot of you guys know I am building a low-budget ZC race car, that is hopefully going to be done by spring (yes this year! hah) Its in a million pieces right now, but I thought I might take a few pics of the intercooler setup. I really didn’t want to spend 1000 bucks on the spearco air-water intercooler w/ pump. So I wanted to do my own for a fraction of the price. It may not work as well as the spearco, but I don’t give a ****, if it poses a problem in the future I can always upgrade



It first starts off with a factory Saab intercooler, its a perfect size, the core is very thick and appears to flow pretty decently. I picked this up for $20 bucks at a local salvage yard.


I then took the intercooler to a friend of mine who does great work with aluminum and welds very nice. He basically welded a complete aluminum box all the way around the cooler. I had him chop the inlet/outlet pipes and rotate them so they would be aiming forward.


Here is a side shot, he had some nice aluminum fittings (1/2 inch) that he welded in for the flow off water, 1 at the top and one at the bottom on both sides. He charged me 75 bucks for everything, which I thought was very fair, I had a few quotes around $100-150ish from other places.


I picked up this inline pump at a boat parts store (boaters world) it flows 3.3gpm and should do just fine. Cost was $75

I still need to get a reservoir tank to hold the water, probably going to get a 1-2 gallon tank. Where am I going to mount this intercooler at? well its going inside the car directly behind the firewall. It seems its going to be the easiest way to do it, since my turbo sits in an odd location.

Pics coming soon of the install....

Jeff Frank

Canuk_SiR

very original
did you gut the fins out from between the tubes? Also, the water nipple seems to be in a bad location. How's the water supposed to flow through the cooler? Seems it won't flow as good as having the nipple in the front or back of the cooler.

Still a good idea

AbaZ

No I didnt gut out the fins? we have 2 seperate chambers here, the box has about 1/4 of an inch all the way around the cooler, water will easily circulate all the way around the core. The fittings couldnt be in any better of a spot. It is known that heat rises, so that is why 1 fitting is on the top, and 1 on the bottom. I have already pressure tested it, and it flows really well with that pump.

Jeff

avividmemory

nice let me know how it works, I was considering something similar...

PreIudeSI

wow, that's really cool. DIY rocks. Not quite sure if you knew, but the water inlet should be lower than the water drain nipple so that water fully fills up the intercooler before it can start draining out. Nice job though

EMod Civic

Damn that looks familiar. Oh yea, that because it's almost exactly what I did for my low $ AWIC. The Saab core is just about perfect to convert to water. I built mine max-ghetto style using JB weld, but it works great. I did add some baffles to the core before I put the jacket around it to force the water flow to go from top to bottom and back and forth through the core, with the cold water entering at the air exit for maximum temp drop.



I'm using a $25 Wal-mart submersable bilge pump located in an igloo cooler bolted to the passenger floorboard. Mine's strictly an ice water / race only setup, with no front mounted heat exchanger.

Less than 1/2 lb pressure loss, 20deg BELOW AMBIENT charge temps, great throttle response, and the entire system cost less than $100.

I do think I'm going to build another one this winter from one of the all aluminum cores like you did. I've got a TIG welder, and I've been itching for aluminum projects.

Here's a picture of mine mounted in the car.



-Chris

Phoenix GSR

what type of saab are those ic's out of?

EMod Civic

They came in 80s and early 90s Saab 900s. Some have plastic tanks and others are all aluminum. Seems like $20-$40 is an average price to pay for one.

-Chris

Justin Jones

can someone go into detail about gutting the fins??? I want to build one of these intercoolers and would like to do it as perfect as possible.

Evil EG

abaz didnt caut any fins he just made an aluminum box around the original intecooler.

Speed PHreak

Holy shiet, it's a turbo'd 3rd gen civic! That's friggen awesome dude!

Abaz: great looking I/C dude!


**edited cause i'm a dumbass and didn't look at his avatar **


[Modified by Speed PHreak, 12:26 AM 1/30/2003]

Justin Jones

yes, i read that the first time... lol... still, i'd like to know a little about the process of gutting the fins... if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.


[Modified by Turbo Lover, 5:10 AM 1/30/2003]

1.8T_EG

... nice!!!... let us know how it goes...

SIXTYdashONE

you never cease to amaze me, lol

BudaKai

Why would you want to gut the fins? the increase the rate of heat exchang because they transfer heat better than just the boxing for the airflow. I'm doing this when I get my HyTech. I'm just swapping intercoolers from the Saab with the civic. Sorry I thought it was funny. I don't have to buy anything.

wHOAlly

wow, that guy can weld!

Sleepin'

Nice!!!

EKB18BPR3

u know what else is great...i used a ford probe intercooler for my homemadeturbo.com style turbo set-up. it would be a nice size for a DIY AWIC too

brcivic411

wow... that's a beautiful piece of art!

You should think about making kits you can sell to ht folks!