Application: Kia Rio

Here are pictures of the installation of my new FMIC. This intercooler was intended as a FMIC for a Eclipse, but it looked to be the right size for my car. Although not easy to install without cutting up the bumper or supports, I did it, and I am much happier and feel better with this large FMIC than with my old Ford Probe intercooler.

First, the parts I had to get:



Some aluminum bends, the intercooler, t-bolt clamps, 4 feet of 2" silicone hose, and the reducer couplers I needed to connect to the intercooler.

The intercooler itself is from a seller on ebay. It is a 25x5.5x2-7/8 Modine core. I don't know a lot about brands but I hear Modine is a good brand. In any case the internal fins are as good as any bar/plate core I have ever seen. Please give me opinions on the Modine core. Good buy for $200?

Compare that to the old crap I had:



Mounting the intercooler was a piece of cake. First I removed a few things that were in the way:



Then mounted the intercooler directly to my bumper with convenient tabs:



At this point I ran into the first snag. The Rio's radiator support is in the way a bit:



But using some of my old steel charge pipes I managed to squeeze the pipe past the support. (cut a 90° bend mid-bend and turned one side around) This displaced my air filter and MAF which were located under the passenger headlight. So I found a new place for the intake:



I'm not going to get any cooler air to intake than from there!

Running the pipes into the engine bay was pretty easy. I trimmed away the super-thin metal that was under the headlights and ran pipes through there.



Then I ran into the biggest snag. The outlet from the turbo is much lower than the headlight and I ran into this situation:



But a little creative fabrication solved the problem and also solved the problem on where I was going to put the BOV:



Finally it was all connected:



Put the bumper back on and it fit great. No room for the factory foglights so I will have to go back to the ugly fog light blanks. But the intercooler is completely invisible unless you really look for it:




I feel much safer boosting now with a intercooler than is admittedly overkill.

 

Nice work, i like your car
Are you planning on replacing that mangloid blow off valve piece anytime soon?

 

Good job on the install! I don't know about that crazy bend where the bov is though

 

I don't know of a better way to connect the turbo outlet to the "lower" charge pipe unfortunately. The Rio's bumper supports are HUGE. Also I see that most Honda turbo cars use a narrower radiator. Stock here!

 

Looks great

Do you think you will pick up any gains by switching to the more efficient intercooler?

 

Hrmmm, wouldn't you want the MAF installed somewhere after the intercooler?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sharkcohen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hrmmm, wouldn't you want the MAF installed somewhere after the intercooler?</TD></TR></TABLE>

only if he chose to run blow through. some maf's aren't calibrated for that..and the car can end up running like ****..or not at all