Hey guys,

In my ongoing quest to decide what power upgrades I will do for my 5th gen accord, I decided I wanted to either build up an N/A H22 or turbo my current F22B. Now the only thing I do not like is having the intercooler in the front just because I have my fog lights there and license plate and I would prefer to not cut my bumper all up to put it there. Has anyone heard of someone with a Honda putting the intercooler in the trunk or under it? I know of other cars doing this. And this would not be that difficult as I do work at a resto shop, but just wanted to see what other people have done. If you do not like this idea then please keep the discouragement to yourself, unless you have a thoughtful comment. I do realize there will be a small boost lost due to the air friction having to move through all that piping, but nothing turning the boost up a little will not solve. TIA!!

 

LOL? Why would you put in in the trunk? How is the cold air going to get to it... Think about what you are asking. Under the car would make no sense either, seeing as you would probably bottom out on it, and no air would get to it.

 

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MR2......in his defense.

 

Well race cars do this and I have seen it done on others. Just a thought. It being to move it away from the engine bay for heat reasons. Just trying to hide the intercooler so that it looks more sleeperish, if I can. Also had the thought of moving the battery and putting the intercooler in the battery/ CAI spot.

 

You have a few options:

Run a non intercooled setup on low boost
Run a liquid to air setup in the engine bay
Get rid of the fogs and license plate and cut the bumper and just deal with it

 

Liquid to air meaning a nitrogen cooler?

 

just frontmount the damn intercooler....

 

I was trying to avoid that. I mean if you have any suggestions besides that, by all means, give them.

 

If you put it in your trunk you will have a very long intake track. If you size it properly and paint it black you can ninja it behind the front bumper.

 

That was my only concern honestly. And it was just an idea I had. But on low boost settings like around 10, will depth and/or length variation of the intercooler really diminish the air performance?

 

No, rather that using a air that passes through the core to cool the charged air they use liquid usually though a different circuit than the engine to cool the air. Do a search for liquid to air intercoolers

 

I saw in one of the tuner magazines,someone had their radiator mounted flat,instead of the typical vertical way.I forgot what kind of car it was for but it did look interesting.So maybe that's something that could be done with an intercooler up front.I'm sure it would be a pain in the *** to get to fit,but it would probably be pretty cool if you could work it out.

 

You mean like a WRX? A top mount? I don't believe we have enough room for one in the Accord bay.

 

yeah, but wheres the engine in the mr2?


he wants to run IC piping all the way from the turbo, to the back of the vehicle, get it into the trunk, back out of the trunk, all the way back to the TB.

not to mention modifying the trunk lid to get air into the trunk to go through the IC, and then have an escape path for the air also.

 

No,that's not it.

Now that I think about it,I think it was an RX7 and the radiator was down low.

 

Haha, I was mostly posting that as proof of concept. I have an inkling some people think an intercooler needs to be up front and center to be effective which is not necessarily the case.

*edit*

And I'm unsure if you've seen those rear mounted turbos............

 

honestly, no I havent seen an MR2's turbo setup in real life. not even a good picture of one.

but your still running piping from what is basically the rear of the vehicle, to the rear of the vehicle. and in a vehicle designed for this.

hes talking about running IC piping from the front to the rear. and besides under the car in the back, theres nowhere with airflow at the rear of the vehicle. of course I guess it could theoretically be stuffed inside the rear bumper, but unless you put a large opening in the rear bumper no real airflow will make it through the IC, and if you do that, its no longer hidden. Id vote for a black painted FMIC, ive read a few times that paint doesnt hurt a air cooled engines ability to dissipate heat, so Id assume it wouldnt hurt the ICs ability either. and then it is much less visible. at least from somewhat of a distance.

 

Quite interesting honestly. And yes I understand the piping is still an issue but you could technically run it alongside the exhaust piping.

 

I can see high intake temps with this setup. It's not mounted properly to get enough air flow IMO

 

why not use an intercooler off of a mustang SVO?

 

 

thats it right there! no one will ever notice it, looks just like your everyday hood ornament.


also, if you run the exhaust, and both runs of the charge pipe in the exhaust tunnel, wont you have like 2" exhaust and 1" charge pipes? and it would be hell to try and get them to all fit with no rattles/knocks when the engine rocks.

you could put a nice hood scoop and have a top mount like subaru, but again you lose the sleeper effect.

 

Dunno, car made 4xx hp with the setup, I'm unaware if he had any other vents/ribs to direct the air. I *think* he had a 12" puller fan on the back of it as well. Most peoples' comments consisted of heat rising from the bay and shitting on his parade so to speak.

 

If you ran the return air next to the hot exhaust piping that would defeat the purpose. I guess you could wrap both the exhaust and aluminum charge pipe with header wrap.

I would think that when using this type of setup you would also use electric fans on the back side of the intercooler too pull air through them.

This is what I was thinking about a top mount, same idea as the WRX as mentioned above. I don't think the Accord has much room under the hood. The few top mount intercoolers I have seen are small and fit in some pretty tight spots. If you don't want to see your intercooler up in the bumper how are you about having a hood scoop? You will need one for a top mount.