Intercoolers

There doesn't seem to be a topic regarding Intercoolers, piping etc on this forum other than the odd mention in other threads?
So I thought I would start one as there seems to be lots of questions.
Considering this is an important part for a Turbo engine I thought I would start.
I have just recently replaced my original Intercooler with an after market one.
I will put a how to, problems I faced and photos on what I did shortly.
Apart from that I encourage people to put the own comments on what or if they have done this?

 

Ok, I had been searching, reading all I could about Intercoolers and there sizes etc. I learn't that bigger is NOT better in this case.
Neither is small. Getting in between seemed tricky to find.
I didn't want to use the HKS one, for two main reasons. One, it is bloody expensive to buy and land here. Two, you will need to pull the front
off and there is an awful lot of piping, so money best spent elsewhere.
I am not going to race it and I think you need to bear that in mind with mods as it can/will get out of control with small gains that won't matter on the street.
That said I was watching an after market one on Japanese auction sites for ages. All alloy, bigger and replaces the original Intercooler.
This seemed to tick all the boxes but I didn't want to pay full price as I had noticed they auction bid them sometimes and you could
pick one up a lot cheaper. 23,500yen full price and around 16,000yen bidded.
I got one at 15,500Yen so I was happy with that.
I was a bit nervous about the quality but when I received it, no problem it was excellent.
This is purposely built to suit the L880K and replace the original one.

 

I figured I could replace the original one without taking the front off but wasn't entirely sure so I allowed a day of mucking around.
As it turned out, I didn't need to so that saved and heap of time and also meant I could do it on my own.
You will need to raise the front up, either on the jack with some Axle stands or on some ramps as you will need to get underneath to
undo two bolts that hold the Intercooler in at the bottom.
These two bolts will give me a lot of grief later on.
First take off the grill, three plastic Phillips screws and it lifts out.
You can clearly see the original Intercooler.

Next is to take of the Intercooler induction pipe and hoses. I have a Stainless Induction already fitted a while ago. You will need to
move that out of the way and undo the pipe at the front.

Getting that out of the way will allow more room to remove the air cleaner holder.
Removing the Air Cleaner is easy for me as I had modified it before (on another thread) and removed the small plastic intake pipe. It has a couple of small plastic rivets that will pop out so you can remove the whole cleaner.

 

With all that out of the way its time to undo things. The rubber intake pipe just has a hose clamp on it. Will replace that with Silicone
at some stage. A bit of blow back oil around the old Intercooler but nothing unusual for 110,000Kms.

Next is to undo the bolts. There is one at the top, easy to see and two underneath the car. These two bottom ones will give you
a headache getting them out and putting them back in later. Lining the holes up again took me ages.
You will be able to fit a ring spanner on each bolt to undo it. I figured a lot less time than taking the front off!

Once all the bolts are undone you need to twist the old Intercooler on its side to get it out.

 

Before fitting the new Intercooler you must remember to take off the rubber bushes from the old one. Watch the small one which allows you to clip the small side cover back on. These will be used again and have the wholes in all the right places. Great replica.

Also while on the bench, line them up together and bend the mounting brackets to the same shape.
This will make it a lot easier when trying to line up the holes again.
You can see how much bigger the new one is.
It fills up the whole space where the old one was. Should have been made like that in the beginning?

This is it finished. Allow a few hours especially for the bottom bolts!
One of the things I have noticed with the after market one is the cooling fan comes on perhaps 50% less than before.
A bit more sucking noise when accelerating, I like that and over all a great cheap inexpensive mod.
Add that with an after market induction pipe kit and it improves performance you can really feel.
Will post a photo of the induction as that was done a while before the Intercooler.
Hope this helps for anyone wondering about it.

 

Yes it is a purpose built one to suit the Copen L880K.
I have since edited the description up the top..

 

From the Yahoo site in Japan. I will have a look for the link..

 

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/m190737165
That is the one I purchased but it was a lot cheaper as it was an auction

 

Yes, the D-Sport set up with Intercooler piping is perfect if you can afford it.
Not sure of the size on that compared to the after market one I bought?
Mine definitely filled up all the space and was a lot thicker than the original one.
The Intercooler piping I used was from the same place too.
One of the differences between the piping is that you can't fit the engine cover back on once you fit the new piping, where as the D-Sport has longer piping so it you may be able to fit the cover?
Better still, buy the D-Sport engine cover and its done.
I thought about buying that but realized that it won't fit over my piping either.

 

Dont have the car here at the moment. Its in transport.
Perhaps, but if the piping isnt right it wont fit. Not much room for error and not that expensive anyway.