Fitted A Cooler Yesterday

[3intheBack]

...in my opinion there is less piping with a return feed cooler than there is with the other type

I reckon you would be covering the same distance, just by a different route: One under the motor, the other over the motor. There would be bugger all difference in it lengthwise, unless your inlet and outlet are on the same side of the IC. At the end of the day, what is more important, and has more effect, is the pressure drop across the core of the IC.

Just for the technically minded: I believe the pressure drop due to one 90 deg bend in the pipework is equal to the pressure drop over 3 metres of straight pipe. So the second most important thing (after pressure drop across the IC core) is to reduce the number of bends.

[3intheBack]

Observations on Mike's Pics:

Noice work in all, not sure if cutting the big chunk out of the metal part of the front bar did anything other then weaken the bar, as you probably would have realised when you put the plastic bumper back on - it covered all your ventilation anyhow.

What can be helpful (slightly) is to put a strip of foam across the top edge of the IC between it and the bumper bar, this forces the air coming in to go through the IC rather then up and over the top - you will see this same idea used by the factory on the radiators.

Also noticed that the outlet pipe (drivers side) from the IC goes further out before making the bend towards the back of the car. I see the black plastic strip being pushed out of shape by the pipe, whereas the (passenger side) inlet pipe is barely noticeable from the front. Personally, I just cut both of the plastic strips off.

You could try cutting a couple of inches off the pipe then reinserting it into the blue connecting hose to make them look even. NB: flare the end of the pipe after you cut it or it will pop off under boost. Secondly, dont be lazy and remove the pipe completely if you intend to cut it or filings will make their into the motor.

Actually, I just realised, if you pull the pipe off you may notice that the lengths of each end are different - one is shorter then the other, so you may simply have it in upside down. Depends on your kit though.

Edited February 15, 2007 by 3intheBack

[3intheBack]

One final thought for you all:

Now that you have added about a dozen extra 8mm nuts to your car, or even you if you are contemplating doing this, then go and buy one of those flexi drives for doing up hose clamps and store it in your car tool bag.

If you ever pop a pipe off out on the road it will be next to impossible to get them back on and tightened up with just an 8mm spanner.

Which brings me to my next point - test the tightness of your clamps, by double checking everyone by hand firstly, then by getting out on a double lane highway and flooring it for a number of seconds, so as to maintain full boost for as long as legally possible. If a pipe pops while overtaking a car, then you will lose all power, in fact, it probably wont even idle.

[Mr_RS4]

Hey all

Just to dig up and old thread I finally did my FMIC install yesterday. I used one of the GKTech kits. Was pretty easy to fit. Had to remove a little from the front bar support (but only a little and it can't even be seen) but all the brackets fitted perfectly. Pipe work was also easy and just had to cut a hole under the battery tray (which also killed my drill in the end ) I did how ever run into problems with the washer bottle. There was no way it was going back to the standard location but after looking at one of the pics in this thread I know I can just spin it 90 degrees and make a new bracket so that will be easy, but i'm going to wait till the body kit is fitted as I can't be stuffed pulling the front bar off again just to do it again when the kit is fitted. All in all it only took about 5hrs total. The only complaints I've got about the kit is the clamps that were supplied were pretty average to say the best and I will be replacing them with descent tbolt style asap as they can't be tightened to much with out stripping. But apart from that its a great kit and for less than $400 delivered then I really can't complain

Not really getting stuff all air flow atm but my nismo kit is getting fitted in a few weeks so will have MUCH more then and should look good.

Edited April 2, 2007 by Mr_RS4

[Stinky Rooster]

I couldn't help but notice you have taken the "valley" cover off between the cams leaving the coils packs exposed - is there a reason for this? I was tossing up the idea of putting some slots in my cover for cooling purposes but I wasn't sure if this was a good idea. Is this why you have done it?

[Mr_RS4]

^^^ Yeah thats one reason why I did it but also (and probably mainly) it makes changing spark plugs so much easier. Plus I also like the look of it (don't know why ) God look how dirty my engine bay is. Never used to be like that But I'm going to start some color coding and detaling soon to match the new paint job.

Also I notice a lot of people cutting fan blades. A couple of guys at work just used these same kits on their skylines and got a work shop to fit them, and the work shop cut them too. I don't know why because all you need to do is make the hole under the battery a little longer ( to allow for more pipe movement back towards the firewall direction) and then drill another hole the in bracket on the top pipe that goes over the radiator about 10mm from the last hole and bingo no where near the fan. And I also needed to shave some plastic of the body of the A/C thermo fan shroud as its a bloody close fit. But if your prepared to cut a massive chunk out of your front support bar then there is no need for this as you can mount it further forward. But i mounted it further back and lower so there is only about 5cm as the most of the cooler behind the front bar support.