Intercooler fitment

[skimp930]

For the past two weekend, I took the challenge to replace my turbo, as my seals on my current turbo died. I swapped out my old K27-7200 for a GT35R. I also replaced my oil feed line to the turbo in the process, which was not fun. After I put everything back together, I noticed my intercooler, a full bay garretson, did not fit as snug as I wanted to.

After I re-installed the intercooler, I noticed that I could not tightened the bracket next to the throttle body to get a nice seal. If I did, it would pull down the intercooler and hit the fan belt. Here is a pic of what I am talking about.




Here is the bracket which is loose and unable to tighten.






When I removed the intercooler to replace the turbo, I noticed there was a lot of oil coming out of the intercooler/throttle body connection, which tells me the o-rings was not tightly sealed. I'm looking for any suggestions on how to best tighten the throttle body/intercooler connection without the intercooler hitting the belt. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Sean

[mark houghton]

If you were to put a short spacer between the TB and IC mount, affectively raising the IC just a tad, would you still have enough 'purchase' for the o'ring to seal?

[gsxrken]

At first I was assuming that the new turbo is holding things in a different position, but the last part of your post seems to indicate that it never fit too well.

If the turbo up-pipe was out of the equation for a moment, is it possible to mount the intercooler tight to the throttle body without it hitting the belt? I hope so. In that case you can work backwards and position the turbo brackets where they need to be.

[skimp930]

Mark,

Thanks for the reply. There was a spacer on the mount previously but I suspect it pushed the IC too far up for it to seal properly. With the spacer/washer in, I was able to rock the IC slightly which made me think it's not tightly sealed. When I removed it, no rocking and it felt tight but it's hitting the belt.

[skimp930]

gsxrken,

You're correct. When I first got the car, the IC was touching the belt. I took it to a mechanic about 10 months ago or so regarding a no start, which turned out to be a bad ground wire; but I mentioned to him that the IC was rubbibng against the belt and that's when he put the spacer/washer in. After I got the car back, it didnt feel as strong as before and I took the car back to the mechanic and told him that. He test drove it and said all felt ok. I took his word for but I always wondered about it. There probably was a boost leak at the TB/IC connection. Now how to fix it.

I tried many different ways to connect the IC flush to the TB and I can't figure out a way to position it without hitting the belt. I'm still fairly new at working on these cars, what's the belt connected to? Is there a way to lower that unit? Thanks.

[mark houghton]

The belt is for your AC compressor. Remove the AC....problem solved!

Took mine off years ago. If I recall, the mounts are fixed and non adjustable. Dropping the compressor would take some customized mounting I would think.

One thing you may be able to do is find a silicon rubber reducer/adaptor with inner diameters to mate up with the IC and the TB. But you would lose some rigidity in the rear mount of the IC and it would be a pain to install.

Or, find someone who is good fabricator and aluminum welder and have him modify that corner of the IC so it clears the belt pulley.

[oilonly]

I see you don't have the rubber spacers where the intercooler bracket mounts to the bolt, plus when you plug the intercooler into the throttle body does that bracket meet the bolt spacer at the same time? if not use longer spacer/add washers, if it hits that spacer first then shorten it. Just a question about that up pipe connection, looks like a clamp on the stock metal up pipe?

[skimp930]

Mark,

AC compressor removal might be an option as my ac is more like a heater during the summer. Is removal process as simple as unbolt and remove? Or more involved? Thanks.

Oilonly,

Good eye. I did have the rubber spacers there at one point but after test fitting it the 5th time, I decided to remove it see to see if it fit better without it. Thanks for the IC install tip. Will try it out. As for the charge pipe, when I replaced the K27 for the GT35R, the charge pipe needed to be twisted to re-align properly for the new turbo. The GT35R has a slight different dimentions. When I twisted the charge pipe, the original bracket that is welded to the intercooler and charge pipe got miss-aligned. I had to fab up (quick fix) a new bracket to get a good seal.

[mark houghton]

Originally Posted by skimp930

Mark,

AC compressor removal might be an option as my ac is more like a heater during the summer. Is removal process as simple as unbolt and remove? Or more involved? Thanks.

Yep, simple. Of course you'll be venting those nasty refrigerant hydrocarbons to the atmosphere and blowing a hole in the ozone layer. And you'll want to plug the two rubber hoses where you disconnect them to keep 'stuff' from getting inside. I suppose there's probably a proper way to take the AC out of service, but that's beyond my scope of knowledge.

When I bought my 930 and asked the guy if it worked, he made some lame comment about it blowing fairly cold (of course, it was 'fairly cold' outside at the time). Further inspection showed that both hoses were just lightly hand-spun onto the threads (i.e, bone dry of any refrigerant). Moments later I had the compressor off and in a box.

[CaptainCalf]

Originally Posted by mark houghton

Yep, simple. Of course you'll be venting those nasty refrigerant hydrocarbons to the atmosphere and blowing a hole in the ozone layer. And you'll want to plug the two rubber hoses where you disconnect them to keep 'stuff' from getting inside. I suppose there's probably a proper way to take the AC out of service, but that's beyond my scope of knowledge.

When I bought my 930 and asked the guy if it worked, he made some lame comment about it blowing fairly cold (of course, it was 'fairly cold' outside at the time). Further inspection showed that both hoses were just lightly hand-spun onto the threads (i.e, bone dry of any refrigerant). Moments later I had the compressor off and in a box.

+1, my compressor is also off and in a box

[skimp930]

Thanks Guys,

Compressor is off and all is well. Fits like a glove. Thanks for the suggestions. On a different note, here's a pic of my B&B headers. Is it normal to have chips/cracks inside the headers? Should I be worried? Thanks.

[CaptainCalf]

Looks like the inside welds are deteriorating which may be normal on those headers. I don't think it's a problem, however it may slow the exh gas flow a little and they could eventually leak, so if it were me I'd keep an eye on them...

[fredmeister]

Originally Posted by CaptainCalf

+1, my compressor is also off and in a box

+2

Took mine off 3 years ago in the interest of saving 30 lbs of dead weight off the rear of the car. Aint worth many $$ tracing all the leaks in the 30 year old hoses.
If its warm inside the car, I just drive faster with the windows down.

[CaptainCalf]

Originally Posted by fredmeister

if its warm inside the car, i just drive faster with the windows down.

+1000

[1980.930]

Hey Skimp how's the new turbo?Does the gtr35 make a lot of difference?