Front Mount Intercoolers anyone?

[HollywoodTRBroz]

I was wondering if any of you guys are running front mounts instead of the cute little side mount that comes stock. And if you are, what you did with the front bumper, as they both seem to want to be in the same place. Have any of you modded them to fit around the new intercooler? or made some kind of new one? It'd be cool to see what everyone else has done. Here's mine bumperless.

 

[coyotes]

there's plenty, do a search. use google if you want and include "galant vr4" in your search, plenty will come up.

Which intercooler is that on yours?

 

[HollywoodTRBroz]

Its a greddy intercooler. I ended up getting it from the guy i bought the car from, he found it in his attic like 3 months later. Came with some nice powder coated tubing as well.

 

[turbowop]

Interesting. That's my old intercooler from around 2002. It's a Greddy core, with two rows cut off and then new endtanks welded on. Karter got it after I upgraded to my current Spearco 2-216 and I dunno what happened to it after that.

For reference:

 

[r4pt0x]

I'm using the big frontmount from a late VR4 RS - should be parts no MB170074. I was told this model was also called "VR-4 240" at some asian markets. The cam profiles from this models engine are almost similar to evo 1-3 RS ones - really love them /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The IC is the one pictured in CAPS for japan when choosing the VR4 RS model:
click

It fits nicely under the front bumper of the 4WDs. 2WD GTI front bumpers need some modification but it still looks nice and stock.

 

[G]

r4pt0x , you sure that's the right part number? I just tried looking it up in jp and it's not working.

 

[fuel]

and I'm pretty sure all JDM E38A/E39A cams are the same as the EvoII/III units, with the EvoI units actually having a lower lift, however CAPS/ASA has superseded the EvoI cams to the VR-4/EvoII/III cams should you wish to order some.

 

[fuel]

because I'm bored at work and playing around with ASA, using the chassis number of my own '91 JDM VR-4 Evolution (with the 240PS engine), MD170074 is indeed the intercooler part number for the larger 205x470x65mm intercooler.

Also -

E38A/E39A 205PS/220PS/240PS cams (all the same)
Exhaust MD128973
Inlet MD128974 (superseded by MD335754)

CD9A EvoI RS cams
Exhaust MD193148
Inlet MD193147 (superseded by MD335759)

CE9A EvoII/III RS cams (EvoII and EvoIII are the same car as far as CAPS/ASA is concerned)
Exhaust MD128973
Inlet MD128974 (superseded by MD335754, same as JDM GVR-4)

 

[HollywoodTRBroz]

Man thats pretty crazy that you used to have it. Did you get it modified to fit too? I got it out in gig harbor back in august i think. What did you do to mount your bumper around it

 

[unistylef]

Some industrial cutting was necessary to fit this ETS FMIC. Photo was taken Jan-2013. Thanks CutlassJim!

 

[LIV4PSI]

Quoting HollywoodTRBroz:
Man thats pretty crazy that you used to have it. Did you get it modified to fit too? I got it out in gig harbor back in august i think. What did you do to mount your bumper around it



Wop has a JDM bumper. The brackets are all different since there isn't the huge USDM crash bar.

 

[turbowop]

I actually had that core behind a USDM bumper first. I'll have to dig up some pics later on. And yeah, I had a local guy modify it and fab up the brackets for me.

I think I went 12.6 @ 107 on that core with a small 16g, 550's, SAFC, 2gMaf, 110 octane, and about 20psi...and an exhaust. I even have some track footage with that core from back in the day I'll have to find.

 

[turbowop]

Old video. Not my best pass, but it's got that core on the car. click

 

[mitsuturbo]

There are some bumper mod photos here: click

I've done like that to a couple different bumpers to get large FMICs to fit. It keeps a great deal of structural rigidity, and keeps the fascia from sagging. DO NOT SIMPLY CUT OUT THE ENTIRE MIDDLE OF THE BUMPER if you can avoid it at all. I've seen far too many VR4s with front fascias that look like total ass because some derp cut the whole center part out. The car in the link above was one of them. I actually cut the bumper pictured there back in like 2003, with an oxy/acetylene torch and had it on 161/2000. Then it migrated to 1411/2000 after 161 got hit while parked and totaled. Now it's on 555/1000. It was a little rusty as you can see in the photos, but i actually ground all that off, did a little more cutting, cleaned it all up, drilled out some broken bolts and rusted threads, welded in some SS nuts, and painted it.

 

[turbohf]

couple pics I found of mine. its a Spearco 2-216 core. the bumper beam has been trimmed up a lot. but nothing to the bumper cover at all.

 

[BpuVR4]

Quoting turbowop:
I actually had that core behind a USDM bumper first. I'll have to dig up some pics later on. And yeah, I had a local guy modify it and fab up the brackets for me.

I think I went 12.6 @ 107 on that core with a small 16g, 550's, SAFC, 2gMaf, 110 octane, and about 20psi...and an exhaust. I even have some track footage with that core from back in the day I'll have to find.



Wop are you saying you felt that was the limit to that specific setup?

 

[turbowop]

No, I'm just saying that's what I achieved out of it before installing an FPgreen and moving onto other mods and tuning devices.

 

[turbowop]

Here are some pics:

What I did with the bumper support on a USDM bumper to clear the core:



Behind a USDM bumper:



Endtanks and two rows cut off. The fabguy then welded a cover plate on where the two missing rows used to be and fabbed up the endtanks after that. In this pic you can see that the cover plate had just been welded on:

 

[r4pt0x]

get rid of that useless steel core within the bumper... we once had some USDM bumpers with those reinforcements and immediately threw them away and saved 20kgs at front and rear when using the EDM ones...
EDM/JDM are much lighter and have much more space left for the intercooler even if they have a few cm less overstand (which improves the looks A LOT)


@G:

Should be the correct number as I used the VIN of the VR4 frontcut i got that intercooler from. It's also available from MMC Japan when i checked last week (~300 EUR; 4-6 weeks delivery time...)

The earlier VR4 should have had the small black one that looks like a bigger oil cooler. At least these were used on the early VR4 group N rallye cars here in europe until the bigger one was available in ~1991

The cams also have a different partnumber to evo 1-3 and earlier VR4s. ASA model reference only shows the E39A '91-
I've also measured evo2 and evo3 RS cams and they have almost identical curves with identical lift but have slightly different offsets - with adjustable cam gears these 3 cams would be "the same". (from E2 to 3 only the exhaust cam was changed by ~1° IIRC - have to check my notes with the curves...)