guide for fitting a universal front mount intercooler! ;-)

firstly, THIS IS ONLY A GUIDE, I WILL NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE IF YOU DAMAGE YOUR CAR OR YOURSELF. PLEASE TAKE ALL NECESSARY PRECAUTIONS AND IF IN DOUBT CONSULT A QUALIFIED MECHANIC!!!!!


secondly: if your like me set aside a day! i started at 10 and finished at about 4 (with some fannying about in between, i also had a mate to help me do this!)

thirdly: discard the original jubilees, theyre wank! we took it for a road test and had a leak, changed a few jubilees and good as!


anyway here we go at an attempt at a fitting guide! i chose to do mine behind the mesh and go for a more oem look!:

first take out the screws, 4x in each wheel arch, 4x on the panel above the seat badge, 2x behind the two round covers and 2x behind the black bump strip running round the bumper, also remove the number plate.




now be very careful removing the black bump strip!!! do not wedge a screwdriver in there and lever it using the plastic, you will damage your bumper. theres a very fine nack to it and what i did was got one end and flick it out using the screwdriver, then you have to push it following the line of the bumper towards the front of the car and youll find that after a bit of wiggling itll come out.


make sure all screws go somewhere safe! and remove bumper, again gently wiggle it, i had a mate helping me so we took a corner each. remember to unplug the fog lights, put a screwdriver in the clips and the plugs come right out! now put the bumper somewhere out the way safe!


now, its time to remove the side mount intercooler, please be careful with the spring clips, if they snap on your fingers its gonna hurt! the intercooler has 3 screws, two at the front of the car and one at the back of the intercooler, the plastic ducting is just clipped on, one clip at top, three at bottom, easy peasy to remove! once these are out you need to unclip the boost hoses from the intercooler, i re-used the spiring clips on these, so just slid the clips up the pipes a bit! once done the intercooler is off, well done so far!




now theres some cutting required here! i completely cut the mount which was behind the right had side round plastic flap off as this interferes with the pipework! and on the left hand side, i took off the tow eye bracket and cut the metal out there too, whilst ensuring i can get the tow eye bracket back of course! again be careful you dont jigsaw through the radiator or any pipes!




now here come the hard ish part! you need to get an L bracket of some sort, i used some old metal strap i had lying around and drilled them to the black bars running diagonal, be careful you do not drill through the condenser radiator, i slid some steel plate behind there while i did it to protect the rad! i then also fixed them to the crash bar to add some ridgity. its worth noting to do it like this you need to fit it slightly off centre, we went about 20mm because of the angle the rads run at theres not enough room to clear it! and you need to have the outlets at the top of the intercooler!





now i cut the length of threaded rod in half and screwed them into the mounting brackets, then put a nut tight to it to tighten it all up! now to offer it up and mark where to drill the holes for the rod in the L brackets!, be careful of the plastic under the rads, we dont want this piercing the intercooler! once done put intercooler out of the way and drill your L brackets!, once done you can slide the rod up through the brackets, put a nut under each bracket and a nut above each, now you can adjust the height to which you want it! i did mine tight to the bottom of the crash bar!



make sure its nice and tight and give the bumper a trial fit! it will be tight but i removed nothing off of the bumper! it will go with a bit of perserverance! once your happy remove bumper and pipe the intercooler up! now if using the supplied jubilees do them up with a 7mm socket not a flat headed driver as theyre crap! and make sure they are nice and tight and your not crushing any of the hoses with them.








now the next bit is up to you but i took my car for a spin up the road just to get it on boost and see if anything popped off before i put the bumper back on! as it happened a rubbish jubilee wasnt sealing properly and it whistled loud as anything lol! so took it home replaced clip and took it out again, this time no loud whistling and held boost ok, so back home i went!


all thats left now is to re-check pipeworks tight and refit bumper, that is the reversal of removing, itll be quite tight but it will go (this is where a mate will come in handy) also remember to plug fog lights back in too



oh an the reason we are putting ourselves through this:



now wear a big smile and enjoy

what does everyone think?

good guide mate looks very nice is this the ebay jobbie ??

looks like a nice item well made straight forward etc etc

well done that man

i will try and do one for the removal of the original mk4 exhaust

cheers dude to be fair it all seemed pretty good! still havent been for a proper drive yet! may take a run out in a minute......

yeah the ebay universal intercooler, very fast delivery!

whats the thikness and quality of the linking pipes like ?

it should hold a better boost and iv heard people saying they have only dropped 1-2 psi but as its colder and more direct etc it makes a difference

it seemed ok mate, im no expert on it all lol!

mine sems to boost to 21psi still, i think, although havent took her out yet!

yes yes yes!!


nice simon!!! like the way you mounted yours further back so you didnt have to cut the bumper!!

you would have saved loadsa time without messing with the bumper too much!!!

3 cheers! was standing with 3peice drinking hot chocolate while he did coilovers, it was cold!!

thanks mate, i was hoping youd come on here and see this!

im gonna take her for a spin and make sure it all ok fingers crossed

its so bloody cold, ive just defrosted and re-fuelled (chinese yum)

forgot to say, do you think the guide is ok? enough info etc?

yer its spot on.. even the jaffa cakes!! we are all out and about tonight aswell!!

dammit i just got back in, oh well im about tomoz if anyone is? i want to try and get some pics in the daylight!

its nice to feel an ice cold inlet manifold

cracking job fella

Yeah good job dude, only one question, where's the blood? Any job I attempt with a car, always involves shedding loadsa blood. What's your secret?

lol!!!!

i spilt enough doing the forge tip mate! i had busted knuckles and everything!

besides it was too cold to bleed

top work mate

cracking job dude, no time like the present getting it done to,


big tick and smiley face A*



lol

et voila:

can you feel the difference?

yeah, it seems to pull harder and a bit longer, unless its just my mind telling me that !

yer same as mine! glad its not my mind then! lol

or both our minds haha!

ace job!

lol, maybe its just us telling ourselves that!!! thanks mate i tried my best! pretty chuffed i must say.

next up a guide for fitting the forge tip.........DONT

lmao! i took my coilovers off today and sorted out my front top mounts, i forgot to take pics, well i dont have a decent camera tbh!

youll be doing engine conversions in no time! ha!

doubt it!!! although im gonna buy a ko3s any time, but ill never be able to fit that!!!

sparkie1984 wrote:

next up a guide for fitting the forge tip.........DONT

Bring on the blood bath

Looking good though dude.

good work sparkie!!!, looks great!

let the battle of the cupras begin!!!!