That fitment is absolutely horrible.... I hate sounding rude but your boots are not meant to work with that displacement. They are going to fail at some point. This thing is absolutely terrible...

If you insist on using it can you at least not use the mounting points in front? You might be able to at least line the boots up properly. Not sure if it will hit your stock manifold mount points but it would be better than running with your boots at such an angle

 

Intense,
if you read my previous post you will realize I mentioned that: 1)the IC required some triming 2) I am not using the mounting point. The IC is held by the inlet and outlet horns. I am not saying that this is the best aftermarket IC by any mean but for a price shy of $200 I believe it deserves attention. At the end of my rebuild project I will have my car dyno'd again and will try to post comparative dyno stock and after market IC.

 

I read your post frenchjohnnymini. I'm sorry but it wasn't clear exactly what you did to make it fit better. The pictures you included led me to believe the fitment is far from ideal.

Anyway, I hope it works well for you.

 

No Pb Intense, we all learn from each other. I actually spent quite some time reading your thread on IC comparison. I found it very interesting and I learned a great deal of info. Thanks for your insights

 

Thanks! I too gained alot of insight from doing the comparison. It was fun for sure and made me very curious about intercoolers and how they work.

Seeing this intercooler and the way it fits out of the box quite frankly scared me I do hope that your able to get it to fit better. I also hope that it works for you. If nothing else comes of it you'll be able to let people know if its worth looking into or not for $200.

I would be very interested to see if you make more power with it. Keep us posted when you get a chance to dyno

 

I would remind frenchjohnmini that the bonnet closes with some pressure on the IC to achieve a seal and avoid air coming in the scoop from leaking. This is why the stock IC is mounted to the engine with 4 bolts! The engine/IC moves quite a lot without modication of the engine mounts or addition of an engine damper, and so the need for a secure mount of the IC to the engine. If you simply mount the IC via the boots you will be placing an undue, and unintended, force on the boots and can risk failure due to the bonnet seal pressure and engine movement. I do hope you find a way to secure the IC to the engine via some additional mounts.

 

Dr. Phil,
as I already said, I had to trim the IC to make it fit. It is not bolt to the manifold and for that very reason, I installed an engine damper. Read my sig.
I do appreciate your insight, and trust me if this IC turn out to be a piece of cr... or somehow detrimental to my car, it will be gone in a matter of seconds!! I read many posts when I started with my project. There are a few people on this forum I've read, sometime with interest (You, Intense, Longboard, Jan and so many more), sometime with annoyance. Either way I learned from them.

 

thats weird... you had to trim that IC itself? hmm
let us know how it all turns out in the end! good luck!

 

frenchyjohnmini: I'm sorry, I don't read lists of mods in sigs. The engine damper will help, but you might consider the lower engine mount too, as Dr Obnxs has posted evidence that the lower mount removes considerably more movement than the engine damper does--and my own experience supports this conclusion.

That said, you can do what ever you want--I was simply sharing my experience, extensive as it is and well considered, to alert you to some of the potential problems with this IC. If it turns out, great. If it doesn't, so be it. I doubt you will ever be able to produce enough statistically significant data to prove one way or the other. Even Intense's experiment has no statistical validity due to the extremely small sample size--but it was very interesting!

 

Malcon,
here are some pix I took when the IC was being installed. It ended up fitting pretty well. Please understand, I am not saying that's that's the after market part everyone should go crazzy about, but I think that for few nickels shy of $200, it deserves some attention. My next project is to acquire a W2A IC. I have yet to make up my mind between the GRS, the MiniMadness (which are basically the same) and the Laminova. Pat Mical and Joe Smith are working on a custom design for me right now. I'll keep you posted guys.

 

Phil, calm down. I am not planning on conducting any so called "statistically significant experiment", I do that crap every day in my job. So trust me I get my share of it. However, thanks for your well thought out advice about the lower engine mounts. I will take a look at them. If you don't mind letting me know where I can find them. Just to let you know, I'm trying to build 230-250+ whp car, so every bit of expertise could help.
regards,
John.

 

Receipe:
Rmw head
Rmw header
Rmw cam
pulley
440's
intake
exhaust
Got me to 240 with no tuning what so ever. Then pulled it up to 250 with tuning and 310 tq. Pulls great!

Do you use a divertor with this xo2?

 

I don't know what you "trimmed" but the picks look good and I'm glad you shared all the info/experience gained so far. For the money this is a great piece to experiment on! better than the 800 plus dollars, I spent 3 times to learn. Have fun, do whatever comes to mind and report back .

As to floating your IC, you may want to try some heavy duty aftermarket boots. Another way to release the hood pressure mentioned is an internal scoop. You referenced you read Intense's IC comparison post there you will see a picture of mine.

 

310 lbs of Torque ?

 

Hey Little,
I have all those parts so far, I just have to rebuild the engine. That's why I'm going 0.040 over with Jan's CP pistons, Header and similar Head. As you can see, I'm going all out. BTW what type of belt have you installed. I bought a gatorback 4060537, good idea or should I go for the 0535?
Thanks.

 

Bahamabart,
what I mean by "trimming" is that because the IC is so much bigger than stock it came initialy with two little notches in front of it to allow fitting over the manigold retention point (call it the way you want, I have no idea what they're called). So we (actually Joe Smith did) trimmed the notch a tinny bit bigger to allow proper seating. As far as heavy duty boots, I did just that by fitting the M7 SC boots. Only time will tell if they are really "Heavy duty".
I appreciate your input.
Frenchy

 

What would scare me off is the disclaimer that there would only be a replacement warranty if the product was damaged during shipment........no workmanship, defective, or fit warranty.

 

Come guys, most spend that much in the bar on a Friday night. Just buy it and if it breaks get another. All your getting from this IC is looks.

Longboard

 

What are the actual dimensions of the core? I'm having difficulty getting a sense of how big it is from the photos.
Thanks for the info.

 

Hi guys,
I don't have the actual dimensions of the IC, but I can tell you that it extend from the manifold enchor point to the spark plugs tubes (that it covers slightly). I might be able to take measurements sometime next week. I could even take pix of the stock and XO2 side by side if you'd like.
DISCLAIMER: I am not a seller, I am not working for anybody or pushing anybody's product. I am just humbly sharing my experience. Not every one is willing to put $800-$900 in a TMIC.
That's just my little contribution.
PS: I have plenty of pix, I just can't load them, they're too big!! if you know a way of resizing them on Vista, let me know.
Frenchy.

 

Longboard,
weren't you pushing 295whp? what did you do so you picked up almost 6 extra whp? Am I dreaming?

 

Thanks in advance for the dimensions. Also you haven't mentioned the diverter/seal--is there one that fits over the IC, or is it attached to the bonnet?

 

None of the above. Unfortunately the IC come without a diverter, well... your imagination is worth way more than $600

 

More pictures.

 

Nope your not dreaming . Check the X-300 thread for answers.

LB