I'm looking to do a new Intercooler on my R56 S. My question is, who has a stock one handy they can give measurements of, and who perhaps has an aftermarket one they have the measurements off of.

I had good luck on my 3rd gen turbo and even twin turbo Supra's with 200 dollar aftermarket intercoolers being WAY better than the stock ones, maybe not as good as the 700 dollar ones...but the 700 dollar ones weren't 3x better either.

I figured i'd turn this thread into my project of seeing what can be accomplished with a 200 dollar budget that includes the intercooler and any tubing/modification that needs to be done.

Anyone who has close up pics, measurements...etc etc of the stock intercooler and aftermarket ones feel free to chime in.

THIS IS NOT a thread for debate to convince me NOT to do this. I am doing this no matter what.

 

Not to go against better judgement then... but if you're already in the process...
Why not take off the front fascia to measure your clearance limits, the factor intercooler size, and the pipe locations?
I doubt vendors will provide direct specifications; but users may 'slip' you some data privately.

- Erik

 

Hi,

For what is is worth these measurements may be of value. These are all of the core, not including end tanks. Measurements are in cms (divide by 2.54 to convert to inches)

Stock
53 Wide x 8.5 Tall x 6.5 Deep

Brand "A"
58.5W x 22.2T x 4.5D

Brand "F"
60W x 21T x 5.0/9.5D (stepped)

Stock volume 2.92l.

Brand "A" volume 5.84l

I can't calculate the volume of "Brand F" as I dont know the height of the step. However, ignoring the step it is 6.3L. Each 1cm height of the step adds 0.27l ie if it is was around 5cm would add 1.35, so total volume 7.65l

I hope this helps.

I appreciate where you are coming from, but in the end the construction of the intercooler is actually pretty important. This is important in terms of the intercooler itself, but especially the end tanks and how the air flows. I have brand A on my car, and it works very well. Reduces intake temps dramatically on the racetrack and the street, with no discernable lag. The intercooler was very clean when I received it, with no chance of metal filings or crap going downstream.

Cheers

Robbo

 

Good luck making a universal one fit...Swiss cheeses mini...
The advantage of the mini specfic ones, they fit with minimal modification, and avoid the tuner Swiss cheese look, and matain the clean lines of the oem. To each his own!! Good Luck!!
For some, the $$ may be worth the look! IMO most mini drivers like the "sleeper look" as opposed to the hacked ricer look. Not trying to flame you, just suggesting that what makes a mini a MINI is the look!

 

I'm sure you could assemble your own without hacking your car apart. Obviously you aren't going to put a truck core in.
If you have the skills, go for it!

 

Robbo thanks for all those specs! That's what I needed, had the nose off my car today and did some other measurements. I'll post when I come up with a final result of what I can make fit.

Zippy, not sure where the swiss cheese comment came from? Who said I was gonna hack my car apart? The intercooler will be completely behind the stock grill on my car, no exposed stuff or chicken wire mesh or any of that crap. This is simply an experiment to see what my car does on the Dyno with my current mods, and then what it does with a "cheapo" ebay intercooler I can make work. As compared to the 700+ dollar "Mini Specific" ones that are made. If the experiment fails, oh well it will have been fun in the process. Whatever mods I've done on my car are strictly based around being able to put it back to stock if I ever wanted to, so hacking apart anything on the car to make something fit is NOT an option. That's what makes this a fun challenge in my eyes.

Stay tuned for updates probably next weekend!

 

Good to hear you are trying to make it fit in a "good looking" way!!
I just seen a few cars with aftermarket coolers that were kinda "hacked up" to make the IC fit. It sounds like you have a bit more attention to detail than many folks, a great thing when working on a car IMO!
I'll be watching, and the best of luck, Cheap(er) power is a great thing!

 

HUGE second!
Like I've ranted about over and over on this MINI board. So many people are so close minded. If its not made by a vendor, it sucks and cant work. WTF?!
Does one think every vendor starts out making their own fin designs and/or angles? Is it so crazy that they start off with a universal core and build end tanks to fab together that would fit the stock area behind the grill?
What makes "DIY" automatically "RICER"?? why does he need to use an oversized core to fit behind his grill and cut away half his bumper? He cannot use a core that fits the opening behind the grill and fab end tanks accordingly? If it is so vital to go with a vendor's aftermarket IC, then why do some of them also require cutting of the bumper? My god, those must be ricer too. If OP was just going to put together a "RICER" design, he wouldn't bother asking for specifications to do research on before beginning his journey to save himself a lot of money. R&D is R&D, you pay the premium for vendors to do it for you, whereas if you have some background on fluid dynamics you'd probably be able to figure out enough to have it within 95% efficiency compared to aftermarket brands. Its been proven AGAIN and AGAIN on other non-mini forums. Why not here? Because most people here are so afraid to try something against the grain, afraid to work together to compile what works and doesn't work, and to brainstorm and construct ideas. They just go crawling to overpriced aftermarket BS marketing. Its because of these types of people that can keep some god-awful aftermarket companies here in business. The only reason I haven't persued this is because of reasons like this and lack of group participation to gather information. I'd get shot before I finished it myself due to everyone sh!tting on me here.
Best of luck OP. If all turns out well, I will definitely try the same.

 

I am all for the Fleabay Intercooler Challenge! I'm trying to find something the the correct-ish end tanks on already, I am not a welder. I look forward to see what you come up with!

 

Im also trying to outfit an universal intercooler to my mini. Right now is at the shop getting the JCW front bumper so when i get it back I'll start on the little project. I already have an intercooler that my brother took off his car so its just a matter of trying it on and make it fit correctly.

 

I saw a few different options that may be suitable at siliconeintakes.com.

Just a matter of either fabricating the end tanks or finding a supplier of premade ones with the right size/ orientation.

 

i've been tossing around the idea of doing this for a while now and there seem to be a few intercoolers listed for the fd rx7's that should work well imo. the inlet/outlet configuration looks like it shouldn't be too hard to mate to our cars and is 2.5" which can easily be mated with a reducer

Here is a slightly smaller variant that looks promising

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...ht_5418wt_1167

this one is a bit on the larger side but i think i am going to give it a shot in the near future

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CXRac...ht_4563wt_1167

 

The offerings you've found ^^^^^ will give you no end of trouble to attempt to fit, the inlet/outlet have the wrong orientation, to start with, and how you going to mount it ?

I don't want to seem like I'm trying to put you off your attempt, but your going to find it a lot more difficult than you think! especially when you see just how tight the space is for the inlet/outlet, there is very little room for error here! But good luck all the same.

 

IMO where there is a will there is a way, im making my own as well. And ill be posting pics too... plus all my DIY home made mods too

 

$200 doubtful, i measured up a core and end tanks and it came to be almost 900, G luck and post up your progress

 

I feel where you are coming from. Modifying any car is expensive.

Give the proper core you should have no problems, however.....
You got to weld on mounting tabs
You got to test fit button it all up, & tear back down many times
You got to make hoses & tubes for the end tanks
You may have to cut the bumper supports, or other parts of the car.

If you have access to a fab shop, I say DO IT! From the sound of your post you don't. You also haven't even taken the stock IC out to see what kind of room you have. But if you are going to do it in your driveway, spend the extra money up front & get a IC made for your car.

In the end, you will spend a ton of time on this, have your car down for a while, & it may never work right, & most likely in the end, you will spend more money then a fitted IC.

I got the Alta one when they had a 20% off sale, it was even some work to get everything to fit & button up. It was about 4hrs from start to finish. I had a problem with the boost hose from the turbo to the IC fitting,it was about 1/2in to short, & took a lot of fiddling.

 

I actually measured and was at the purchasing step after i located a core and priced end tanks. I only have access to a welder but not enough skill to weld aluminium so i factored in labor. My total cost was 938 bucks. I also used a 250 flow core which is pretty good but the fab for the endtanks was quoted at 500 and the material for the end tanks was the rest

 

How long did it take to get it all fitted & finished? Do you think it is really any better then the other IC's out there that fit out of the box?

Did you think going in it would end up costing this much?

FWIW, I am totally happy with the Alta IC!

 

The core is the most important part and that took a while to narrow down. I have a write up on here somewhere. I ended up not spending the money to make it and went with the alta... all the r&d is already there

 

Yea, I hear ya! That was my whole point.

We got the "stealth" core, no one even knows it's there till we blow past them.

 

Youll really take advantage of the benefit when your in higher hotter boost