F'ed up my FMIC, here's how I'm fixing it

[project_tsi]

Long story short I hit a tree stump in my buddies parking area at his house and its obviously f'ed up bad and its leaking. Rather than spending $600 on a new core that I don't have I've decided to weigh out all my options. Upon inspection I found I'm not able to weld the leaks shut as it'd be too hard. I could also buy a new core and just weld on my tanks, but again, thats quite expensive for a core.

So heres what I decided to do.

I decide to chop off about 2 inches of the bottom of the IC and tanks, make new bottom end tank peices and also make a new aluminum reinforcement plate on the bottom with overlapping lips for a bit more extra protection. The IC core is now 24x10x3.5", easily still plenty of flow for nearly anything. All the peices are mocked up and its getting welded and pressure tested hopefully tommorow.

I will let you know how it all turns out.

Oops almost forgot I need to give mad props out to my buddy Andy Moraitis for the idea of cutting it, Thanks bud, now we're even for the cam install!

 

[CanadianTSi]

Sucks that you banged it up, but very good job fixing it

 

[dnhieu]

damn sorry to hear the bad news. i was reading one of your threads and it said you bought a new one ### the other one you had was banged up. why didnt you just use that one? or did you sell it already. either way looks good man...

 

[project_tsi]

Yup I already sold it.

 

[tstkl]

wait, thats the sbr core, right? can you get the extentions shorter? (the pipes that attach to the cores?) thats way to long for me, mine are like 2.5 inches and I was thinking about cutting them so I could have my intercooler even farther back. Im trying to hide that big bad core as much as possible, even though my core is hella small.

 

[project_tsi]

I'm pretty sure you'd have to modify the core's piping yourself and flare them back out or weld on tabs so the couplers don't blow off.

 

[project_tsi]

Ok I got the FMIC all welded up today and installed it. I took the FMIC to a local fab shop called Metal Man Fabrications and he did a great job. He did very nice beefy welds and pressure tested it.

Here's some pics welded up and installed. Enjoy.

 

[DGajre777]

Very nice.

 

[Syndicate13]

You know bumper covers prevent that sort of thing.

Good job on thinking out of the box. I was looking at your car on the Link forums, how's that turbo spooling on the stroker?

 

[JDNSBR]

Damn, looks good Dan! I am glad you were able to fix it. It looks good! Just watch out for more killer stumps or I might have to call and bust on you some more.

 

[Coup D E'Tat]

Off topic, I know, but I really want a TIG.

 

[project_tsi]

Off topic, I know, but I really want a TIG.

W3RD!!

 

[project_tsi]

how's that turbo spooling on the stroker?

I honestly haven't got a number yet as I'm trying to tune out some PK right now but it defenitely feels like the car starts spooling faster, which I like.

 

[mavisky]

Awesome fix man.

 

[TurboB5]

looks very nice! nice job clening up

 

[Byrd]

Wow! very nice job. Like someone else said, way to think outside the box