Upsidedown GReddy 24V intercooler for short route piping?

[Injected]

I have been considering many different upgrade alternatives for my 98 since I get to start from scratch after being rear-ended last summer. It's been about half a year and the performance bug has bitten me hard. In consideratioin for an intercooler, I feel that anything beyond 3" is far to excessive as an intercooler does most of it's cooling with in the first 2" and with anything after that the efficiency of the cooling capacity drops off significantly and the intercooler-thickness-to-cooling-ability ratio starts to suck. This is according to Mike Kojima, so please don't argue this point with me.

I love the GReddy 24V (big) FMIC. It is a great core, but uses a very long route so as to be compatible with the stock T25 setup. Here is a pic of the core:

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The picture shows the intercooler oriented as if you were facing the car with the air entering on the passenger (pic left) side tank. I would love to run this particular intercooler because I think it is of a great design and dimensions. I have had no experience with GReddy products however.

My question is an easy one, though I know of no one who has done this. Could the intercooler be turned upside down and mounted so the curved end tank could serve as the inlet instead of the outlet and the piping from the turbo routed to it? This would allow for what I can only think would be the shortest routed intercooler piping option with a short J-pipe from the turbo outlet facing the driver side running to the intercooler, and a short run of pipe from the 'new outlet' (that is on the top side of the intercooler now) to the throttle body. Is this allowable? I am under the impression that an intercooler will flow equally both ways and cannot think of this as being a problem. Does someone with FMIC experience think there may be an obstruction or flaw to my idea?

Thanks in advance to anyone with any insight into this.

 

[Red97Eclipseboy]

Eclipse4x4 (mod) did a short route with the same cooler you're using. He used the outlet as the inlet and the inlet as the outlet. It ran a short route track through the engine bay, but he said he had to hack his rad support and that after all the piping was reversed, it really wasn't much shorter. Search for his car in the gallery.

 

[Injected]

Eclipse4x4 (mod) did a short route with the same cooler you're using. He used the outlet as the inlet and the inlet as the outlet. It ran a short route track through the engine bay, but he said he had to hack his rad support and that after all the piping was reversed, it really wasn't much shorter. Search for his car in the gallery.

Thanks, I know exactly who you are talking about. I'll check it out.

 

[tstkl]

I say if you fab up new endtakes it would be easy as pie. too bad fabing up new endtakes isn't easy as pie...

 

[ECLIPSE4x4]

I can try and take some pictures of mine tomorrow. The reason I did mine is so I could use a GM MAF and it was a job done by a friend of mine. Yes mine is reversed and there is still the piping going in front of the car. is it that much shorter? yeah a little.

 

[Injected]

I say if you fab up new endtakes it would be easy as pie. too bad fabing up new endtakes isn't easy as pie...

I'm actually talking about the current end tank setup. Here's a quick paint diagram.

 

[tstkl]

I'm actually talking about the current end tank setup. Here's a quick paint diagram.

yea, doesn't that go through the radiator? or are you talking about going under it? this is what I would suggest:

edit:nice, I spelled greddy wrong, my bad. also excuse the caps, 3 years of drawing things in cad will do that to you. architectural standard....

 

[Injected]

yea, doesn't that go through the radiator? or are you talking about going under it? this is what I would suggest:

edit:nice, I spelled greddy wrong, my bad. also excuse the caps, 3 years of drawing things in cad will do that to you. architectural standard....

The radiator doesn't hang as low as the end tank inlet once the intercooler is flipped upside down. The radiator support hangs just a little lower than the radiator. I am now looking into running the turbo outlet toward the front of the car and curve it under the radator support (I think that the facia hangs lower still) in order to avoid the front crossmember. Then it would meet up with a pipe going straight into the endtank like it does when it is the outlet in the regular setup.

 

[ECLIPSE4x4]

I just now got that you said the intercooler is flipped upside down.

Mine is not flipped it is just routed backwards.

 

[Injected]

I just now got that you said the intercooler is flipped upside down.

Mine is not flipped it is just routed backwards.

Now that you do understand, does this sound feasable?

Do you think that your intercooler is low enough rightside up so that it were flipped upsidedown the curved endtank would clear the radiator support and front crossmember. If not, i would probably use the straight pipe like normal, but use a mandrel bent pipe to connect it to the turbo outlet. I really think this combination will yield a decrease in overall piping and may be similar or even shorter than the SBR FMIC. Heres a pic of the SBR if you were wondering. I just don't like SBR's core size. Too thick at 3.5".

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