Mishimoto radiator install, I recommend waiting for a bolt on or the 2J, unless you are a mod nut....

[RAAMaudio]

NOTE: NOT A DIY thread, just what I did, far too much for most which I fully understand, if I had realized what I was getting into I would of waited for a Mishimoto, etc, or ordered a 2J.

But now that it is done, I like this better

------------------

Stock air intake not needed, later picks and prior posts show why.

I could of rigged up some top mounts, not shown yet but the bottom was already done.

I was going to buy a fan but after some measurements, etc, decided to give the stock on a go.

Notice the much bigger oil filter, WIX, Napa version, great filters, great prices, more oil, more filtering, very cheap mod I have been doing for many years.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I figured out how to get the stock water/oil cooler off, 12mm allen socket, I could not see enough to figure out the tool until I had the radiator out for this mod. It was dead weight as bypass long ago and now, I can fit a big filter

The lower hose is the first stock water/oil cooler bypass but I flipped the connector, which took some tweaking, and made the hose much shorter which shows later on.

 

[RAAMaudio]

A little part I made, first time to finally use a dimple die on this car, aluminum reinforcement because I cut out a bunch of material to reduce the sharp bend of the first version of the grill mounted real CAI.

Hood pins, no hood rod.....washer bottle back in place, I was going to do a rear bottle but if I only add a qt at a time it is just over 3 lbs and saved quite a bit of work. At first I removed it for using the fog lights as brake duct inlets but using the splitter middle inlet now so this went back in.

I did a ton of cutting, grinding, sanding, shop was a mess but each day was going to be the same so I just swept it to the side and cleaned it up yesterday.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Not a great pic but you can see the DIY tow strap, no more vertical hood support in front of the condenser thus radiator, prior built much smaller crash sensor mount/oil cooler mount.

I am looking for an aero shaped tube to weld into the bumper beam where I opened it up as they are nuts expensive but I can get the full strength or close to it so will take care of that when I find a decent price on one.

Really not able to get good pics but the condenser and radiator are lined up for the best air flow from one to the next and foam used to seal them to ensure all air possible goes through them.

 

[RAAMaudio]

New lower radiator support allowing far greater air flow than the stock radiator surround even though I had already modded the stock section. 20% or so of the IC has a direct outlet flow that does not hit the condenser, radiator, I might put a piece of aluminum there at an angle so it does not hit any vertical areas.

Lower brackets are for the condenser lower mounts that go to the fan mounts on the Mishi radiator

 

[RAAMaudio]

Horn relocation, a bit of weight moved back off the nose, bracket delete, trimmed the mounting tabs off the bumper/frame rail to reduce a bit more weight....down to little things that add up in the big picture but not much by themselves.

 

[RAAMaudio]

DONE!

ABS trim panel, bumper cover to upper radiator mount, trimmed stock fan(if any cooling issues in traffic I will add sections to seal the airflow from the radiator to the fan or get an aftermarket fan)

Lower radiator hose had to be shortened a few inches, it was a biatch to hook up!

Hose from radiator res to engine was changed to go behind the engine, harness at front of intake manifold routed under it, engine cover mounts and symposer mounts removed, stock upper radiator hose trimmed just a bit to fit.

A rather homely engine bay starting to look better.

Upper radiator rubber mount shown.

I still need to design and build the air box and ECU mounts.

 

[RAAMaudio]

Now I want to see about that ugly AC piping, I will polish it but wish it was much lower though that depends on the whole system like the under dash unit, the purge has to be the highest point.

The radiator is now lower than the stock unit and lines up better for the best airflow through the cooling system, including behind the oil cooler, lots of little ABS and some close cell Urethane foam sheet to seal things up well. I will see if I can get some decent pics of those areas.

I have weighed most of the stuff removed and the parts added on, have a bit lower CG, some moved back a bit, radiator and condenser angled forward a bit(good for being harder to capture on radar) and though even more oil capacity and cooling, save around 8 lbs off the front for not much money, just a butt load of work! I will go over the numbers again later but off the top of my head probably pretty accurate and my car is a great deal lighter than stock as it is but nose heavy as took so much out of the rear I really need to balance it better.

-------------

In the end, I will have NO cooling issues, ever, but you can get great results by waiting for a lower cost radiator or paying the bigger bucks for the 2J.

Have a great evening
Rick

 

[felopr]

curiosity question, wtf is that can lol

 

[RAAMaudio]

Use a little imagination

 

[felopr]

The beer can? ��

 

[MOFiST]

Thanks for sharing. Great to see photos of your handy work for a change.

 

[aar0n]

Its a mini keg, his car is an alcoholic

 

[RAAMaudio]

It houses the air filter, a very low weight, very effective way to do so.

I was looking at ideas to build a filter housing for my grill mounted real CAI build and found it in my basement back room.

I also had a new AEM dry element filter that fit perfectly and all the rest of the parts to build the whole system, very little investment, easy install except the drill mounted, modified NACA duct to feed it, real cold air and a bit of forced air intake all in one

---------------------

Thanks, I have more pics of other mods but scattered around the forum areas, I am going to put them all on the build thread eventually.



German engineered car, German mini keg,

 

[kbgixxer]

[MENTION=636]RAAMaudio[/MENTION] I see in some of the pictures you did a catch can or something similar, do you have a thread to show how you did it. I've been wanting to install a catch can and your setup looks clean.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I did not make a specific post as in DIY, etc...probably covered on another OCC thread or my build thread....I had a bunch of parts on hand, modded an Elite Engineering Vette unit I already had.

I was not sure it was catching enough oil so I bought the high end Mishimoto but do not have the room to install it as the 3" intake pipe is in the way so I would have to work on that and not sure I want to as it flow really well.

I pulled the OCC off the other day to do the MM install and found it was catching more oil than I expected to see with just 1840 miles on the car(half from from tuning runs and track days after 1k on the engine) so it seems to be working just fine but I am going to change the element to a bronze filter and add a baffle to make it even better.

I might end up selling the MM OCC.

 

[westcoaST]

Kbgixxer, Check out my build thread for a morimoto plug and play catch can with inductions in how to install. This is the same catch can that Rick purchased. I mounted this one on the strut tower. One drilled and tapped hole is all it takes.

 

[RAAMaudio]

It is an expensive OCC but worth it, probably the best one made in overall fit, finish and function, most highly recommended

I might sell mine as too tight a fit with the 3" intake pipe there.....dang!

 

[kbgixxer]

I can't find the build thread [MENTION=411]westcoaST[/MENTION]

 

[westcoaST]

I can't find the build thread [MENTION=411]westcoaST[/MENTION]

Here it is.

http://www.fiestastforum.com/forum/threads/2353-WestcoaST-Performance-blue-build?p=47428&viewfull=1#post47428