big shiny thing that goes behind the grille
 

Well, lookie what Mr. UPS left on my doorstep today, courtesy of Bell Intercoolers. I've been wanting to intercool my car since 2003 but I kept telling myself "I'll get to it this year" but other improvements always took priority.

Having no real "winter projects" on the car this year I decided this is the year, and thanks to Uncle Sam and my tax refund for covering the tab on this one :D

http://home.comcast.net/~swedish_che...oler1small.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~swedish_che...oler2small.jpg

The core is 27 x 12 x 3. End tank design & packaging was done by yours truly courtesy of SolidWorks. Many thanks to Gerhard Schruf at Bell Intercoolers for core sizing help and some assistance with efficient end tank configurations. What a great guy to deal with!

I just hope it works as good as it looks. I was going to paint it black to be more stealthy but it's just too nice to hide!

I'm going to start hacking the nose of the car up this week to get this sucker in there, hoping to have the install done in ~3 weeks. I need to move my receiver/dryer and install a new larger AC condensor, move the radiator back about 2", refab my hood latch & center grille support, rebuild the radiator support between the headlights, and cut and weld all the IC piping then send it out for high temp ceramic coating.

Hoping for a very noticeable power gain, I'm fairly confident the car will run as well on a 90 degree day as it does now on 60 degree days-- right now the difference between driving the car in 90 degree weather and 60 degree weather is a HUGE difference in power. Can't wait to see how it'll run on cold days with this thing plumbed in. :D

Awesome, nice looking piece. It's about time you came over to the dark side. Post some pics after you get the installation done....and another one of those fly-by videos.

Right on, Troy! Have you estimated what power you may gain?

Don't know. My guess is that the difference in power from a 90 degree to a 60 degree day feels like about 50-60hp, so I'm guessing that's what the power improvement will be with the intercooler. On a 90 degree day the car hooks up in 3rd by about 70, on a 50-60 degree day it will break the tires loose at 80-90mph from a 3rd gear roll on and go right to the rev limiter. It's a very noticeable difference in power as the outside air temps drop.

It was downright scary from a traction standpoint driving the car earlier this year in the morning when the outside temps were in the mid to high 20's. Some of that is road temps/tire temps though.

Here's another pic with a CD sitting on it. And no, this isn't one of those half-size CD's that gets handed out at tradeshows.

http://home.comcast.net/~swedish_che...lercdsmall.jpg