INSTALLED – ER Duel Sport SMIC

[GA42.0T]

Installed Evolution Racewerks Duel Sport Side Mount Intercoolers (http://evolutionracewerks.com/node/57)today.

ER puts the difficulty at 2 out of 5 and I would agree. I’ve assisted on several mods – headlight swap, front grill, RS4 rear sway, shark fin antenna – but I took the lead on this one and felt comfortable the whole way through.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICP.jpg

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudD1.jpg


The install is pretty straightforward, and ER’s instructions are good. No real holes. Removal of OE intercoolers is very straightforward. Remove bumper, headlights, then the ICs themselves. Simply unbolt the hoses and the ICs lift right out. Only TIP I’d offer here is have a drain pan ready, as I had about ¼ cup of oil in my IC hoses – the bulk being in the lower hose on the driver side/intake manifold side.

Installing the ER SMIC is a little tricky because they’re so much bigger than stockers. On the driver side IC there’s a mounting arm coming off the IC and a supplied bracket. The ER bracket rests atop the bracket for the OE intercoolers and the ER bracket has two pins that insert into rubber grommets on the OE bracket. The only tricky part here is the arm coming off the ER IC has to go on TOP of the old and new bracket. The instructions don’t explain this. Here’s a pic.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICbrackerD.jpg


There’s a pin at the bottom of the ER driver side IC that just rest in the OE rubber grommet of the lower OE mounting bracket. The pin isn’t a tight fit, but the thing overall is such a tight fit I had to work it to get it in there that’s what she said.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICbrackerD2.jpg


For the passenger side ER IC to fit in, the OE bracket has to be removed. The OE bracket had three points of attachment. Here’s the only thing that surprised me about the ER kit. The passenger side IC is held in with ONE attachment point. There’s an arm off the back of the passenger side IC that bolts to one of the three places where the OE bracket attached. I’m surprised they didn’t fab a second arm. So only this one arm, and the hoses are holding the thing up.

The passenger side IC mounting arm can be seen here
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/compare.jpg


And here it is bolted in. This view is from the ground looking up.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICbrackerP.jpg


The instructions say it’s optional to trim the OE shrouds. My buddy took this on, as we both thought why not go for maximum efficiency. Per the instructions, he started by trimming off about 2” from the side of the shrouds that meet the ICs. He used a compact hacksaw.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/hacksaw.jpg


I think he did a good job at getting them to match up.

Driver side:
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudD3.jpg

Passenger side:
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudP4.jpg


As you can see, I drilled holes and held them in place with zip ties. Functionally, this works just fine, but unfortunately, they can clearly be seen through the fog covers. I’ll change that up either with black ties or small black bolts holding some strap on the underside.

Driver side:
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudD2.jpg

Passenger side:
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudP2.jpg

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudP3.jpg



One concern was this hose. Not sure what it is, maybe oil cooler hose. It’s touching the very sharp edges of the passenger side IC. Seems like vibration over time could cut this hose, so we rigged it up. Took some of the plastic cut off from the shrouds and wrapped it round the hoses and held it on with DUCT TAPE! Wha hoo! Lame, but I have to own it.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICrubbing.jpg


Finally, ER, bless their heart, were having a bad day when they shipped my kit. First they sent me an incomplete driver side IC as detailed on page 19 of this thread.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/WTF.jpg

Well, the passenger side IC had the sticker put on upside down. My buddy and I did a double take but confirmed there was only one way the thing could go on – and this was it.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICdoh.jpg


And of course, most successful projects involve good help, so thanks to these guys.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICthehelp3.jpg


Gimmie the short 10mm socket, son! 1/4 Drive.
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICthehelp.jpg

Atta boy!
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICthehelp2.jpg

[DRAKLORE]

Awesome, those are
Some big suckers!

Are these like dueling side mounts [:p]
Constantly fighting each other

[Flexcj5]

Nice work. I'm ordering some of these soon so its nice to see someone actually install them.

[GA42.0T]

Awesome, those are
Some big suckers!

Are these like dueling side mounts [:p]
Constantly fighting each other

They fought me going in, that's for sure!




Nice work. I'm ordering some of these soon so its nice to see someone actually install them.

Thanks. Look closely at that pic where the driver side is missing the mount surface for the MAP sensor. Be sure to check yours when you get it. This as the SECOND time trying to install these. First time, I got everything out only to discover they'd sent me an incomplete IC. They did overnight the correct one, so props for that.

[shiro1745]

These thing are big, they look great. Did you modify the air duct on the driver side? It seems that it only covers like 60% of the surface of the intercooler so no air flow get's to the top part.

[GA42.0T]

These thing are big, they look great. Did you modify the air duct on the driver side? It seems that it only covers like 60% of the surface of the intercooler so no air flow get's to the top part.

Yeah, we just trimmed off about 2" off the end of the shroud that faces the intercooler. The ER ICs are about the same width as OE, but much taller, so the un-modded shourds, if faced up to the ER IC, do cover only about 60% of the ER IC face. If left touching the ER IC, or if left very close, they would definitly restrict airflow. Hence ER advising trimming them or flat going without.

This pic shows that the OE shroud doesn't nearly cover the face of the ER IC

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudD4.jpg


So short of fabbing new shrouds, or adding on to already cut up OE shrouds, I think the best that can be done is to 1) direct the air from the center of the car where it enters the intake next to fog lights, and shoot it behind fogs toward the IC.

But you're right, it looks like I should trim the driver side shroud some more to direct, or at least not restrict, air to the top of that IC.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudD3b.jpg

[BlackGecko]

Nice install! Notice any difference with performance?

[GA42.0T]

Nice install! Notice any difference with performance?

Well, I'm *GASP* not even tuned, so stage zero is still nice and slow. But she seems to gather speed a bit more quickly I guess. Maybe spools a little faster. Haven't gone out yet for pull after pull to see if it holds up any better to heat soak.

But like I say, feels like it's spooling a little faster and pulls little harder at the end of 2nd and into 3rd gear. Dropped in K&N along with these ICs, and added RAI HFC + 034 TIP, two weeks ago, so all that has me at least thinking it's breathing better.

[BlackGecko]

Shouldnt it spool slower and pull harder up top? Your butt dyno is off

[GA42.0T]

I don't know. Can't claim to have a very refined butt dyno.

[jimrobbington]

What!? NOw why would you go through all this trouble/money without a tune first?

JR

[GA42.0T]

Biding my time. Like the idea of having all the hardware in place to jump straight to stage II when the time is right. Maybe SOWO this year. Maybe next.

Mainly, though, I'm CPO and don't want to risk it. Figure if I need to make a warranty claim, would be hard for them to argue that massive intercoolers somehow caused a problem.

Plus, I think it's fun now, so when I do get tuned it'll be that much funner. Or more fun for the grammer poe-poe.

[Mc Suly]

not sure if kid installed smic or adult

[ericpaulyoung]

Did you also notice that the passenger side intercooler is so damn big that it hits the air conditioner bottle also? Or at least mine did. So I put a couple of pieces of rubber tubing to prevent this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66331933@N04/7035787853/
- Eric

can someone help me embed this image? I tried the [ IMG ] ... [ /IMG ] tags but it didn't work.

[Lazze]

Nice[:)]

[ericpaulyoung]

I love mine. The IAT with the ER SMIC on my Stage II+ tune is basically ambient even when running hard.
- Eric

[GA42.0T]

Did you also notice that the passenger side intercooler is so damn big that it hits the air conditioner bottle also? Or at least mine did. So I put a couple of pieces of rubber tubing to prevent this.
- Eric



Yes, totally. We did something similiar. Used foam tape they provided and put it on the same place as you have your tubing.

[GA42.0T]

Was this a bad idea?

So I trimmed the stock shrouds when installing the ER SMIC, and as some mentioned, looks like the passanger side shroud may be blocking the face of that IC.

Before
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/ERSMICshroudD2.jpg



So I decided to ghetto fab the shroud using foil duct tape and Optix Acrylic Sheeting.

http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/Shroud1.jpg



I looked up the specs on the acrylic sheeting and found this:

Maximum Recommended Continuous Service: 170-190 °F
Softening Temperature: 210-220 °F
Melting Temperature: 300-315 °F

My question is, was this a bad idea. How hot do ICs get? Am I a gonna melt something? Also, check it out. No more zip ties! Replaced with stealth black cap head bolts. Racekar!

Ghetto fab shroud
http://i765.photobucket.com/albums/xx298/tallfishbellsouth/SMIC/Shroud2.jpg

[FraggyA4]

The only thing bad about it is the god awful look, as for the usefulness you shouldn't have much of a problem with heat. Intercoolers wont get hotter then 210 otherwise they wouldn't even help. what is hot is the air coming out the back of them which has pulled heat from the intake air. But even that wont be that hot compared to under hood temps.

[GA42.0T]

you shouldn't have much of a problem with heat. Intercoolers wont get hotter then 210 otherwise they wouldn't even help. what is hot is the air coming out the back of them which has pulled heat from the intake air. But even that wont be that hot compared to under hood temps.

Great, thanks! Good to know.






The only thing bad about it is the god awful look.


Yes, totally with you on that. Good thing you can't see them at all.

[CorneliusRox]

If I ever upgrade my IC, I am definitely going this route.

[FraggyA4]

I would check them every so often just to make sure your tape is holding up to rain and debris.

[GA42.0T]

^ good point.