SQF Posted January 11, 2003 Report Share Posted January 11, 2003 For all of you out there wanting to add that additional HP to your non-intercooled car, penick wrote this up to assist you in the process. When changing a non-intercooled car to intercooled you need to do the job right. Others have done it other ways, this is the way i did it to leave everything buttoned up well and not cobbled. I'll explain more if you need, i'll just list the parts i had to use for now. Oil cooler lines from tsi/esir a/c condensor fan and bracketry from tsi/esir intercooler and 2 support brackets intercooler plumbing (hard and soft pipes) coolant expansion tank and bracketry from tsi/esir turbo from tsi/esir or at the very least, compressor housing from tsi/esir over the valve cover pipe from tsi/esir use the stock 87 wastegate w/ which ever turbo you use (will make life easier and easier to hook up vac lines and mbc if desired) Things you'll need to do. Remove stock narrowbody coolant expansion tank. On this tank, the bottom is supported by a bracket and a rubber grommet. This needs support needs to be removed so the intercooler piping can fit through. Â I belive I used a dremel and tinsnips to do the job, really not much but a few spot welds holding it. It is easiest to install intercooler after you have installed the a/c condensor fan, oil cooler, and bracketry from the tsi/esir Next install the oil cooler piping from tsi/esir. Set it down and the floor and look in manual for orientation so it makes sense when going in there. Does matter which one goes where as far as fit is concerned. You will need to relocate your oil seperator. I cheated a little bit here by simply removing it from the stock location, and using a big circular clamp (like those on intercooler plumbing) to hook it to another bracket next to the aircan (forget which now). Â One from a tsi/esir could be used for the perfect conversion. As far as the distributor weights go, i didn't change those because my project was stopped before the car was actually put on the road. Don't know whether it'd be easier to just swap weights or whole distributors. I doubt someone would send you just the weights anyway so prolly would need to swap distribs anyhow if you wanted this. Â But to be honest, after looking in different manuals, i'm not convinced as of yet that the distributer mechanical advance curves are different, as the brain surgeons at mitsu gave the degrees advance for each at different rpms. Â Spose I could make a graph and do a best fit line and see if they correspond but really, i don't believe the difference in this department is serious if any. Other than that, be careful w/ boost because remember you do only have an 87 ecu in the car so you can run out of fuel fast. Since the intercooler blocks some of the airflow going to the radiator also a good time to make certain that the radiator is top notch (by rodding it or replacing) a good 180 degree thermostat would also be a good item here. Just make sure the car is running perfect overall, remember, you are adding performance parts so performance won't do anything but amplify problems if problems exist. Also, another disclaimer. Â This swap is only direct on some 85 and all 86/87 flatbodied cars. Â Prior to 85, there were no factory intercooled cars so the bolt holes were not drilled and tapped on the 84 and 83's. Â So for the late year 85, 86, and 87's, the swap is really quite simple since all you are doing is bolting everything up, no tapping necessary at all. Â If there are any questions, feel free to ask. Â pen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DSMracespeed Posted January 12, 2003 Report Share Posted January 12, 2003 If the non-intercooled car is an automatic,the transmission cooler will have to be relocated. Jerry L. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BullShipper Posted January 15, 2003 Report Share Posted January 15, 2003 Yea If you have the Auto as I did I placed the tranny cooler on top of the intercooler ( still got air thorugh the grill) with some JB WELD ghetto I know but it worked. The other alternative I know of since the narrow bodies have the smaller front bumper, is to get the wide body bumper ( I dunno if it will fit never tried) or cut out a part of your bumper near the bottom corner so the tranny radiator can fit in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flat-body_Conquest Posted January 25, 2003 Report Share Posted January 25, 2003 If you are cheap like me all you will need is an intercooler, and the rubber pipping from an 1988-1989 TSI Conquest. It cost me a total of 100 dollars to install the intercooler. If anyone needs any info on how to do it the cheap and econmical way, just e-mail me.... Sean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
penick000 Posted January 29, 2003 Report Share Posted January 29, 2003 doesn't make much sense to save 50 bucks to do a half --------------- job, but that's just me if anyone wants more info on how to do it so you don't have to be ashamed to show off the engine bay, give me a shout, my private messages work just fine and I'll help if anyone is confused by my lengthy post i created up top. I did so to try and make it clear, but i may have overdone it. If that's the case, just let me know, because as I did it, it really isn't a big swap, can be done properly in an afternoon. pen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts