Buttoned and Bowed

All those tired of reading about my inter-cooler woes raise your hand. Okay, mine was up too. I spent from 10:AM yesterday until close to 4:PM working on the inter-cooler and it is done. [pause for cheers :)]. I'll cover the different attacks I did to get it in, with the parts I had on hand. I have a health update for my MIL Marianne too.

Marianne
As you're read in earlier posts, my mother-in-law Marianne was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2008. Her son (my bro-in-law), Tom, was diagnosed with cancer at the same time and ultimately surrendered to it last Spring. Marianne has battled hers, from stage-4 to cancer-free and back to stage-4 again. Recently, she was admitted to the hospital with a pneumonia that has not been responsive to treatments. There is a general feeling around her caregivers and friends that her time is getting short, so my wife (D) flew down there today. She'll be in Las Vegas for the next 2 weeks, but she expects Marianne will pass during her visit there. The boys don't fully understand, but they were able to visit with her in October, when she was in remission and walking around. Fortunately, their last memory of Gramma will be of her walking through the buffet under Planet Hollywood, and sitting by the pool at the Hard Rock Hotel. We'll be lighting a candle for her at church tomorrow.

Re-hashing My IC History
Before I get into the solution, I'll recap some of the different things I've tried. First, I went with the original inter-cooler (IC). This has the inlet and the outlet on different ends of the unit. I cut part of the original body tin in the engine compartment to create a pocket in which the inter-cooler would sit. I fabricated some pipe, re-used the softer rubber connectors, and had a closed system. I bore a hole into the inter cooler for the pressure / temperature sensor.
Enter Heat. Once I placed the heater core, that first try at the IC needed to be changed. The front-side of the IC was now pressed up against the heater flexi-hose, effectively preventing the inter-cooler from getting cooling air. So, I removed it, and started working through alternatives. I couldn't get the stock IC to work in another position, so I bought a SAAB Blackstone IC. So started my adventures in bracket-building. This bracket adventure turned out to be a waste of time. I would advise the reader to get the hoses and everything all hooked up first and then figure out how to bracket it in-place. I bought a bunch of 2" pipe, 2.5" pipe, some elbows, connectors and hose clamps for a full-court press on this thing. Queue yesterday's efforts. I started with the SAAB Blackstone and my available hoses and pipes. I couldn't get it together. I switched back to the stock IC and couldn't get it going, so I switched back to the Blackstone.

Induction Complication Discussion
The trouble was with the space available from the turbo outlet to the IC inlet. The turbo outlet is 1.5" in diameter while the IC inlet is 2 3/8". The distance from the turbo outlet to the support bar is less than 8", so I have less than 8" to turn the air flow 90* to route on-plane with the air-stream and then another 90* to route into the IC while expanding the pipe from 1.5" to 2 3/8". Routing the IC outlet to the intake is much easier. The IC outlet is also 2 3/8", and the intake is 2" in diameter. There is considerable space (relative to the inlet side), requiring, again, 2 90* bends, but there was a foot from the intake to the engine support bar and nearly a foot from that bend to the IC outlet.

Induction Solution
First, I solved the turbo-to-inlet challenge. I cut up the original turbo outlet hose to a very short 90* bend. To the IC side of the bend, I pressed in a thin-walled 1.5" diameter pipe to act as a joiner between the 90* bend and the Silicone Intakes 1.5" to 2" reducer. This reducer was then pressed into a copper water pipe 90* 'street' bend. This bend has an expander on the end so it can fit into another 2" pipe. For my purposes, this expanded the diameter to 2 3/8" so it could mate with a straight rubber / silicone coupler at the IC.
Once the inlet was in, I held the IC in place with a bungy-cord. The intake had the stock 90* rubber connector on it, pointing straight down. The IC outlet had a straight rubber / silicone coupler on it. Into this, I pressed a 5" long 2.5" pipe. The other end of the pipe has a 2.5" 90* silicone bend. Fitted between the 2.5" 90* bend and the stock intake rubber I put a stock plastic pipe that narrows from 2.5" to 2". It fit very well, and had a few flat spots on it. Into one of the flat spots, I bored a hole for the temperature / pressure sensor. Once everything test-fit, I final-fit the connections with clamps, buttoning it down. It needs a support bracket, but I can start test starts while figuring that out.

Air Dressing
Last, I clamped the air route from the air filter to the turbo intake. This needed to be done, but not necessarily with fancy clamps. I figured for about 50 cents more per clamp, it looks nice, like putting a bow on it. Anyway, that's my adventure in inter cooling. In the end, I needed a few pieces from Silicone Intakes, and some of the stock parts. If I hadn't lost the plastic pipe which originally holds the sensor, I would only have needed connectors and bends - no pipe. Ah well.
It is already getting dark here, so my attempts to start the engine will have to wait until tomorrow. Still, being able to say I'll be trying to start it tomorrow feels pretty darn good.

Happy New Year!

pictures:
top - turbo outlet to IC inlet resolved
upper middle - stock plastic pipe with sensor installed
lower middle - IC pipes and hoses installed. (needs bracket)
bottom - the dressed air hoses from filter to turbo inlet