Originally Posted by
Heathen
I bought the RS500 style Intercooler and Radiator...
Both fit fine, but not together! It's the mounting tab for the fans on the radiator that's the problem. It clashes with the intake pipe on the intercooler. I was thinking of somehow mounting the radiator a lot lower. Or is there some other trick?
I wanted to hard mount the intercooler (not using those rubber dampers). That would make the intercooler sit a little higher, but I still need a bit more of a height difference between the two.
...And I didn't want the welds on the mounting arms to break from not using the rubber dampers.
Definitely use the rubbers, the chassis of the car can move around in hard driving and will transfer the stress to your intercooler which is effectively sitting like a brace between your chassis rails. I've not heard of it happening, but like you say, not using rubbers COULD cause eventual fatigue fractures. It's like bending a piece of metal backwards and forwards a bunch of times, eventually it shears off.
I had a similar issue installing my RS500 cooler in a 2WD Saff. I bought a cheap one off EBay and it didn't fit. Had to get the brackets custom modified to fit the radiator mounts, AND, the inlet/outlet sizes were incorrect. Also, you will need a way of plumbing your factory dump valve back in, OR, change to an aftermarket one. The factory ones leak too (at higher boost). I ran an HKS Sequential with no problems (plus they sound wicked), and had a guy weld the alloy dump valve mount onto my intercooler pipe on the outlet side. Was quite sexy actually haha. Other thing you can do is buy a silicone hose from the cooler outlet to the throttle body with a dump valve take off on it.
Definitely recommend getting a good quality one. I paid more than a good one once I'd paid for the modifications anyway. Most big sellers will ship to NZ (I got mine posted there as that's where I owned the Saff. UK shipping is the BEST too! (In my experience)
Check with the seller before you buy. A tuner would be a good person to buy for, as they've likely fitted them before, and can tell you how best to fit one up, or recommend one to buy that fits spot on.