Acesanugal

iTrader: (5)

For those of us that choose to retain our stock top-mount intercoolers, this pipe is useful so as to have access to the throttle body and TPS with the engine running.

I'm not going to take any credit for the 'design' or material make-up of this piece, because it has been a collection of several forum members that have led to this particular piece.
NZ, ColinShark, HAILERS, to name a few. But no one has simply laid it out, and most of the pictures are missing.

You will need:

- 3' section of 1 1/2" schedule 40 PVC
- PVC joint compound or, in my case, ultra black 1-minute RTV
- Two 90 degree elbows
- One threaded coupler
- Electrical tape
- Scotch pad or sand paper
- Sharpie

You will be cutting the section of pipe into a few pieces...

- 11 1/4"
- 6 1/2"
- 3"


Once you have your pieces, get rid of any gnarly edges and start test fitting. The threaded coupler is where I started, and it is inserted into the charge pipe on the passenger side of the engine. Then you insert the 11 1/4" section of pipe into it, followed by a rear-facing 90 degree elbow, the 6 1/2" section, a downward-facing 90 degree elbow, and then the 3" section is what gets inserted into the throttle body elbow.

Now, start twisting and adjusting the pieces until you're satisfied with the fitment and angles of things. When you're there, proceed by pressing all the parts together firmly. Triple check that you're still happy, keeping in mind that the throttle body side will be wrapped to make up the gap. Once you're incredibly sure that you are satisfied with the way it is, carefully make two marks at all of the joints, about an inch apart from each other. This way when you go to bond it together, you'll end up with the fitment you were looking for.

Take it back apart, clean up all the ends to be joined, and then use whatever product you chose to seal it up. I laid a zig-zag bead on the inside of the coupler and elbows, then joined the pipe straight in just slightly off of my marks, and twisted a tad to line them up. Then I made certain they were in all of the way, and moved to the next. I let mine cure for hours before I handled it again. I decided to wrap the threads on the coupler with electrical tape (Probably two turns) so that it wouldn't chew up inside the hose, and assured me that it sealed. The throttle body side needed to be wrapped quite a bit to gently build up a flare just enough to fit like the intercooler outlet could.

This has worked great for me, zero leakage, though I wouldn't recommend driving around with this. It is purely for stationary work. I suppose you do not necessarily need the threaded coupler, but it fit so well in the charge pipe so I could not resist.

Here are a few pictures of the piece that I made, before I wrapped either end in any tape. You'll have to excuse the condition of my engine bay.. the car had some corrosion inhibitor sprayed into the engine bay at some point in it's life, and I haven't really ever been bothered to remove it. The engine has to come out again soon, though, so maybe I'll finish removing it and paint the bay black.