I finally finished my custom IC project I started a few months ago with the completion and installation of my air duct. The picture show the aluminum air box before painting the lower portion and taping the holes, installed, and the air scoop. It fit's like a glove. I also converted my taillights to 99 spec. I don't know what to do next. I might actually drive the car a little first but I just love working on it.

 

it's hard to see in the picture, but where the 90 degree bend in the air duct is, it looks like there's a rather large hole on the side that you might want to consider patching up. Nice setupu though. Congrats.

 

Crap. I'm the king of the double post lately.

 

Is blocking the radiator this much causing any increase in coolant temps?

Looks like a good fit. Nice work.

 

You'll notice that the fan housing creates a space about 4" from the radiator itself. The stock IC and duct covers the same amount of space so there is almost no change here. However, by removing the stock size battery and replacing it with my new Hawker mini battery, and removing the stock air box on the intake and replacing it with the Greddy (Trust) intake I have actually opened up almost half of the radiator area to good air flow. So if anything, the eng. should run cooler.

 

It's not pictured but I used foil tape to seal all holes and leaks before installing. It's a sealed box right up to the silicon padding around the IC so almost all the air will go right through the IC.

 

It's not pictured but I used foil tape to seal all holes and leaks before installing. It's a sealed box right up to the silicon padding around the IC so almost all the air will go right through the IC.

 

Nice duct work. I want to extend my M2 medium duct work to pick up more air.

Did you custom make the intercooler setup too or just the duct work.

 

That thing blocks half the air inlet in the nose of the car. You'd be better off with a FMIC. Reduce the size of the duct, it doesn't need to come down all the way to the bottom of the bumper. The IC needs less air than the radiator.

 

The IC I bought from Ebay that claimed to come from another FD but it didn't have any plumbing. It looks something like the smaller M2 or a larger PFS without the pipe bends. So I got rid of the plastic Y-pipe and used the 90 deg. elbow to run the pipes forward over the air pump. I also replaced the stock compression pipe with GReddy and plugged the AWS. I made my own mounts for the IC and the air duct to go with it. The scoop on the intake of the duct does extend a little farther than the plastic stock duct and has a small lip to help "scoop" up air. It fits really good and looks better than I planned (in my opinion) but I'm not building a show car, just a funcktional one. Also, the entire project (Elbow, battery, IC, and materials ) cost about $700 so I think I saved a lot over a store bought package!

 

It's really not much more than the stock scoop. The picture makes it look like a lot.

 

OK. To me the picture looks pretty accurate, the duct is touching or nearly touching the front bumper at the bottom of the inlet.

 

Tubojeff - You know I fly through Eugene every Friday and my name is jeff! And we both love fd3s. Cool!

 

Nice work man...

 

Are you a pilot? I'm about 10 min from the airport. Let me know when you'll be in town...

 

I meant on the inlet, not outlet side... sorry for the confusion.

 

dp

 

I built my IC duct using the 99 duct (above) as a model. No radiator blockage and still seems to work well...

 

Well, I think plenty of air will get around, under, and through the radiator so I'm not worried. It can't be any worse than having an FMIC.

 

thats the same setup I just did. Do you plan on getting an alum. AST? where are you going to mount/tape the stock one until you get an aftermarket one?

Sean

 

Ummm, from the looks of it your taking up about 30% of the nose. Is the pic just missleading? Can you take a pic farther back so we can get a better picture? If its really taking up about 30% that might be to much, at a minimum its going to create a hot spot behind the duct

If its really that large its to big, it'll actually create pressure in front of the IC core and make it harder for air to get thru it. You duct opening only needs to be about 30% the size of your core.....cause the majority of the core is metal and doesnt flow air.

In other words if your core say 10x10" your duct opening only needs to be about 10x3"

STEPHEN