m2 intercooler (first impressions)
 

Ok, I came home today from work and there she sets, my m2 large intercooler with couplers, clamps, piping, and intake duct. I opened the box and all I got to say is "whoo...thats a big intercooler"!! I bought it used off the parts trader so I was not expecting it to be perfect but for used this was a pretty clean piece. I had already prepared for its arrival and so all I had to do was slide the duct in, then drop the ic in, move it around to where it looked aligned. Wow, shes a beaut sitting there in 'my' engine bay. Ok, now I have to put on the couplers and pipes for a rough test fit. Hmmm...not looking as good as I had thought. The piping is off just a little but no big deal. I then go to close my hood and the hood brace will not go down because of the duct. I proceed to take it off and then close my hood...nope it will not close. I pushed on it a little and it snapped and locked shut. That was a little shocking but no big deal. I opened the hood back up and look to see that the hood pushed the intercooler out of line with the duct so the duct does not line up very well with the intercooler any more. I worked and worked but it would not fit any better.
Thats my story of the past hour. Am I disappointed? Yes and no; yes because I could not see spending $1500 for anything and not have it fit perfectly but no because I payed a little more than 1/2 that. Do I like it? You better believe it! That thing is a monster and just what my car needed. Can't wait to get her out on the road!

Welcome to the world of the M2 Humongous IC and low intake air temps--just don't let the mofo heat soak :)

I've installed two 8 inch fans from Summit Racing on the back to suck air through the ic and it seems to work pretty well when I'm off the highway.

mine fits...and it made a HUGE difference in intake temps as well as performance over stock

i keep my hood latch in the trunk. the hood latch was designed to fit with the stock junk IC.

its worth every penny if you ask me.

j

Are you guys telling me the M2 large wont let the hood prop wont work cause I dont think you'd want to drive with no latch. Does the M2 med also have this prob???

I've never heard this before from anyone.

Interesting

STEPHEN

i was just about to ask the same question and how big is the large from the medium?

I have the original ASP Race intercooler which is the equivalent of M2 Large intercooler(A bit of aftermarket RX7 parts history: M2 bought the rights to sell the ASP Race intercooler from Kevin Wyum, the owner of ASP, after he decided to get out of the business of selling artermarket RX7 parts.)

I have some rubbing issues on the driver side of the intercooler with the hood. But it's nothing major. My hood closes normally. There is a bit of paint that has been rubbed off on the hood brace as a result, however.

If I recall correctly, the M2 large intercooler has been redesigned a couple of years ago to a slightly shorter height(I think by 1 row) for a better fit.

Maybe you got the older version?

A thicker radiator pushes the duct up. On the Medium at least, it sits in the metal buttons on the backs of the radiator fan motors. I ground the duct down a bit so that it could sit lower in the car and it worked pretty well. I bet a little radiator-lowering work could pay off nicely as well, though I haven't tried it. I can snap my hood prop rod in place with no interference from the duct and the hood shuts fine. That's not to say that I don't have anything that rubs the underside of the hood ;), but I don't have any problem closing it. Watch out if you have to push it closed because you could dent it. I just drop mine from 6 inches or so to get it to latch. I also added some little angle aluminum tabs to hold the bottom of the IC against the duct. I used some aluminized fiberglass on the bottom of the IC to insulate it a bit from the hot radiator air as well.

-Max

sorry...i meant the brace that holds the hood up

Garfinkle takes out the lower brace that the ic sits on along with the battery tray and then makes a new 3piece brace that is adjustable on each end. He can then make the ic fit the duct evenly and the ic will be lower to not touch the hood ,he also makes battery trays to go with this setup

How did you mount the twin fans.... as this is a mod that I want to do...
Thanks in advance.
-m

Hood pins!? :D But yeah... on stock body.. might look silly? Maybe?

Also ttpowerd, got a digi cam? Maybe some pics?

- Eric

I think the M2 Large is about 200 cubic inches bigger than the medium. They cool about the same. If you have the older M2 Large it has a larger pressure drop than the newer ones. I don't have any fitment problems with the M2 medium.

I have a digital camera and I will take pics as soon as I can. Also, I think I am going to fabricate some sort of duct to make a near perfect fit. I am just waiting on some parts to finish it up and do a real test fit but those parts should be here pretty soon.

I measured the intercooler last night with a ruler (not very percise) and came up with the core being 17" long and from end tank to end tank it is right at about 2' long with a 3 1/2" thickness. I did not measure the hieght but it is surely pretty big.

Any other suggestions on how to get it to fit correctly?

Rich, could you give us a "how to" on that fan mod?
Thanks everyone!

I have the M2 medium SMIC. Absolutely no fitment problems and the hood closes just fine and I am still able to anchor the hood prop bar in the plastic clip. It is snug however.

The height is right around 12 inches if memory serves.

The fans came with some very long zip ties that actual thread through the core and back around to mount the fans to the back side of the ic. The ic did have to be removed from the car in order to mount the fans correctly. I had the R1 at RP for some other stuff, so I had them wire it up. I have a toggle switch mounted under and to the left of the steering column.

Any new innovative ideas on fitting the hood prop over large SMIC duct? I'm running a Koyo rad and can't fit the hood prop. I would just do hood dampers, but I don't think it's legal for my race class to remove my OE hood prop. (yes, I am the master resurrecter)

I have the M2 Medium IC as well (Awesome piece BTW!) and it fits with no prob. I will be installing a koyo N-Flow next week, so lets see how that changes, but I don't think it will be bad at all after some measuring

It will be a tight fit but you'll get it to work. For the hood prop you can just bend a new one out of some rod. I had one customer leave his loose but used velcro on it on the duct if memory serves worked well for him.

~S~

What ever happened to M2?

Out of business years ago.

Since you guys brought a 7 yr old thread back: Do you guys have the IC sitting on rubber wrapped around the crossmember or what???

The used IC I got had velcro on the bottom, so I glue down a matching strip on the cross member.

Nothing between my M2 large IC & crossmember. Didn't have any fitment issues with the OEM rad but it's a little snug after installing a Fluidyne rad. I'm told it's even worse with Koyos since they're a little thicker. I just use the 6" drop method to latch the hood.

Got the prop to fit just by flipping it around and hammering a kink in it for the duct.

I just put the M2 large in a few hours ago. I have a koyo radiator. The drivers side of the duct is noticeably higher, which is making it not line up well with the intercoooler, maybe half inch off. Not sure what I'm going to do to fix it yet.

The hood brace does fit with a push, and the hood also closes.... With a push, lol. Hmmm... Gotta make it sit a little lower on the drivers side. Any ideas?