I think it just shows the difficulty in making parts - especially for such a small market - for a living. No one goes in thinking "I know how I'm gonna stick it to 'em - I'm gonna keep all the ducts!". It's a testament to see that guys like Pettit and PFS are still around 20 years later (and sill innovating). It shows something very real about them as a business and their skill/work ethic/dedication.

M2 & CWC had great products... but we know how that turned out. Even lots of current vendors are dedicated and have great products - but will they be around in 20 years? 10 years? 2 years?

I think remembering and supporting these guys that have been committed to this community for decades is important for everyone involved. [/endrant]

 

Might be time for sake bomb to work on an intake and intercooler kit.

 

I think you missed the point of my post.

...I do wonder though - why doesn't Pettit or PFS (or Mazdatrix or Rotary Performance) get brought up in conversation anymore? Is it because they aren't as active on here as guys like Banzai or SBG, they just fall out of the conversation?

I mean, we're sitting here reminiscing about how great the M2 and CWC SMIC were - but the Pettit is equal to that in design and performance and available for purchase / currently being made - and isn't even mentioned.

I personally think it's just changing times / lack of understanding of the Internet (web design, social media, forum interaction) that does it. I mean... these guys aren't getting any younger, right?

 

Sounds about right. The reason i even know about the pfs is because Jeff at Rotory Power suggested it to me.

 

I don't think I missed the point, maybe I did...
I can tell you first hand since Im buddies with Ray i.e. PFS that they lost the rights to the mold on the intercooler end tanks and it wouldn't have made any sense for him to pay what the manufacture was asking to continue to use them. He said they were sitting on the shelf and not really selling well anyway. He makes most of his money doing general maintenance of FD's.

As far as Pettit, if you ask me it's because they haven't updated their designs in like 15 years.
Stagnation... My point was it is time for the new guys such as Sake Bomb etc to innovate some new designs. V mounts are the way to go and Pettit isn't making them.

 

I was just joking around with ya'.

But you're right... maybe it is stagnation. But we're here sitting around saying "Now, CWC that was a great intercooler" - but the Pettit is equal (at least, on par) with the CWC. Plus it has had revisions over the years. This is the third iteration of it - it includes puller fan, duct and super short piping.

Perhaps V Mounts are the hot new thing (not "new", but ya' know what I mean) - but a nice large SMIC never goes out of style.

It's just weird that these guys with all sorts of race history - actually taking these cars to the tracks and racing them door to door - are just forgotten. No offense to SBG - but I'm pretty sure PFS and Pettit had their cars at the track racing for points before they were old enough to drive. Not to mention, they have seen thousands of cars over the years and knows what exactly does and does not work.

As someone that averages an FD every 2-3 years for the past 10+ years. It's just interesting to me to come and go into this world and see how much has improved yet how much has been forgotten.

 

Sorry for digging up an old thread. Did a lot of searching but can't figure out what's wrong.
I bought a used m2 medium intercooler. Only came with one pipe (passenger side) but doesn't seem to fit. What am I missing here and how/ where do I get the pipes? Custom make?
thanks in advance

Doesn't sit low enough or extend long enough.

 

It's not designed to work with the air pump in place

 

Ughh so now I gotta do the air pump delete on order to use this smic.
Any comparable smic out there without the need of air pump removal? Or should I just remove the air pump?

 

Most of the other SMIC's work with the air pump, because they rely on the stock crossover tube (the one coming off the y-pipe). Depending on your emissions requirements, deleting the air pump is not a big deal. There are pulley brackets, which preserve the stock belt routing. If you're running a stock ecu, you might need a resistor to mimic the air pump. But, at this point I would recommend you move away from the stock ecu, if you haven't already.

 

Installed a M2 medium over the winter.

I ended up just deleting my airpump after struggling with it for a while. I tried finding and then fabbing pipes to get around it, but ultimately had to remove it because my 45 didn't quite make it around the pump like I thought it would. With more time and fab skills/equipment one could pull it off I'm sure. I wanted to drive the car again and the intercooler is a beast - totally worth it.

Ebay had some decent polished aluminum chinese pipes you can cut to length and there is a black bead roller sold on there as well that I used to bead roll the ends.

You will need to remove the air pump and get a block off plate kit from banzai to remove the ACV and block the pump pipe ports as well.

I do wish I could have kept the air pump. The car is stanky now even after some idle tuning to keep it around 13 AFR.

 

For your reading entertainment:
Crispy's Crooked Willow Racing Intercooler Install Status
Regards,
Crispy

 

thank you!! that was a well written write-up! Unfortunately I wanted to go the route of not relocating the battery. But now I actually think relocating the battery gives better options of which IC to run. I failed to realize air pump needed to be deleted with the M2 medium IC.....ughh i paid a pretty penny for it, so kinda determined to make it work

 

I dug into the M2 intercooler kit / air pump question a few weeks ago. There were at least three different hot side pipes sold with ASP/M2 intercooler kits:

1. A tubular pipe with a single bend. This was the first hot side pipe sold with any ASP or M2 kit and was not made to accommodate the air pump. Despite that, it still worked for some forum members. Here is a picture of Brian Goble's RX-7 engine bay. See Max Cooper's site for another example.




2. A tubular pipe with a compound bend. This hot side pipe was developed and sold by M2 in an attempt to accommodate the air pump. Here is an example with the air pump in place.




3. A cast pipe with a compound bend. This hot side pipe was developed under the ASP name in an attempt to accommodate the air pump better than the tubular pipe with the compound bend. Here is an example with the air pump in place.