Mainous
09-14-2008, 07:31
It's been awhile since I posted on the forum but I wanted pass along some information that discovered while installing Roger Story's Charge Air Cooler solution on my 97 this past couple weeks. First, the price to do this mod continures to fall. CX Racing can and will sell you all the hoses, tubing, and clamps required to do this. I paid $238 for the following list of parts:
1 - Charge Air Cooler 27"X12"X3"
3 - 2.5" Hump Hoses
2 - 2.5" Straight Couplers
1- 45 degree silicon elbow
1 - 3" - 2.5" reducer
13 - 2.5" t-bolt clamps
1 - 3" t-bolt clamp
2 - 2.5" 90 degree elbow aluminum pipe
1 - 2.5" straight aluminum pipe
1 - 2.5" 45 degree aluminum pipe
1 - 2.5" 75 degree aluminum pipe
The price included shipping and is about $80 cheaper than Roger's costs for his article. Next, one of the big issues when self plumbing this project is cutting the tubing. This removes the "factory" bead and I have seen repeated complaints on this forum about having hoses/tubing blow apart under max boost. I stumbled across a bead roller through Harbor Freight. They had it listed on their website for $129 but upon calling my local store, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was on sale through the end of September for $79. You can find this at the following link:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93364
While I wouldn't recommend this tool for a serious metal fabricator, It was more than adequate for this project and should save me from reconnecting tubing on the side of the highway.
Overall, the project went really smoothly by my just following Roger's article. He did an excellent job of documenting the tube measurements. I was able to install the system without removing my inner fenders as well to further simplify things.
1 - Charge Air Cooler 27"X12"X3"
3 - 2.5" Hump Hoses
2 - 2.5" Straight Couplers
1- 45 degree silicon elbow
1 - 3" - 2.5" reducer
13 - 2.5" t-bolt clamps
1 - 3" t-bolt clamp
2 - 2.5" 90 degree elbow aluminum pipe
1 - 2.5" straight aluminum pipe
1 - 2.5" 45 degree aluminum pipe
1 - 2.5" 75 degree aluminum pipe
The price included shipping and is about $80 cheaper than Roger's costs for his article. Next, one of the big issues when self plumbing this project is cutting the tubing. This removes the "factory" bead and I have seen repeated complaints on this forum about having hoses/tubing blow apart under max boost. I stumbled across a bead roller through Harbor Freight. They had it listed on their website for $129 but upon calling my local store, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was on sale through the end of September for $79. You can find this at the following link:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93364
While I wouldn't recommend this tool for a serious metal fabricator, It was more than adequate for this project and should save me from reconnecting tubing on the side of the highway.
Overall, the project went really smoothly by my just following Roger's article. He did an excellent job of documenting the tube measurements. I was able to install the system without removing my inner fenders as well to further simplify things.