Lane's SCA - Turbo Project 6

	Before beginning any sort of work on the intercooler, it needs to be pressure tested to check for leaks and make sure it is still useable. After all, this is from an 80's Mitsubishi Starion and it is pretty old.
	A trip to the local hardware store provided a few rubber couplers and some PVC pipe parts, and I had the cheap pressure gauges laying around from an air compressor regulator that went bad. About $5 in parts total was all I needed to allow me to put some pressure in it. After running it up to about 15 psi and watching the water for 5 minutes, lack of bubbles told me that the core was good.
	After trying to fit the intercooler in front of my radiator in its stock condition, it was clear that it would not fit in that location with the piping still attached to it. Its stock piping diameter was not quite 2 inches in diameter, and that was a bit small. An 2.5" aluminum piping kit was bought off of eBay to use instead.
	At the left you can see the comparison between the stock piping that was attached to the intercooler, and the 2.5" that I ended up buying.
	The first step in modifying the intercooler was to carefully cut and grind off the existing piping and brackets.
	The aluminum surface was cleaned very well, and then a flat piece was welded where the stock tube used to be. The new replacement pipe would be located elsewhere on each end tank. TIP: You don't need an expensive TIG welder to work with aluminum. It will give you the best possible result, but you can also do an acceptable job with a good MIG welder and the right procedures & materials. The photo at the left was taken after the welds were cleaned up and blended with a grinder and some sanding.
	Once the ends were welded up, the intercooler would now fit in front of the radiator. Once I determined where the in/out piping would run in the engine compartment and figured out the placement and angle of the intercooler's inlet & outlet, it was time to cut them to shape and weld them in the proper locations.
	Because I didn't have a bead roller machine and really didn't want to buy one, I instead welded a bead on the end of the intercooler inlet and outlet pipes and made sure they were nice and smooth. This will do a great job at making sure that the internal pressure doesn't blow any of the silicone couplers apart.
	Intercooler mounting brackets were then cut and welded in place. Some extra time was also taken to straighten out most of the intercooler's bent fins with several small screwdrivers.
	Finally, the intercooler was done! I saved quite a bit of cash by modifying it myself, but the downside was that it took an enormous amount of time. MIG welding aluminum doesn't proivde a very clean looking result, so each weld needs to be cleaned up by grinding, sanding, and buffing (since I do care how it looks). What an exhausting process this was.