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The mkiv Supra Owners Club

How to replace the SMIC


TLicense

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Today I replaced my 13 year old ageing stock Toyota side mount intercooler for a brand new Chris Wilson Intercooler.

The intercooler cost me £632.50 including p+p (believe me whatever the packaging costs are, they're worth it. Mine arrived in a box so big, we couldn't get it through the door in the office! :blink: No chance of it getting damaged in transit!)

The quality is nothing short of first class. I compared it to a radiator from the F1 car that we've got kicking around the office, and the quality of the welding is definitely comparable to that, which I think says it all really.

Here's a few shots:-

 

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Anyway, on to how to fit it....

 

Tools you'll need are:-

10mm spanner

Ratchet

10mm deep socket for above ratchet

12mm deep socket for above ratched

3 inch socket extension bar for above ratchet

Flat bladed screwdriver

 

 

First of all remove the battery negative:-

 

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Then remove the number 1 air hose, loosen the two hose clamps, and wriggle the hose in 1 direction until it comes loose then pull the hose off the other hose.

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Next remove the engine under cover, RH Fender Splash Shield Seal, My under cover was removed anyway, as part of turbo upgrade. I counted 11 bolts on the fender shield, make sure you get them all :-

 

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If you've got an active spoiler (I have) then remove the RH under cover. It's the plastic bit underneath the anti roll bar in this pic:-

 

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You should now be able to see the back face of the intercooler:-

 

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To remove the intercooler, there's two bolts and 1 nut that you need to remove

 

You can see one of the bolts in the picture above of the back of the intercooler, fixing the intercooler to the chassis rail.

 

There's another bolt that you get to from under the car, near the towing eye, it's the one just above it and behind it in this picture. You'll need a deep reach socket and the extension to get to it:-

 

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Then there's 1 nut to remove, it's on the upper outboard rear part of the intercooler:-

 

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With all these undone, the intercooler should be loose, but could be held in place by the no.2 air hose (the one above the intercooler) If you loosen the jubilee clip it should come free.

To remove the intercooler, it's easiest to remove the offside front wheel, that will give you loads of space. If you turn the steering to the right as well, that will give you even more. You'll soon work out how it should come out:-

 

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You need to transfer all of the brackets over to the new intercooler and the air duct on the front, my inboard bracket was broken anyway. Put some copper slip on the threads of the bolts as you transfer each bracket:-

 

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When I fitted the duct, I realised that there was a gap on the side, between the duct and the intercooler. This is because the stock intercooler is slightly deeper, where the end-tanks are joined onto the core. Because the CW intercooler is fully fabricated, it doesn't have to be deeper here, so it isn't. This leaves the gap. This gap really should be closed up to force the air through the IC, rather than around it. To close it up, I bought some foam draught excluder foam from the local DIY store. As I had loads I replaced all of the foam:-

 

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This is where the gap was, you can see it's now closed up (Actually, it doesn't look like it in that pic, but believe me, it's all full of compressed foam!):-

 

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The fitting is the reverse of the removal. Be sure to copper slip all of the nuts and bolts before you do them up. That'll make it easier for removal next time.

Also a hint for getting the lower no.2 intercooler pipe in and aligned is to leave the hose clamp on the rubber hose from the intercooler to the lower no.2 pipe loose. Fit the no.2 pipe, and then do up the hose clamp using a 10mm spanner.

 

Jobs a good 'un!

 

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Sandy,

 

If you look at the last pic, you see how all the fins are missing in the middle? It should look like the back face where they're all good.

The missing fins mean that the cold air flowing in the duct, won't cool the air flowing throught the intercooler as efficiently.

Symptoms of this are large drop off's of performance after being in traffic, or a big difference of performance between cold days and hot days.

I changed mine primarily as I'm changing the turbo's....

 

Hope that helps :thumbs:

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Cheers TL you have all the answers

 

 

 

Sandy,

 

If you look at the last pic, you see how all the fins are missing in the middle? It should look like the back face where they're all good.

The missing fins mean that the cold air flowing in the duct, won't cool the air flowing throught the intercooler as efficiently.

Symptoms of this are large drop off's of performance after being in traffic, or a big difference of performance between cold days and hot days.

I changed mine primarily as I'm changing the turbo's....

 

Hope that helps :thumbs:

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cracking thread mate and we really should have more input like this, my concern would be not with the the quality of the smic (which looks 1st class) but the size of the opening feeding it, i hope its not a limiting factor with them sexy twins your fitting

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  • 9 months later...

Looks quality, would love to see some back to back testing compared to a fully ducted fmic. Regarding flow (actually, Tony will know more about aeroflow than any of us!) maybe it would help if you can relocate the indicator away from the intake?

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