Intercooler screen

[jedimaster]

OK, this is ghetto looking, but functional- watch this space for an updated version once I get the time to do it.

You'll want to remove and shake the bugs, etc. from your new screen about every time you check your oil.

Originally, I had wanted to use a frame and common household screening to do this, but upon looking at the screening, it looked very restrictive of airflow. I had made screens for WRX's before and wanted to do one for this car- as you can see, there's some junk accumulated on the intercooler after only about 1300 miles:



I didn't want the mesh to be visible from the outside of the car- that look got traded in with my WRX. So attaching it to the hoodscoop itself was out of the question. I thought about attaching something to the bottom of the hoodscoop, but figured it would fall off every time I opened the hood:



I found some "gutter guard" at Home Depot, but it was too small to completely cover the intercooler- this was the biggest size they had- more on what I did about that later on. The first thing I did was take a piece of newspaper and make a template with a magic marker of what the rough size of the intercooler is:



I then carefully cut out two section of the gutter guard material and zip tied them together tightly so there were no gaps that rocks, etc. could get through. Be really careful if you've never used this stuff before- it's sheets of aluminum and when you cut it, the edges are razor sharp.



As you can see in this picture, there is plenty of strength to the screen once you attach the zip ties and no gaps either:



I used a bit of door edge molding to finish the screen off and protect my hands when I need to remove it:



Here it is installed- it'll lay down flat after a while- the heating and cooling of the engine will make the aluminum "spread out" and lay flat after a few miles of driving. I think it looks pretty good- matches the mesh in the engine cover almost exactly, too.



From the outside, with the hood closed, you really can just barely see the mesh, so no worries about the boy racer look- you have to look pretty close to see it:



And obviously from a distance, you can't see it at all:

[STEye]

Looks great! Great writeup Jedi......

Would thin wire work instead of zip ties?

[jedimaster]

Yeah- that would be a much more aesthetically pleasing solution- thanks!

[STEye]

I've been waiting to do this mod on my car... Should have done it a long time ago.. Those damn rocks have made my intercooler look like a pock faced teen! Many of bugs have met their maker on those fins!

[Bu11dogg2]

Nice write up Jedi!!!

Does this prevent soap from getting in?



j/k

[jedimaster]

No, you need to add waterproof cheesecloth for that

[gt_ltd]

i saw an intercooler screen on a wrx sti in the denver auto show last weekend, did u make that one for them jedi?

[jedimaster]

I may have- I used to sell them to the WRX crowd. They were much easier and nicer looking on those cars.

[addison]

does it just rest on the engine cover or is it attached some how?