AH Fab / Ebay / Forge S3/A3 FMIC installs (image heavy)

I started fitting my welly cooler setup today. So far easy enough. Fabricated a couple brackets up which I think will tidy up the install some what:

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Took me about an hour to knock those bad boys up, going to take the cooler and brackets down to my local fabricators and they're going to weld them on for me.

Unfortunately mr silicone packed my items wrong and sent me a wrong connector which may hold me up.
 
Prawn:1460890 said:
I believe the N75 line is 6mm matey (anyone confirm?), sorry I've not replied to your PM's, I'm having severe laptop issues, it's just taken me 15 minutes to load this page!

cheers prawn,
I,ll have a look at it when I come down if you like,IT techie for a living
 
right then, massive success for me with the 'welly cooler'

had the brackets i made, welded on the side of the cooler

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piped it up which was easy enough, pressure tested it:
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happy with that, held at 2 bar (29psi) for 5 minutes, not a single leak, not bad as i just used bogo standard jubilee. I did buy the t-bolt clamps, but wasnt happy with them, so just used jubilee's which i had loads of in the garage.

I offered the bumper up and trimmed what i had to, while i did that i also removed the ecu fuse, to clear the ecu adaptations so when i did start driving, it could 'learn' the new setup rather than be shocked. Not sure if its nescessary but iv found iv had to do this before when fixing boost leak, so i could reep the benefits. The ecu does seem slow to react.

After trimming the bumper, i fitted it. To my surprise, I was able to refit my fogs, had to cut the lower brackets off but they went on with room to spare. Not sure how this was possible because everyone had said i couldnt keep them !?

At this point i was very happy, because deep down i didnt want to lose the fogs.
So i popped the ecu fuse back in and went for a little drive, It certainly felt more urgent low-mid revs in every gear, and considering i only on a generic stage 1 map with no other mods except 007 DV and B5 tip, i had convinced myself that it wouldnt make any difference. Cant wait to get the downpipe and exhaust sorted now, but will have to save :) But a FMIC setup that cost me about £220 (including material and welding for brackets) i think it well worth it!


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I have no Idea how you got the 90 degree silicone reducers behind the bumper but i'm impressed. You may start a trend for people to snap these up now if they can keep the fogs!

Can you get some pics of how the pipe work runs behind the bumper please? I assume you routed the pipework the same as mine?
 
I have no Idea how you got the 90 degree silicone reducers behind the bumper but i'm impressed. You may start a trend for people to snap these up now if they can keep the fogs!

Can you get some pics of how the pipe work runs behind the bumper please? I assume you routed the pipework the same as mine?

Yeah I'm not sure what I did different? Yeah I did the pipework exactly the same. I will get some pictures in the light today
 
Very jealous of the mounting brackets Jimbo! they look top notch.

If only I knew someone local to me who could weld Ally I'd do the very same thing!
 
How the hell you managed that mate, top work on doing it though :).

So you fancy selling some more of them brackets haha.
 
How the hell you managed that mate, top work on doing it though :).

So you fancy selling some more of them brackets haha.

Cheers,

It's easy enough to make brackets, just need some 2" angle alloy, a grinder, file and a pencil lol. I would make some but they were 'one off' items lol, I couldn't replicate them
 
Wheres the best place to buy it from mate? Only really got b&q round me.

Yo got any pics yet of your set up mate? Rather do it like yours than have to cut the ends of and weld 63mm ally bends onto the core.
 
I picked some up from my local fabricators, They always carry a good stock. There is bound to be a nice friendly local fabrication shop lerking in a industrial estate near you.

More pictures as promised:

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It might look like the lower pipe is touching above, but there is actually a gap underneath.
Excuse the state of it, not had chance to wash it in a while. Going to try and fit the fog surround part of the lower grills to help get rid of any void. also tempted to lose the chrome on the front end too. Not going to bother spray the cooler now as i think it looks wicked how it is, providing it stays shiney, going to use the paint on the inlet manifold.

edit: you may also notice my crash bar :wub: LOL
 
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Just spoke to a bloke there, they're all exactly the same! he said they just list them at different prices with and without postage, 1st and 2nd class post.

Have scanned around and bought the cheapest options when considering postage and item, so some mid priced items but with free post.

Spent £145 with MrSilicone so hopefully it'll be worth it!

Gone for full 63mm hot and cold side to keep it all consistent. Can't wait to pipe it all up.
 
Just spoke to a bloke there, they're all exactly the same! he said they just list them at different prices with and without postage, 1st and 2nd class post.

Have scanned around and bought the cheapest options when considering postage and item, so some mid priced items but with free post.

Spent £145 with MrSilicone so hopefully it'll be worth it!

Gone for full 63mm hot and cold side to keep it all consistent. Can't wait to pipe it all up.

Good work that man. I would have thought that listing things like that would confuse the seller as much as the buyer :think:

Update this thread once you get it all fitted dude.
 
Will do! Although mine's is obviously backwards compared to yours!

My Cold side is on the drivers side, but due to the pipework arrangement, I have exactly the same cold side setup as Hayes has pictured on his hot side, so should work perfectly.

On the hot side (passengers for me) I have a silicon 90 reduction off the cooler, onto an alloy 90 that goes in through the side tray, followed by a silicon 90 that turns upwards past the starter motor. After that it's a bit of a gamble and I've ordered one or two extras to try and find the best way from the turbo over the rocker cover, so we shall see!
 
Having just had a read of Staceys build thread and his intercooler, I might try knocking up some brackets myself using some box section and steel plate I've got spare.

I'd love to have mounts welded onto the intercooler like James, but I'm sick of having to rely on other people to do things for me, which ultimately ends up taking too long.

Got an idea for making something fairly neat using box section. Will post up the results if it works!
 
I have a question, when people are fitting there FMICs are they replacing all the pipework from the throttle body all the way around to the charge pipe or are people just connecting into the standard rubber pipes that went to the top of each SMIC? Ideally I would like to replace all of the pipework but both those pipes are funny shapes! :wtf:
 
I have a question, when people are fitting there FMICs are they replacing all the pipework from the throttle body all the way around to the charge pipe or are people just connecting into the standard rubber pipes that went to the top of each SMIC? Ideally I would like to replace all of the pipework but both those pipes are funny shapes! :wtf:

No mate you want to get the proper pipes that go to the old side mounts. I think they are called upper boost hoses. Can be got on eBay for about £30 non forge ones.
 

That was my reaction to you wanting to make a lesser job of your FMIC. Mate if you want I can cut and send you some ally brackets, then all you got do is get them welded on? Il do it in return for you rear seat belt when I see you next :)
 
No mate you want to get the proper pipes that go to the old side mounts. I think they are called upper boost hoses. Can be got on eBay for about £30 non forge ones.

Cheers Westy should be able to find some knowing what there called now!
 
Right folks, as per tuftys request, I’m copying this over from a PM I sent to a few chaps today.

This is my version of the Welly cooler, for the A3. This arrangement is for a ko3 framed turbo, and should work with minimal/zero trimming of the pipes/silicon. Ko4 fitment is slightly different, replacing the turbo outlet pipe with a 54-63mm silicon reducer.
This is the core, as owned by many on here already:

eBay - The UK's Online Marketplace

it’s a beast, and it’s SUCH good value it’s unreal.

To fit that, you’ll need to cut the back of the crash bar out, but that’s dead easy and takes 5 minutes with a grinder.

As for mounting height, I opted to hang mine with around 6’’ of the core hanging below the crash bar, and this seemed to work well with the A3 bumper. You can bring it up a BIT more, but any higher and it fouls the top of the bumper and back of the grille, any lower and it’ll hang out the bottom!

To mount that I used a length of 30mm Angle section alloy bought from B&Q for about £7. that’s just secured on little bits of box section either side of the rad. All very simple stuff, you can see pics on page 26/27 of my build thread.

As for pipes, the cold side is VERY easy.

You will need:

1x 76-63mm 90 degree reducer in silicon
1x 63mm 90 degree silicon bends
1x 63mm 90 degree alloy bend
1x 63mm straight 100mm alloy coupler.

It’ll look like this:

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Reducer off the core > coupler to join up the next silicon bend, > then the alloy 90 takes you into the standard throttle body pipe. Simples.

As for the hot side, it’s a BIT more tricky.

You will need:

1x 76-63mm 90 degree reducer in silicon
1x 63mm 90 degree silicon bends
2x 63mm 90 degree alloy bend
1x 63mm x 300mm straight alloy pipe
1x 63mm 45 degree alloy bend
1x 63mm 45 degree silicon bend
1x 51-63mm straight silicon reducer to go onto the turbo outlet.
1x 63mm straight silicon coupler.

The layout:

51-63 reducer straight onto the turbo, pointing upwards.
> alloy 90 degree bend into that, pointing forwards towards the pax side headlight. Coupler on the end of that into:
>45 degree alloy bend into that, coming over the rocker cover
>45 degree silicon bend to take the route downwards part the starter motor
> 90 degree silicon bend on the bottom, pointing outwards towards the pax wheel.
> 90 degree alloy bend, takes you out through the side of the undertray side panel, and ends up pointing forwards below the headlight
> into the 76-63 90 degree reducer pointing back towards the centre of the car, and connected onto the core :)

Top side setup will be very similar to this: (this is my ko4 layout)

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Although the connection onto the turbo is slightly different, because your turbo’s sit a lot lower than my ko4 frame.

All the silicon bits and alloy bends came from Mr. Silicon on ebay:

eBay My World - mrsilicone

As for the clamps, I used JCS Hi-Grip stainless steel clamps, you need the 60-80 clips for all the 63mm pipework, 2x 70-90 clips for the core connections, and then a 50-70 for the turbo connection. Count the number of joints in the system to work out how many 60-80’s you’ll need, it’s about 12 I think.

The core was £80, my pipes from Mr silicone came to £140, and I spent about £30 on hose clips.

Good luck!

Will add some finished pics of mine a bit later on :)
 
As I have been getting a lot of PM questions about these - thought it might be worth listing what is needed in a thread just about this particular cooler.

For this fitting method you will HAVE to remove fog lights, and is for engines with inlet manifold with TB on the right hand side.

Intercooler specs are 600 x 300 x 76mm.

Piping needed:

2 x 90 degree 76mm hard pipes with beaded ends.
2 x 90 degree 76mm silicone elbows in your choice of colour - these will need adjusting to length during fitting.
2 x 90 degree 76 - 63mm reducing silicone elbows in your choice of colour.
2 x 63mm alloy joiners.
2 x 76mm alloy joiners.
1 x 76mm 250mm length of straight silicone hose in your choice of colour. This needs to be cut into 2 lengths of 125mm to go on the end tanks of the cooler.
10 x 70 - 90mm jubilee clips
2 x 50 - 70mm jubilee clips.

Hope that clears things up...
 
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Well just bought a welly cooler for £70 posted quiet chufed.

Wanting to Go the same root as westy but I'm getting 63mm pipes welded on the end so it's all 63mm pipework
 
Just a quickie, what thread pattern are the holes on top of the welly cooler? dont fancy sloggin the cooler around b&q trying to match bolts etc up haha.
 
M8's on the cooler (Y)

Gaz: what's the idea behind having the inlet sizes changed?

if you follow westys pipe route, you simply use a 63-76 90 reducer onto the core instead of the 63 90 degree bend you'll end up using if you have them changed. Aside from that I can't see the value in it....
 
I ahve all my pipes, core and just waiting on clips, Will be getting brackets welded Tuiesday AM and posting my results on here Tuesday Evening I hope. Along with the test drive results :)

Thanks Ryan