The big Intercooler thread.

[cvf-jason]

I am sure this has been asked before, but what is the "best" direct replacement intercooler? And by best, I mean easiest to install and having a good fit.

Between the Mishimoto, CVF street , MAP street, which one is the easiest to install with minimal work? *using stock charge pipes

All 3 are going to be similar in terms of installation as they're stock replacement - OEM piping will fit all 3.

Our Street is easily the best bang for your buck in terms of value and data on the product page confirms effectiveness - if I can answer any questions feel free to PM me!

https://www.cvfab.com/collections/1...street-intercooler-2015-ford-mustang-ecoboost

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[Buldawg76]

I am sure this has been asked before, but what is the "best" direct replacement intercooler? And by best, I mean easiest to install and having a good fit.

Between the Mishimoto, CVF street , MAP street, which one is the easiest to install with minimal work? *using stock charge pipes

I cannot speak to the installation ease of the Mishi or MAP ICs but I have installed 2 CVFab ICs, one on my car and 1 on another members car. I found that the factory hot side lower rubber hose needed to have about 3/8 to 1/2" trimmed off of the end that goes on the ICs hot side inlet in order to allow the factory charge pipe to fully seat on to the turbo outlet flange. If not trimmed per above the charge pipe will become partially unseated from the turbo outlet flange with engine movement during operation, mine never blew off but it would not stay fully seated until I trimmed the lower hose to effectively shorten the overall length of the hot side charge pipe. On the members car I found it to have the same issue so just trimmed the hose to fit as above. The factory cold side hose is a direct fit with no issues.

I put CVFab hot/cold charge pipes on my car after IC install and found that both sides needed the lower ends of the rubber couplers trimmed to allow good fitment of the charge pipes.

I will add that I am a retired auto master tech so am very anal/perfectionist when it comes to my cars/bikes and how parts fit. All cars have tolerance stackups that can affect fitment of factory as well as aftermarket parts that manufactures must take into account. I am thankful that CVFab provides longer than required rubber couplers since it is far easier to shorten a coupler than it is to lengthen it.

BD

 

[cvf-jason]

I cannot speak to the installation ease of the Mishi or MAP ICs but I have installed 2 CVFab ICs, one on my car and 1 on another members car. I found that the factory hot side lower rubber hose needed to have about 3/8 to 1/2" trimmed off of the end that goes on the ICs hot side inlet in order to allow the factory charge pipe to fully seat on to the turbo outlet flange. If not trimmed per above the charge pipe will become partially unseated from the turbo outlet flange with engine movement during operation, mine never blew off but it would not stay fully seated until I trimmed the lower hose to effectively shorten the overall length of the hot side charge pipe. On the members car I found it to have the same issue so just trimmed the hose to fit as above. The factory cold side hose is a direct fit with no issues.

I put CVFab hot/cold charge pipes on my car after IC install and found that both sides needed the lower ends of the rubber couplers trimmed to allow good fitment of the charge pipes.

I will add that I am a retired auto master tech so am very anal/perfectionist when it comes to my cars/bikes and how parts fit. All cars have tolerance stackups that can affect fitment of factory as well as aftermarket parts that manufactures must take into account. I am thankful that CVFab provides longer than required rubber couplers since it is far easier to shorten a coupler than it is to lengthen it.

BD

We appreciate that input! That’s not something we’ve heard of before (particularly with the Street) but we’ll certainly add that to our engineering notes.

When the pipe kits were released a few years back (intercooler has been out for about 3 years) the hose length became a question on newer model years so we lengthened the couplers in a revision.

 

[Buldawg76]

We appreciate that input! That’s not something we’ve heard of before (particularly with the Street) but we’ll certainly add that to our engineering notes.

When the pipe kits were released a few years back (intercooler has been out for about 3 years) the hose length became a question on newer model years so we lengthened the couplers in a revision.

Hey Jason

That was just my experience on 2 cars so not saying it's by any means fully representative of all fitments on eco mustangs.

But am glad to have extra length of couplers versus not enough. The cold side CVF pipe on my car very possibly needed to be shortened due to also having your TB spacer installed as well. The issue I had on the cold side was the coupler being difficult to get installed on the TB due to overall length being just a bit too long, again about 3/8" trimmed off the lower coupler at IC end and it fit perfect. Again, I am a perfectionist.

BD

 

[cvf-jason]

Hey Jason

That was just my experience on 2 cars so not saying it's by any means fully representative of all fitments on eco mustangs.

But am glad to have extra length of couplers versus not enough. The cold side CVF pipe on my car very possibly needed to be shortened due to also having your TB spacer installed as well. The issue I had on the cold side was the coupler being difficult to get installed on the TB due to overall length being just a bit too long, again about 3/8" trimmed off the lower coupler at IC end and it fit perfect. Again, I am a perfectionist.

BD

No worries at all! The TB Spacer situation definitely makes sense - that we have heard about!

Appreciate you clarifying!

 

[ihasnostang]

race ic sheds heat quickly even after 5 runs and 2-3 minutes of sitting in staging lanes between runs. 85+ ambient

 

[stannypack]

Installed the street intercooler yesterday, wasn't too painful lol. Is there any way to check for a boost leak? my boost/vac seemed normal at about 20 inHg at idle

 

[TeeLew]

Installed the street intercooler yesterday, wasn't too painful lol. Is there any way to check for a boost leak? my boost/vac seemed normal at about 20 inHg at idle

Make sure you give everything a retorque after a heat-cycle or 2.

 

[Buldawg76]

Soapy water in a spray bottle is good to check for leaks.

BD

 

[stannypack]

No worries at all! The TB Spacer situation definitely makes sense - that we have heard about!

Appreciate you clarifying!

hey Jason, I noticed the cvf street intercooler kit provided a washer for the oem bolt that holds the map sensor to the intercooler, but after swapping the map sensor over the bolt could barely thread in with the provided washer, so I ditched it. Could this be a problem/source of a boost leak?

 

[cvf-jason]

hey Jason, I noticed the cvf street intercooler kit provided a washer for the oem bolt that holds the map sensor to the intercooler, but after swapping the map sensor over the bolt would barely thread with the washer in, so I ditched it. Could this be a problem/source of a boost leak?

If you've got a boost leak it's more than likely from the piping connections that there - that's a place we've never had a problem reported from and the intercooler's one our our best sellers.

Spray hot soapy water on the 4 pipe connections (use dish soap if you have it around) and go for a drive. Come back and it will have bubbled where the boost leak is.

 

[Buldawg76]

hey Jason, I noticed the cvf street intercooler kit provided a washer for the oem bolt that holds the map sensor to the intercooler, but after swapping the map sensor over the bolt could barely thread in with the provided washer, so I ditched it. Could this be a problem/source of a boost leak?

Just get a screw of the same thread pitch but about 5mm/1/8" longer so you have more thread engagement.

BD

 

[Benjamin Hundred]

Hey guys, I’m assuming this would be the place to ask rather than a new thread?

I just got a used Whipple Mega Intercooler for $300 and installed it yesterday. First impressions are that it works incredibly well! With the old setup it felt like it had a delay and way less power when accelerating. Now it has less way less turbo lag and I feel it pull way harder on all levels of throttle/RPM.
It’s kinda overkill but at $300 and claimed 100F lowers temps I figured why not.

Next up I’m sticking a Mishimoto or C&F radiator for more cooling, but I ran into these things when I installed.

It bolted in the bottom brackets just fine, but there are two bars on each side of the radiator support that are in the way. From looking online it appears people remove those to fully bolt in this Intercooler. Is that something that would be OK to do?
This is a photo I found where it’s supposed to bolt up at all four points.

This is where it’s hitting, can I remove these bars? I zip tied it through the top support because I needed it back on the road but can fix quick. It’s currently bolt in at the bottom.

 

[SVO MkII]

"Next up I’m sticking a Mishimoto or C&F radiator for more cooling"
Are you experiencing cooling problems with the stock radiator? If you simply want the car to run cooler, you can install a 160 deg t-stat. You only need a larger rad if you are exceeding the thermal capacity of the existing radiator. This usually only happens when the car is used for HPDE events (and oh boy, I can tell you all about the struggles of keeping these cars cool on track!).

 

[Benjamin Hundred]

The factory cooling doesn’t seem very great, it’s an Ecoboost non performance pack. I’ve added the PP extras and several handling mods, but never touched the cooling system. I drive for work and will be sitting in traffic for hours sometimes, have 115F weather here in the summers and it’s starting to heat up and I’d rather have a great cooling system and total peace of mind. I’ve noticed a major improvement with the Intercooler and I’m hearing good results on upgrading the radiator (even without a tune) and I’ve gotten high temps at times in the summers.

Just picked up the Mishimoto radiator today for $230 new, so I didn’t pay MSRP making it that much more appealing to upgrade.

Only thing is if anyone knows about being able to remove those black support parts the Intercooler is hitting, I’m assuming it’s fine to remove those and several stock photos have them removed. Any input on this? I currently just have the Intercooler tilted forward out of the way, but wouldn’t mind having it bolted in.
Photos are in the last post.

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