Hello,

Took a closer look at the fins on my Intercooler which seem very bent / flat.

It would appear a lot of air is possibly bouncing off the Intercooler and not actually going through it.

I've tried bending them back, most of the time the fins break off or are unable to be moved.

Would it be ok to break off the top layer of fins that are damaged to allow better air flow?

Many thanks,

 

don't break fins, you could repair fins with right tools but it's pain

you could try like this, or you could find shop who repair intercoolers and radiators

http://www.vwtrendsweb.com/how-to/en...er-fin-repair/

 

Thanks. I've tried this route. The fins seem to be so badly damaged that when trying to straighten they just snap off anyways so I'm really starting to wonder what to do. Besides that, it's very difficult and awkward doing it with the Intercooler in location.

Is this truly affecting my cars performance?? I would say roughly 50% of the fins are flat and bent.

 

It's reasonably easy to remove the intercooler to make it easier to work at. If it's a hatch , the fins are way thinner than the older subarus. Ive refurbed 3 now (2 my own , one i helped someone else) and the hatch fins break easily.
Take it out , follow the video above (I've heard people say to use a hair pin but can't see why you wouldn't use tweezers as they are perfect). Give it a quick sand and paint , stencil on a STI if wanted , and it'll look a hundred times better.

 

performance is definitely affect. air will not pass easily throgh the cooler and fins work cooling process. if you break fins, cooler will loss efficiency, because intercooler loses cooling area.

remove the cooler and same time you should clean intercooler inside(oil vapour, dirt etc) and intercooler hoses. you wrap rear of intercooler so you'll not bent rear fins

i think you could straight fins which are not bad

 

Thanks for the info on that. Appreciate your help on this. I'm going to take it out and clean as you said and give it another go

 

Yeah I think I'm going to take it out and give it another go. What's the best way to clean the insides of the Intercooler?

 

Petrol swished about inside will clean it out

Powerhose underside of intercooler to blow out dirt through top of fins, then use a plastic cable tie and feed it from underside through to top to straighten fins

Hatch intercoolers are like tinfoil ffs

 

Yeah they are are way too soft, bit silly really if you ask me but there must be a reason for it. Is it a straight enough job to remove?? Are there any prior things i need to do before physically taking it out?

 

I did mine a while back and about 1mm off each fin broke off, not off every fin, i used a metal tooth pick looking thing, and did it that way, very boring.

Then resprayed the intercooler while i covered the fins as i didn't want then coated in loads of pain, then i just gave a light coat of paint over the fin area, seems to have worked ok.

 

first i used fuel(gasoline) then brake cleaner, my opinion only brake cleaner is good


spray inside brake cleaner, close inlet and outlet and shake it 3 or 4 time

 

To be fair thats a first class job

 

Cheers. I did it to my old bugeye , and a mates Blobeye. So easy to do and makes such a difference to the engine bay . And i thought the hatch was missing the "STI" stencil. The original paint on them seems to flake off really easy and makes it look keek.

 

this might be a stupid question but is it possible to polish top face of I/c ?? or is it a paint only job ??

 

remember straightening the fins on my early classics with an internal clean with brake cleaner-always noticed more pick up in the midrange after doing this.

 

Had the same problem - rear half of the intercooler fins all flattened.

Having straightened them out I fitted this to make sure some air was redirected to the front half...

 

What is 'weird' is that all cars freshly imported from Japan that I have seen have IC that look like new!

 

I ended up sacking all these ideas off and purchased a brand new intercooler from Subaru for the sum
of £712.00.



gold heat reflective wrapped it and stuck on a subi mods air splitter in black. The thing looks insane

 

712cquid!!!!!! Youre crazy lol

 

Haha I know. But it's totally transformed the engine bay. Besides the fins on mine were just irreparable

 

Quality!