Purpose
DESIGNED & BUILT TO BE THE BEST IN ITS CLASS - Good for ~450 WHP
An intercooler kit is an essential upgrade on any MR2 if one is serious about performance and fun. For our better performing premium kit, please visit our carbon fiber intercooler kit pages
Simple. Stunning. Aesthetically pleasing. Reliable. However, not all side mount intercooler kits perform the same for the MR2. Intake Air Temperatures (IAT) with OEM or aftermarket stainless steel/Aluminum pipes on an upgraded side mounted intercooler core setup can exceed 140-145F+ after 3 to 6 pulls when ran without proper axillary cooling parts and temperature alleviating solutions.
At these temperatures, one can expect engine to pull 30-70+ WHP worth of timing, enough to ruin all your fun and enjoyment. This is precisely why most MR2s starts to feel like its falling flat after 2-3 pulls. Fortunately, we have effective solutions for these problems so you can have all the fun with your MR2 throughout the whole drive without any limitations or feelings of falling flat, which ruins fun.
With all our solutions deployed, featuring heat insulating carbon fiber pipe technology and up to a total of 3 fans (one monster of an 9" with 800+CFM on the heat exchanger and 2x 12" engine bay cooling various components rendering pipes and intake manifold cold to the touch), we are currently seeing an average of 20-30F increase over ambient on the race track or on the streets with or without traffic! With our fully optioned out solutions, our customers are seeing as high as 520 WHP on the streets. You heard that right.
On the dyno with our carbon fiber intercooler kit, over 200+ pulls were performed. Multiple back to back pulls at 460 WHP utilizing 91 octane gas resulted in around 100-105F IATs with IAT sensor mounted on intake manifold (for accurate readings). On a day with 82°F ambient shop temperatures, multiple back to back pulls on a dyno at 450-480WHP yielded 113-125°F IATs with our fully decked out cooling solutions. Maxing out the tune/turbo, a maximum of 520WHP @ ~155°F IATs was achieved with B2B Dyno Pulls which is astounding on a side mounted MR2 intercooler as they are known to perform very poorly after 300-350 WHP. IATs would be lower when off of a stationary Dyno where air flow and cooling is limited and components are pushed to the limits.
- With stainless steel pipes, high performance can still be obtained when used with 800+ CFM spal fan and dual engine lid fans. Pipes/manifolds will be cold/cool to the touch with 2 12" fans on top. 400-450WHP is expected with significant temperature reductions.
- With carbon fiber pipes, will handle 450-500WHP with back to back pulls on the streets or drag racing without issues. For continuous circuit racing, we would recommend around keeping power levels around 400-450WHP.
The effectiveness/magic in our side mounted intercooler solutions is truly the dual 12" fan shroud along with the 800+ CFM fan setup. 2x 12" fans up top being an inch or less away to disrupt hot air underneath from heat soaking components as well as keeping the large section of pipes/intake manifold cool along with a powerful beast of a fan on the side to cool and fully penetrate the 4" thick IC core. With a relatively large surface area/section being literally cool to the touch and large temperature difference between components and charge air, the air inside has longer time to be cooled and at a faster heat transfer rate, further helping our cause.
Convective Heat Transfer Equation - Q=h⋅A⋅ΔT
Where:
- Q is the rate of heat transfer (in watts),
- ℎ is the convective heat transfer coefficient (in W/m²·K),
- A is the surface area of the intercooler pipe in contact with the air (in m²),
- ΔT is the temperature difference between the charge air and the intercooler pipe (in Kelvins or degrees Celsius).
Our Solution & How it works
GAME CHANGER - FEATURING EXCLUSIVE TOP NOTCH CF PIPES THAT OTHER COMPANIES ENVY.
Firstly, Carbon Fiber as a material is an excellent thermal insulator against heat as it features thermal conductivity values that is 10x-40x lower than aluminum and stainless steel respectively.
Why it matters? Our exhaust manifold temperatures can reach 1200F+, valve cover temperatures hover around 185-260F+ and intake manifold/throttle body/pipes are literally too hot to touch without burning your hand. Physic states, objects will become equilibrium in temperature with its surroundings through a mixture of heat conduction and radiation. Ultimately, every side mounted IC MR2s greatly suffers from heating of intake air temperatures as that air is forced to travel through a gruesome hot and long path before it reaches our engine cylinders. This also puts unnecessary extra stress into the side mounted heat exchanger.
For those who say "its a short path and heat soak doesn't matter because of air velocity", go check out the large temperature differences and watch the detailed video. Keep in mind, those results are for Intake side and pipes not placed directly above MR2 motor/exhaust manifold but the physics are the same and the results/temperature differences on a MR2 are significantly greater, especially when you factor in our 2x 12" engine lid fans cooling everything up top including the pipes and intake manifold.
https://youtu.be/rHXB4ljWHf4?t=1917
AIR FLOW OF SIDE MOUNTED FAN IS CRITICAL - NATURAL AIR FLOW VELOCITY THROUGH POORLY PLACED/DESIGNED SIDE VENT INTO HEAT EXCHANGER IS DREADFUL
Secondly, our optional 800+ CFM SPAL fan pulls large amounts of airflow through the thick 4" restrictive intercooler core cooling fins with brute power to the point where you can easily feel with your hand on the other side of the core. The other 2 fans we offer, we cant feel much if any air being pulled through which brings us to another inherent problem of 90s design and mid engine layout of MR2, that is the natural air flow velocity from small vent on the side is inadequate for penetrating through entire heat exchanger core when car is in motion even at highway speeds.
- Heat exchanger core actually sits quite some distance above the vent opening and at a large slanted angle. Imagine velocity of air flow when it has to fully twist 90 degrees twice to penetrate the core in such short distances. Not going to happen. Fortunately, our optional 800+ CFM air flow fan takes care of things
- Do most owners even have air re-directing block off plates installed?
DUAL 12" ENGINE LID FAN SHROUD - RENDERS ENTIRE TOP END OF THE ENGINE BAY, INCLUDING INTAKE MANIFOLD AND PIPES COLD/COOL TO THE TOUCH
Third and lastly, our dual 12" engine lid fan shroud helps significantly in reducing recovery times, and temperatures around the engine bay, including the heat soaked "too hot to touch" intake manifold/throttle body/pipes. The 2x 12" fans being literally an inch away from those various important components, forces massive amounts of cool ambient air directly to help cool everything nearby. The end result is many components in the engine bay are literally cool/cold to the touch while the motor is running, including top half of the entire intake manifold, both pipes, throttle body, your intake air filter and more. That is a huge temperature difference, from burning hot to touch to cold to the touch.
Many believe natural air cooling which goes from under the car and out of the engine lid is proper and the best method. We don't argue that hot air rises and it does but what actually happens is hot air from your motor and block rises and heats up your components. Don't believe us? That air flow is free - try it yourself - If your components aern't cool to the touch after, there is your answer.
Pipe Advantages
Pipe advantages
- Stainless Steel Construction
- Polished Surface for lower radiant heat absorptivity rate
- Rolled Bead for efficient hose coupler attachment
- Smooth pipe transitions for strong seal and hose connections
- Universal Interchangeable twist on BOV Flange System - Exclusive to MR2Heaven Pipes. (Easily twist on different flanges - OEM, HKS, Greddy, TIAL Blow off valve Flanges and our Blow off valve delete cap)
- Going BOV route and want option to run NO BOV? Not a problem. Click here, or check out our new twist on BOV delete cap
- Pipe also available with no BOV port
Intercooler Core Advantages
Intercooler Core Advantages
There has been at least 20+ different branded generic mr2 intercoolers on the market made by a dozen or more different manufactures all with different specifications, molds, jigs, blueprints, sizes, different internal cores, design, material, different QC and fitment issues throughout the past few decades. These intercooler cores are not made equally. Some cores are much smaller, many fit very poorly and some wont install at all, much less work with other attached components such as air block off/diverting plate, fan shrouds, pipes etc.
With that being said having come across major supply chain issues as well as numerous QC problems, we were fed up and have finally decided to improve on these cores by making our own for 2022+
- Our aluminum end tanks will be casted from our exclusive molds for repeatability and consistency.
- All components will be fitted in our exclusive jig before welding to ensure consistency and quality control
- We will be using the widest and largest intercooler core on the market coming in at 200mm width x 235mm length x 100mm thick.
- We have also shortened the inlet and outlet diameter lengths of the end tanks by around 10-12mm to allow more room for pipes to be adjusted by using space inside the silicone coupler, as well as to account for a rare minority of early 3SGTEs running into issues with the turbocharger compressor outlet being shifted very slightly from normal positions via the exhaust manifold offset positioning. Now there is significantly more room within the silicone hose coupler for pipe adjustments to clear obstacles such as strut braces and other pipes. This advantage is exclusive to MR2Heaven cores only
- We've also adjusted tolerances and positioning of our red and yellow mounting tabs to stick out past the 100mm thick core by 1.5mm only vs 4mm+ on the generic cores, especially when they randomly bend and weld tabs on (see our pictures of 3d scanned cores comparison). This also allows more room for adjustments, less gaps and better QC/consistency.
- A total of 14-16mm more room for pipe adjustment totalfrom the 2 design changes implemented above
- Our mounting tabs are made of thicker high quality aluminum, CNC machined (not bent like others) and will always remain in the same various locations. Other cores out there, their mounting tabs literally CRACK OFF over time.
- Intercooler core comes powder coated - Durable, clean looking and easy to clean.
Intercooler Kit Advantages
- Largest 9" Fan and lightweight aluminum shroud system (The biggest you can mount on this core to help maximize cooling)
- Our 9" shroud design is backwards compatible with SPAL branded fans for the highest flow if needed. We are also the only MR2 company to offer SPAL fans with our products as of Feb 8, 2022 (the date i am writing this sentence). From our own testing, our 800+ CFM extreme duty SPAL 9" fan upgrade flows around 48% more air than the budget common 9" fan out on the market (which we offer by default option for those on a budget). To properly utilize the full potential of your SPAL fan, we recommend using our dedicated wiring harness to properly power it. SPAL truly makes the best fans money can buy and we highly recommend it
- 3D Scanned intercooler core, computer aided design (CAD) block off plate and fan shroud helps divert proper and maximum air flow into the intercooler core from the side vent! This allows us to create components for our kit that fits exactly as designed utilizing every millimeter of surface area from intercooler core.
- We used the best options and quality of light weight materials. There is no gaps and holes and blocking of the actual intercooler core like some kits out on the market which were designed out of guessing and tracing cardboard templates. We used a $20k 3D Scanner to aid our design process.
- High Quality Constant Torque hose clamps ensures constant torque and helps prevent annoying popped hoses when compared to other clamps on the market. As far as we know as of 3/9/2021, we are the only vendor that offers this on our kits.
- High quality stainless steel hardware and high strength yellow zinc coated steel nylon lock nuts prevents rust and loose components under high vibration and loads, environmental factors and the most extreme use.
- Easily twist on different blow off valves with our universal BOV port system.
- As we design and produce every part including the intercooler core itself, fitment and QC is on point when used in conjunction with rest of our IC kit related components.
- With our unmatched attention to detail and numerous advantages due to our relentless pursuit for improvements, we are confident our parts are made to the highest quality, most consistent and that we offer the best performing side mount system on the market today, period.
- While other side mounted systems encounter heat soak with around 320-350whp, our fully decked out system with stainless steel pipes, 800+ CFM SPAL fan will handle 400+ WHP before reaching similar temperatures. Pair it with our dual 12" engine lid fans, for even lower temperatures!
- Track ready and proven (Suggest ~400WHP for circuit racing use, for lower temperatures as well as engine longevity with our 800+ CFM SPAL fan)
Includes, Fitment and Notes
INCLUDES
- A set of Stainless Steel Cold Pipe and Hot Pipe for any generation 3SGTE of your choosing
- Optional MR2Heaven Fully interchangeable Stainless Steel BOV Flanges (Easily Change between OEM, HKS, Greddy and TiAL and blow off valve delete blow off valve flanges)
- Lightweight 9" aluminum Fan Shroud Kit (Block Off Plate, Fan, Fan Shroud)
- Choice of high flow SPAL 9" fan upgrade or our normal 9" fan
- Aluminum Side Mount Intercooler Core
- Premium Constant Torque Hose Clamps (not your common cheap T-Bolt clamps)
- Set of MR2Heaven multi layered and reinforced silicone hose couplers
- Hardware Kit
FITMENT
- Fits all GEN2/3/4/5 3SGTE on bottom mount turbo (example, CT26, CT20B, most bottom mount turbo kits)
- Plug and Play Setup. No modifications needed!
NOTES
- This kit works extremely well with our dual fan shroud kit, significantly lowering air intake temperatures while possibly matching the SS theme with our mirror finished shroud. Click here
- Complete the SS Pipe collection with one of our 3 or 4" Intakes here
- OEM BOV flange works with OE GEN2/3 BOV, not OE GEN4 (That means you can throw a gen2/3 bov on a gen4 and it'll work, just cant throw a OE Gen4 BOV on the flange)
NEW OEM Twist on Blow off valve flange. HKS, Greddy, Tial also available.
Product Changes, Revisions & Improvements
Version 1.1 (02/11/2021) - BOV Delete twist on/off cap released
Version 1.2 (2/25/2022) - Added new SPAL 600 and 800+ CFM variant fans for 450WHP capability on SS pipes.
Version 1.3 (10/09/2022) - New Exclusive MR2Heaven intercooler cores - Increased 14-16mm of room for pipe adjustability/shorter inlet and outlet lengths, larger core, powder coated, better fitment and higher quality mounting tabs that are consistent and better placed
MR2 Experts - 20+ years of experience.
Largest MR2 Parts Collection in the World
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Sales@MR2Heaven.com
MR2Heaven
Since 2002, we've been working to improve almost every aspect of the Toyota MR2, whether it's restoring it to its former glory or increasing its performance, efficiency, or style.
Our team of experts offers a wide range of OEM and aftermarket parts, as well as our own unique designs and engineering that can't be found anywhere else. We're dedicated to providing the best products at great everyday low prices and supporting the Toyota MR2 community with high-quality products.
If you have any new ideas, let us know – we're always looking for ways to bring your vision to life. Thank you for choosing MR2Heaven for all your Toyota MR2 needs.