What I thought was going to be a 4-6 hours spent installing the ATM intercooler, fenderwell intake, and doing an oil change on my 2015 Abarth Auto turned out to be closer to an 11 hour job just installing the intercooler. Below is just some feedback and experience. I apologize in advance for the fragmented post, I am writing down as things come to mind.
The intercooler is very well made and the fit is very precise, leaving little room for error (both on ATM as well as the installer). I watched as many videos as possible before doing the install on bumper removal and intercooler install and everything seemed pretty straight forward. Just like house projects, nothing is every straight forward or easy.
The bumper took a little more finagling with than I would care to admit. The side bumper clips just didn't want to let go of the bumper. It wasn't difficult, just a little tedious and ate more time than I would have preferred.
The stock intercooler removal was a bitch. There is just no room, especially with the automatic. The videos showed the pipes coming out fairly easily. Well, the stock intercoolers and the passenger side piping wasn't too much of an issue, but the driver side was a pain. It looks like the automatic transmission takes up more room than the manual and I just could get one of the metal pipes out. After playing with it for an hour or so, I decided to loosen the radiator by unbolting the lower support mounts. This gave me maybe an extra inch, just enough room to get the final metal pipe out. It was either that or taking a dremel to cut off the welded on support braces that are on the pipes (that's what kept getting hung up on.
The main video that ATM refers to for instructions screwed me up at first because the labeling of the intercooler hoses and their locations, in mind my, are either wrong or confusing. The cold pipe they referred to and showed a picture of they referenced as being on the passenger side. That's wrong and the one they showed actually goes on the driver's side. Which is also why the hose was coming up a few inches short when I was doing a test fit. The other pipe they mention and show (but don't state what side) is the one that goes on the passenger side and connects directly to the turbo. This confusion, as well, ate up some time.
Removal of the cinch clamp on top of the hose on the drivers side was not working for me and its location prevented getting any torque on it with a screw driver to pop. I ended up having someone hold the radiator hose that sits above it out of the way and using a Dremel with a flex attachment to cut the clamp off...carefully.
Note, make sure you have all your clamps on the hoses prior to installing them. One of the clamps is smaller than the others and will not slide on from the bottom. This is the one that goes up towards the top where the hose connects to the turbo. Since it was already a pain getting the hose to slip on the turbo, I wasn't about to remove it to slide on the clamp. I tried disconnecting the clamp so I can wrap it around the hose from the top, but the ones that ATM provide (which are very nice) require a lot of work and room to feed the clamp back into the worm gear, making it near impossible to do what I had planned. So for that one connection, I decided to reuse one of the clamps Fiat used on their hoses since it opened up large enough to slip on from the bottom yet closes tight enough to get a secure grip over the hose.
I recommend getting your hoses installed first on the top ends before installing the intercooler.
Speaking of hose installation, I couldn't get the top parts of the hoses to sit completely flush on the turbo nor on the plastic/metal piping going to the throttle body. On the turbo connecting hose, there is an alignment pin getting in the way from a flush fit, creating roughly a 1/4 inch or less gap by my estimates. My attempts to remove said alignment pin were not successful. I initially didn't want to notch the hose out until I confirmed it was at the correct angle. But since the hose was such a pain to get to slip on over the flared tip of the connector, I wasn't about to try and remove it after verifying fitment to notch it out of concern I was going waste another hour, or few, trying to get it back on. There is a small pipe that is right next to it that doesn't help with installation. Luckily, the connection with flared tip is long enough where I don't think I have to worry too much about the slight gap there. There is still plenty of room to get a clamp on the hose past the flare tip to ensure a good seal. It doesn't seem to effect connection on the bottom end where it connects to the intercooler. I had the same issue with the hose connecting to the plastic/metal pipe that goes to the throttle body. I don't think there is an alignment pin on that, but I don't recall if there is a built in alignment notch that was keeping me from being able to make the hose sit flush. I tried and tried to get it to sit flush, but the best I can do is get it close enough where there is roughly a 1/4 inch or less gap by my estimates. Again, there was room to get a good seal and clamp on it, so I would like to think to myself that it will be fine. Again, it didn't effect fitment on the bottom end where it connects to the intercooler.
Like I did with my intake, I used radiator hose grease to help lube up the hose and connection points in hopes to make connecting them easier. While it helped a little, it didn't do me too much good since most of my fitment challenges were due to space constraints. And even then, once they were on, they did not want to rotate easily, making it a bit of a pain to initially line them up to where the intercooler connections would be at. Luckily, the hoses are pretty flexible and my initial alignments were pretty close to where they needed to be.
The metal used for the front bumper is tough stuff. I broke two drill bits on it (one titanium coated, the other black oxide). And, yes, I am thankful I put a block of wood behind the bumper because when one of the bits snapped I went straight to the radiator, which the wood prevented me from hitting with the drill. The drill bit size you need is not 9/64" like ATM says, but 1/4" like the video says. I can confirm this. I started out small and kept working larger and larger until I could verify the proper hole size. And its a good thing the metal bumper is very strong, because where I measured and drilled, I have maybe 1/8" or less of metal between the bottom of the hole and the end of the bumper.
Speaking of drilling the hole, I was off in my measurements with where the hole should have gone. Even after measuring twice. The reason being is I measured where the intercooler was in front of the radiator and tried to get it centered. I managed to accomplish this. However, by doing so (for me, anyways), it made the space where those connects to the intercooler on the passenger side too close the radiator hose. To the point where I wouldn't be able to get the clamp on without some serious rubbing against the radiator hose. So I had to shift the intercooler down a little (which is possible thanks to ATM making the slots on the underside of the intercooler notched out for left/right movement). But as doing so, my bracket now didn't align perfectly square with the hole I drilled and the amount of movement is too small to just drill another hole. So my bracket is secured kind of off angle, but it works and isn't visible with the bumper on. The lock nut was a smart move by ATM, and it does help keep things secured.
Speaking of the support bracket, be careful with the hex bolt ATM supplies you. It doesn't take much before it wants to start rounding out.
The installation video says to put a piece of cardboard between the intercooler and radiator when lining things up. I didn't do this. Some of it was just being forgetful, the other was noticing that ATM put some nice padding strips on the back of the intercooler which I felt did pretty much the same job that the cardboard would have (unless I am missing something here?). Also, when the bottom of the intercooler is bolted to the underside of the car, there isn't much front/back leeway those slots give you. So I am not sure if the cardboard trick is really necessary or not, unless it was just an added safety measure (like the block of wood) and not so much for alignment.
Here's hoping I got all the clamps on tight enough. I've never used constant torque hose clamps before, so the feel you get from them when tightening isn't the same as a regular worm drive clamp. At least plain worm driven clamps, you get more resistance in the feel as you tighten them and the appearance around the hose is more noticeable. With these constant torque clamps, I didn't notice an increase in resistance as I tight them, but you can tell they were getting secure if you tried to move them with your hand. So it was hard to tell when they are tight enough and not too tight. Plus, since they are thicker than most other hose clamps, the hoses don't appear to deform like regular clamps do. Maybe it was just long hours I spent on the car, but I felt like the constant torque clamps worm/bolt you would turn gives a feedback of "slippage" when it gets pretty tight. I'm not saying that those clamp itself starts slipping and loosening up, just that the bolt you turn "skips" or "slips" a little like that of a torque wrench. Maybe it was just my socket wrench. The clamps, after tightening, definitely don't shimmy, spin, or slip after I tightened the and the hoses don't look deformed. So that gives me some "good feels" that they are secured.
I did a few test runs last night to make sure I didn't get any CELs or leaks. I first started out easy and light, gradually working my way to pushing the card harder and harder. At full bore, going full throttle from a stop in Sport mode with ESC off and the car in auto, I got up to about 80mph and hitting near or at redline before each gear shift. The car pulled great and hard, I didn't notice any dropped boost, and there certainly weren't any CEL's. So I think I am off to a good start. I'm looking forward to how it runs in the long term and do hope the benefit it provides over the stock intercooler when it comes to performance and reliability (both from an intercooler/leakage standpoint as well as on the turbo's workload). The stock design is just crazy. So many places for leaks, so much plumbing to have to "fill up". I can see how that can make the turbo work harder than it needs to. Oh, and those air scoops attached to the stock intercoolers catch so much crap and do not clean out easy. With this intercooler being front and center, it should be easier to clean.
All in all, the steps you need to take to remove and install the intercooler are very straight forward. I just wish the execution was just as easy. It's really a space constraint issue that is the challenge. An extra inch here, an extra inch or so there would have gone a long way in making this install a lot easier and quicker. That is where I burnt a lot of my time, trying to reach into tight spots or not having enough room to put enough torque on something. But that's what I get for owning a tiny car...tiny spaces to work with.
It's a shame I didn't get to installing the intake as well like I planned, but I guess it will have to wait another day. Here's hoping it doesn't take as long.
The intercooler is very well made and the fit is very precise, leaving little room for error (both on ATM as well as the installer). I watched as many videos as possible before doing the install on bumper removal and intercooler install and everything seemed pretty straight forward. Just like house projects, nothing is every straight forward or easy.
The bumper took a little more finagling with than I would care to admit. The side bumper clips just didn't want to let go of the bumper. It wasn't difficult, just a little tedious and ate more time than I would have preferred.
The stock intercooler removal was a bitch. There is just no room, especially with the automatic. The videos showed the pipes coming out fairly easily. Well, the stock intercoolers and the passenger side piping wasn't too much of an issue, but the driver side was a pain. It looks like the automatic transmission takes up more room than the manual and I just could get one of the metal pipes out. After playing with it for an hour or so, I decided to loosen the radiator by unbolting the lower support mounts. This gave me maybe an extra inch, just enough room to get the final metal pipe out. It was either that or taking a dremel to cut off the welded on support braces that are on the pipes (that's what kept getting hung up on.
The main video that ATM refers to for instructions screwed me up at first because the labeling of the intercooler hoses and their locations, in mind my, are either wrong or confusing. The cold pipe they referred to and showed a picture of they referenced as being on the passenger side. That's wrong and the one they showed actually goes on the driver's side. Which is also why the hose was coming up a few inches short when I was doing a test fit. The other pipe they mention and show (but don't state what side) is the one that goes on the passenger side and connects directly to the turbo. This confusion, as well, ate up some time.
Removal of the cinch clamp on top of the hose on the drivers side was not working for me and its location prevented getting any torque on it with a screw driver to pop. I ended up having someone hold the radiator hose that sits above it out of the way and using a Dremel with a flex attachment to cut the clamp off...carefully.
Note, make sure you have all your clamps on the hoses prior to installing them. One of the clamps is smaller than the others and will not slide on from the bottom. This is the one that goes up towards the top where the hose connects to the turbo. Since it was already a pain getting the hose to slip on the turbo, I wasn't about to remove it to slide on the clamp. I tried disconnecting the clamp so I can wrap it around the hose from the top, but the ones that ATM provide (which are very nice) require a lot of work and room to feed the clamp back into the worm gear, making it near impossible to do what I had planned. So for that one connection, I decided to reuse one of the clamps Fiat used on their hoses since it opened up large enough to slip on from the bottom yet closes tight enough to get a secure grip over the hose.
I recommend getting your hoses installed first on the top ends before installing the intercooler.
Speaking of hose installation, I couldn't get the top parts of the hoses to sit completely flush on the turbo nor on the plastic/metal piping going to the throttle body. On the turbo connecting hose, there is an alignment pin getting in the way from a flush fit, creating roughly a 1/4 inch or less gap by my estimates. My attempts to remove said alignment pin were not successful. I initially didn't want to notch the hose out until I confirmed it was at the correct angle. But since the hose was such a pain to get to slip on over the flared tip of the connector, I wasn't about to try and remove it after verifying fitment to notch it out of concern I was going waste another hour, or few, trying to get it back on. There is a small pipe that is right next to it that doesn't help with installation. Luckily, the connection with flared tip is long enough where I don't think I have to worry too much about the slight gap there. There is still plenty of room to get a clamp on the hose past the flare tip to ensure a good seal. It doesn't seem to effect connection on the bottom end where it connects to the intercooler. I had the same issue with the hose connecting to the plastic/metal pipe that goes to the throttle body. I don't think there is an alignment pin on that, but I don't recall if there is a built in alignment notch that was keeping me from being able to make the hose sit flush. I tried and tried to get it to sit flush, but the best I can do is get it close enough where there is roughly a 1/4 inch or less gap by my estimates. Again, there was room to get a good seal and clamp on it, so I would like to think to myself that it will be fine. Again, it didn't effect fitment on the bottom end where it connects to the intercooler.
Like I did with my intake, I used radiator hose grease to help lube up the hose and connection points in hopes to make connecting them easier. While it helped a little, it didn't do me too much good since most of my fitment challenges were due to space constraints. And even then, once they were on, they did not want to rotate easily, making it a bit of a pain to initially line them up to where the intercooler connections would be at. Luckily, the hoses are pretty flexible and my initial alignments were pretty close to where they needed to be.
The metal used for the front bumper is tough stuff. I broke two drill bits on it (one titanium coated, the other black oxide). And, yes, I am thankful I put a block of wood behind the bumper because when one of the bits snapped I went straight to the radiator, which the wood prevented me from hitting with the drill. The drill bit size you need is not 9/64" like ATM says, but 1/4" like the video says. I can confirm this. I started out small and kept working larger and larger until I could verify the proper hole size. And its a good thing the metal bumper is very strong, because where I measured and drilled, I have maybe 1/8" or less of metal between the bottom of the hole and the end of the bumper.
Speaking of drilling the hole, I was off in my measurements with where the hole should have gone. Even after measuring twice. The reason being is I measured where the intercooler was in front of the radiator and tried to get it centered. I managed to accomplish this. However, by doing so (for me, anyways), it made the space where those connects to the intercooler on the passenger side too close the radiator hose. To the point where I wouldn't be able to get the clamp on without some serious rubbing against the radiator hose. So I had to shift the intercooler down a little (which is possible thanks to ATM making the slots on the underside of the intercooler notched out for left/right movement). But as doing so, my bracket now didn't align perfectly square with the hole I drilled and the amount of movement is too small to just drill another hole. So my bracket is secured kind of off angle, but it works and isn't visible with the bumper on. The lock nut was a smart move by ATM, and it does help keep things secured.
Speaking of the support bracket, be careful with the hex bolt ATM supplies you. It doesn't take much before it wants to start rounding out.
The installation video says to put a piece of cardboard between the intercooler and radiator when lining things up. I didn't do this. Some of it was just being forgetful, the other was noticing that ATM put some nice padding strips on the back of the intercooler which I felt did pretty much the same job that the cardboard would have (unless I am missing something here?). Also, when the bottom of the intercooler is bolted to the underside of the car, there isn't much front/back leeway those slots give you. So I am not sure if the cardboard trick is really necessary or not, unless it was just an added safety measure (like the block of wood) and not so much for alignment.
Here's hoping I got all the clamps on tight enough. I've never used constant torque hose clamps before, so the feel you get from them when tightening isn't the same as a regular worm drive clamp. At least plain worm driven clamps, you get more resistance in the feel as you tighten them and the appearance around the hose is more noticeable. With these constant torque clamps, I didn't notice an increase in resistance as I tight them, but you can tell they were getting secure if you tried to move them with your hand. So it was hard to tell when they are tight enough and not too tight. Plus, since they are thicker than most other hose clamps, the hoses don't appear to deform like regular clamps do. Maybe it was just long hours I spent on the car, but I felt like the constant torque clamps worm/bolt you would turn gives a feedback of "slippage" when it gets pretty tight. I'm not saying that those clamp itself starts slipping and loosening up, just that the bolt you turn "skips" or "slips" a little like that of a torque wrench. Maybe it was just my socket wrench. The clamps, after tightening, definitely don't shimmy, spin, or slip after I tightened the and the hoses don't look deformed. So that gives me some "good feels" that they are secured.
I did a few test runs last night to make sure I didn't get any CELs or leaks. I first started out easy and light, gradually working my way to pushing the card harder and harder. At full bore, going full throttle from a stop in Sport mode with ESC off and the car in auto, I got up to about 80mph and hitting near or at redline before each gear shift. The car pulled great and hard, I didn't notice any dropped boost, and there certainly weren't any CEL's. So I think I am off to a good start. I'm looking forward to how it runs in the long term and do hope the benefit it provides over the stock intercooler when it comes to performance and reliability (both from an intercooler/leakage standpoint as well as on the turbo's workload). The stock design is just crazy. So many places for leaks, so much plumbing to have to "fill up". I can see how that can make the turbo work harder than it needs to. Oh, and those air scoops attached to the stock intercoolers catch so much crap and do not clean out easy. With this intercooler being front and center, it should be easier to clean.
All in all, the steps you need to take to remove and install the intercooler are very straight forward. I just wish the execution was just as easy. It's really a space constraint issue that is the challenge. An extra inch here, an extra inch or so there would have gone a long way in making this install a lot easier and quicker. That is where I burnt a lot of my time, trying to reach into tight spots or not having enough room to put enough torque on something. But that's what I get for owning a tiny car...tiny spaces to work with.
It's a shame I didn't get to installing the intake as well like I planned, but I guess it will have to wait another day. Here's hoping it doesn't take as long.
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