ST205 W2A intercooler on a gen 2 motor fit?

I have a st185 witha A2A intercooler and I have found a ST205 W2A intercooler. I know from some reading that the intercooler wont fit directly, what im wondering is if anyone has done this before and if so what needs to be done to make it fit.
 

grip-addict

Active member
The core fits with relative ease, it takes up the same amount of space as the 185 a2a core. The 185 throttle body inlet is smaller than the 205, so you will need to get a reducer coupler. I'm not sure if the turbo side needs a different one, it will depend on your turbo.

The pump is not hard to mount, there are a couple of places you can put it. Pretty common is to put it under/near the windshield washer reservoir. You'll need to wire up a relay to power it.

The heat exchanger is the big mod. It doesn't fit if you have the ac condenser installed, so you need to cut or entirely remove the crashbar and then create mounts for it. There used to be a third option of using the 185cs crashbar (smaller) but that will be hard to find nowdays.
 
grip-addict":xh8fwkto said:
The core fits with relative ease, it takes up the same amount of space as the 185 a2a core. The 185 throttle body inlet is smaller than the 205, so you will need to get a reducer coupler. I'm not sure if the turbo side needs a different one, it will depend on your turbo.

The pump is not hard to mount, there are a couple of places you can put it. Pretty common is to put it under/near the windshield washer reservoir. You'll need to wire up a relay to power it.

The heat exchanger is the big mod. It doesn't fit if you have the ac condenser installed, so you need to cut or entirely remove the crashbar and then create mounts for it. There used to be a third option of using the 185cs crashbar (smaller) but that will be hard to find nowdays.

Thanks man! So I only have the intercooler so ill have to source a pump and heat exhanger, I have a stock style hybrid turbo that fit into place without any issue.

I also wanted to know what the thing on the top of the intercooler with the two wires does.
 

underscore

Well-known member
That's the level sensor, it's just a float switch. You can wire it up to a warning light inside to be safe.
 
Is there a built in mechanic to see the water temp or is that something what will have to be added and if so what is the best way to ad a temp gage?
 

grip-addict

Active member
You'll have to add sensors. I've thought about this a bit lately, and I'd really like to see flow statistics to make sure the pump is even running. I lost an engine on my '90 when the 185cs pump failed, so you could say that I'm a bit paranoid about this sort of thing:)
I would think the best place to run sensors would be on one of the lines as close to the core as possible.

Anyways, on to the other issues:
For the heat exchanger, if you fancy your junkyard luck, others have managed to re-purpose a Fiat Cinquecento radiator.
My 205 h/e was leaking this summer, so I actually considered that before buying the core that gt4-play sells. The nice thing is that they also sell silicon hoses for the system, and they were pretty affordable @ ~65$ USD for the set. The factory routing involves a fair amount of bends and tight angles. There are normally some hardlines that help out with this, but if you pick up their silicon hose set and a couple of couplers, you can make it work without those hardlines pretty easily. The pipes and hoses are 22MM (7/8th inch) ID, so.. it's a pretty weird size to work with here in the states. I wasn't having much luck finding anything except couplers and just straight 7/8 in hose on amazon.

gt4-play also sells reman pumps, but I think they require a core. You could see how much they'd want without a core, tho. Otherwise, you could probably get a universal pump to work. I haven't looked into it yet, but it shouldn't be too difficult I think. You'll have to let us know if you have any success there.

best of luck!
 
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