New from the Mod Shop is a fitted brace support for the fiberglass box that the intercooler is mounted to. Kit includes the base support, special epoxy glue and rivets.

Below is a shot of the base and the crack that commonly happens to 250/260 crafts. This type of damage especially happens to Ultra’s used in endurance and offshore riding. The issue I have found is that the stock intercooler fills with water making it heavy. This combined with rough water conditions transfer alot of the shock effect to the base that is resting on fiberglass. This fiber glass will fatigue over time resulting in severe stress cracking of the base materials.

See Pic below. What you see in pink is the area that is commonly effected due to stress cracks. These will continue to grow and fatigue the base to a point of failure if not addressed. The red is the stock glue that needs to be removed to allow the new support to seat properly. Note, some do not have this glue section.

You will want to remove the motor if the cracks are bad enough. If no cracks are present then motor can stay installed. I chose to remove my motor to ensure I was able to get rivets into place to support the cracked areas. Later Ill show the method without removing the motor but first Ill show this way. Ill be doing it in three different boats. First is to remove the clue and the serial number plate.

The plate can easily be removed by simply using a flat head screw driver and hammer to tap it on one side closes to the motor. It will shoot off in one piece when done this way.

Here is a pic with the box properly prepped for the base support. Notice the glue is removed and so is the VIN plate. Be sure to sand the base box with some 80 grit sand paper to ensure the epoxy properly adheres to the stock base box. The brace is already prepepped for you.

Here is how I prepared mine for the epoxy. First I marked out the outline of the fitted support piece.

Once outlined I removed the fitted support and sanded the surface to be in contact with the epoxy. I know your looking at this wonderingwhere the cracks went, well this pic is of a new boat we are biulding into a race craft with a vary special engine.

Below is a pic of the base support piece along with the stock glue I removed with a hammer and flat head screw driver.

Next you need to prep the epoxy and spread it over the inner surface of the fitted support piece. I used a groved spreader to asure an even amount was left so that it would bond evenly.

Drop it into place and set your rivets.

Finally just bolt in your base plate and your finished.

Next to come is race results after a offshore race.

The support system works extremely well and as of today 8-28-09 the cracks have stoped and no further issues from the stock intercooler support.

Lee can be reached at 805-895-1380

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 5:14 AM and is filed under Mod Shop Intercooler Base Support. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.