Vortech Intercooler Upgrade Front Mount Black Focus ST 2013-2018

Turbos produce the boost that we all know and love. The same time, they also produce heat, which is why any good, efficient turbo system is going to use an intercooler. The job of the intercooler is to take the charge from the turbo and then cool it down before it goes into the intake. As we all know, cool air is going to equal horsepower. The problem is, as you make more boost, sometimes the intercooler can't keep up. The intercooler gets heat soak. Then it just passes hot air to your motor, which is going to cost you power.

The case of our Focus ST, we've made enough modifications now, the factory intercooler's just well past its efficiency range. Today, we're going to remove that and install this aftermarket piece from Vortech.

The Vortech is a larger core, so its going to do a much better job of avoiding the heat soak we're getting with our factory turbo. We want the Vortech because, actually, it's the easiest one to install. It requires no cutting, no drilling whatsoever, and you can actually keep the factory shutter system, which is not an option with many aftermarket intercoolers.

For this installation you need a jack and jack stands or a lift, 3/8 ratchet, 6" extension, T30 torx bit, T20 torx bit, 1/4" ratchet, 6" extension, 7mm socket, 10mm wrench, 8mm stubby wrench, flathead screwdriver or pick, flashlight, and safety glasses.

The first step to removing the factory intercooler is to remove the factory bumper cover. We start by removing these four clips located right here.You pull the center out ... pull the whole clip out.

The hood release is attached to the bumper cover, so you have to remove the hood release cable from the latch. Easy way to do this is push the latch over, you actually pull the cable right out the top. Just pop the clip off here.

Last part on top is your two torx screws on either end.

To start removing the bumper cover underneath, we have to start with this air deflector, followed by the belly pan. All are attached by torx head screws. Let's remove the seven screws that hold the lower fascia to the body.

Next are three screws located in the wheel well area on both sides. One's down at the bottom here. The other one's kind of hidden behind the bumper cover here. The third one is right inside there.

Once you have all your hardware removed, the last step to removing the bumper cover from the fender are these two little clips located on each side.

Once you remove all the hardware, the bumper cover's held on simply by clips. You want to start with the wheel well, pull it outward, and separate it from the front of the car. You have got to be extra careful with these tabs under the headlights. You can pull out enough and you can actually get a small screwdriver in there. Just lift up, making it much easier to pull it off. Make sure you don't forget to disconnect the fog lights before you pull the cover off.

This is a factor flapper system. With the Vortech intercooler, unlike some other ones in the market, you actually don't have to remove this. If you want to leave the factory system in place, you can leave this in place and install the Vortech behind it. In our case, we're looking for the maximum air flow. We're not worried about it, so we're going to remove it. Either way, you do have to remove it to install the intercooler.

Just like the rest of the front of your Focus, it's held on by T30 torx screws. I can slide if off the lower clips. Going to try the other way, you can see the flapper system itself.

Before I remove the flapper system were gonna start by disconnecting the plug located right over here on the side of the radiator support.

To make it easy to remove, we're going to unclip our bumper support.

The upper grill inlet has to come off, has a clip on each side. Just pop them free. The flappers are just slid into place. There's no hardware. So we're going to start with one corner. Get it up high enough to get it free; do the same thing on the other side. Once you have it free, let it rest on the factory intercooler. Start the factory intercooler moving by taking off these two tiny 8mm bolts located below the intercooler. You need a small wrench to get to these. They're kind of tight in there.

Now remove the pipes from the intercooler on both sides. That might take a little bit of work. We got to disconnect the pipes from the intercooler itself; I'm just going to shimmy them back and forth.

Before you remove the factory intercooler, make sure you disconnect the MAP sensor. There you go.

Before you put your factory intercooler aside, you want to make sure you remove the MAP sensor. That's going to transfer over to our new Vortech.

Reinstall it using the factory hardware. And it's ready for installation.

Start the install by reconnecting the MAP sensor. Get it up into place here. Make sure you can get it inside, so it's up underneath the factory bracket. Hose is connected on both sides, and we'll tighten them down.

Now you're going to supply the hardware. We connect our intercooler to the bottom of the radiator support. We basically have to put the nut up on top, and then thread the intercooler into it.

Because we're not planning on reinstalling the shutter system, we're going to take the harness and just tie it up out of the way.

That's pretty much it for installing the intercooler on the car. Now you just got to put back everything you just took off. In our case, like I said, we're not using the shutters. We're looking for maximum flow, both the radiator and intercooler, so I don't think they're necessary.

And your installation's finished.

The Vortech intercooler should help with heat soak. You can keep the inlet temperatures down on our Focus ST. Once we get our down pipe installed, we'll load up a new tune with our access port, head back to the Dyno and see what kind of power we're making. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more updates on our Focus ST project car.