Thread: Bigger intercooler Def Td5

Originally Posted by Benny_IIA

Is yours a ext nose though?

Because when i had the ase unit fitted to my previous td5 (flat nose with aus fit ac) the ase cooler just rubber on the support braces.

So there was no way of fitting ac.

Hey Benny, I bought it off you, remember LOL. Not sure if mine is ext nose, I dont think so, but is a 2000 with Aust air con. I knew it would take some minor mods. Took a bit of mucking around with the rubber mounts, but will fit. The biggest issue I came across was the latch. Trimming off about an inch of the latch solved that. It was a tight fit however. I have enough room below to fit a trans cooler when I get a chance and spare cash.
Then fitted twin thermo fans as well. This took cutting and re-mounting of strut supports and that pushed out the grill nose ever so slightly but nothing really noticeable.
Cheers
CraigE

Originally Posted by CraigE

Hey Benny, I bought it off you, remember LOL. Not sure if mine is ext nose, I dont think so, but is a 2000 with Aust air con. I knew it would take some minor mods. Took a bit of mucking around with the rubber mounts, but will fit. The biggest issue I came across was the latch. Trimming off about an inch of the latch solved that. It was a tight fit however. I have enough room below to fit a trans cooler when I get a chance and spare cash.
Then fitted twin thermo fans as well. This took cutting and re-mounting of strut supports and that pushed out the grill nose ever so slightly but nothing really noticeable.
Cheers
CraigE

yeah i remember..... Yeah the biggest thing is the latch.

So yours fits with the flat nose and ac con...

The latter long nose cars dont have the struts and the cone is made from fiberglass .

Just reading this thread in the last couple of days wondering if the Alli Sport intercooler that just arrived would fit in my TD5 Defender with aircon and a flat nose.
The answer is.....no
The ASE version in Australia is the same height as the original, only thicker so it fits fine. The Alli Sport one extends pretty much all the way to the bottom and is about double the size of the ASE one.
It fouls on the airconditioning pipework at the bottom.
It is going in still though.
It needs to be spaced forward by 33mm to clear everything which meant "adjusting" the existing brackets and making up some adapters to suit the rest of the mounting points, which is almost done now. The braces that go from the bonnet lock down also have to go so we will make some sort of bracing to make that more of a box section and regain the strangth again, but that will be tomorrows job.
The front grill also "just" fits back where it should.
Doing it the way I have had to means that I could have fitted the non aircon version in.
If anyone is interested in what needs doing I will take some pics

If anyone wants a fibreglass extended nose cone off the later TD5s, I have a brand new one here I ended up not using when I repaired my TDi. Just drop me a PM - they aren't cheap to buy and shipping from the UK adds a fair bit of cost too!


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Hi bitdist,
Thanks for the info, this is exactly the information I was asking for. I would really appreciate some photos to compare. I emailed allisport and they have asked me to send photos to see what the problem area is. My concern is the lower air con pipe as you explained.

Cheers Nino

My intercooler is now in !
It was a bit of a job but it can be done.....

Just to set the scene, the intercooler was an Allisport one for Defenders with airconditioners.
(very nicely made as well I must say)
(but not for australian spec airconditioners with Defenders with a flat nose)


I'll try and explain what I did with some pics.
This is the origonal intercooler on the left and the Allisport one on the right. It is a lot bigger and about double the thickness than standard. AFAIK the australian one is around the same size as the origonal but just a lot thicker, so there would be a fair difference between the 2 and I'm glad I got the bigger one in


You can see in the pic below that the aitcon condenser pipework sticks out a fair way and stops this intercooler from going anywhere near to fitting.


The bottom rail of the intercooler lines up with the bolt on the bottom pipe where the tape measure is. If the intercooler was a couple of cm shorter in height then it would only need to be spaced out about 20 odd mm instead of 33mm





Firstly I made some simple spaces for the bottom mount of the intercooler. I made a rectangular piece of metal with a nut welded to it that fitted under the plastic mount on the side of the radiator to give it a fair bit of support (you will see what I mean if you look at the mount) and then bolted down the bracket. The intercooler sits into this hole rather then the plastic hole on the radiator

In version 1 I simply spaced out the top mount as well (see photo below)and that was the basic mounts done





The side mounts that actually hold everything together had to then be modified to bring the mounting socket that holds everything down forward by 33mm. So we cut the bottom hald off and welded it back on 33mm forward (you can see the weld marks under the paint






This now meant that everything mounted OK.

Now we had to look at the bracket that goes across the top that the bonnet clips down into. We had to lose the support braces that go down on a 45 deg angle which made the top pretty weak which wasn't really that good. So we cut them up and rewelded them together and had them run parallel to the top underneath to act like a bridge and support the top. We welded on a plate on the ends that the 2 bolts go through as well. The other end is exactly the same




End result was about as strong as the normal braced one underneath so I was happy.

At this point we realised that I would have to trim a bit of metal off the top bracket as it hit onto the top brackets of the intercooler. I didn't really want to weaken it again so we cut the top of the brackets off the intercooler and simply made up so a z shaped bracket instead of the straight through spacer on the top and it was all happy again

I had to do a little trimming here and there to get the front on. You can see the pencil line of what I took off the back lip of the front panel to stop it hitting the intercooler, probably about 4mm and there was some other little bits but nothing hard about that


Things left do do:
1. See what needs doing to the bonnet catch and safety catch to make sure they dont hit the top of the intercooler
2. I bought some silicon intercooler hoses to replace the old rubber ones and they are shorter than the original. With the intercooler forward 33mm and the hoses shorter on the inlet side I will either have to put a bit of pipe int the bottom section of the hose to lenghen it or weld a bit more pipe on the existing inlet pipe (which is the egr removal type) - This is probably what I will do


The big advantage of this is that I can now get my cleaning wand down between the intercooler and the radiator to clean any mud and junk out without having to take anything off

So it is able to be done, but you need to want it to fit !

Hope that might help someone else