Thread: How mount thicker intercooler?

Originally Posted by Finnius

Is anyone here running an an uprated intercooler for a 300TDi Disco?

I see a lot for sale on the internet that are 90mm and even thicker.

.... A lot of the cheap ones are just plain thicker cores...

Thanks!

I got one.
Not fitted yet.
No time(sometimes)
and too lazy(usually )

I've sized it up tho, and I reckon there's a 99.9% likelyhood you'd have to grind off(or some of) the LHD steering box bracket on top if the chassis rail. You can't easily see this bracket, but it's directly under the intercooler bottom hose and clamp(where it fits on to the intercooler).

Then you have to mod the rad/cooler frame so that the larger intercooler fits within the frame folds. The non tapered header tanks don't fit within some sections of the folder frame surrounds.
So what I also did was to get an aluminium frame to boot. Aluminium is not only lighter, but much more malleable to rejig it to fit as needed. (the original frame is steel).
I mangled the frame to suit the 'ebay' 90mm fat header I/C shape and it fits, but now it's a matter of rejiggering it a lot to make the radiator fit snugly too.
It's a bit of messing about, but being aluminium, it's easy to do with tools you probably have to hand(ie. mallet/sledge hammer )

Allisport have a 90mm thick I/C for sale too, and what I see in their images of it, the header tanks are tapered towards the most extreme ends of the header tanks, and I reckon they'd be a direct fit, without any need to mangle the rad/IC frame in any way.

(I think)I'm going to give up on making the Al frame fit both rad and I/C together properly, so my new plan is going to be to order the thicker aluminium frame from Allisport that fits the 90mm I/C better.

The way I'm seeing it at the moment is:
if you don't want to muck about too much get the allisport gear. lots of $, but I'm thinking more of a straight fit.
If you do opt for the much cheaper ebay 90mm I/C, also get an aluminium frame, as they're going to be a lot easier to hack and bash to make the I/C fit easily ..
But!.,. I still think that either way of those two options, that unused LHD steering box bracket on the left chassis rail may still need some grinding(and painting) to make sure you don't have interference issues.

hope this stage in my attempt helps your decision.

Thanks for your input!

Yeah i figured with the ebay 90mm ones that it would hit the little bracket at the bottom of the radiator fram that holds the bottom of the fan shroud in place...
I am keen to retain the fan shroud - are you planning on keeping the shroud?

If i was a millionaire i would get the Allisport alumium frame, uprated intercooler and uprated radiator in one hit and be done with it.

There is also some intercoolers that are the factory ~60mm thick but use bar and plate instead of tube and fin...

I guess the uprated Allisport one that they say has 50% more surface area is probably bar and plate...

I have the Allisport uprated IC, but it is designed to fit. Great investment.

Tom.

Originally Posted by Finnius

Thanks for your input!

Yeah i figured with the ebay 90mm ones that it would hit the little bracket at the bottom of the radiator fram that holds the bottom of the fan shroud in place...
I am keen to retain the fan shroud - are you planning on keeping the shroud?

If i was a millionaire i would get the Allisport alumium frame, uprated intercooler and uprated radiator in one hit and be done with it.

Yeah, if money was no object .. go for all the expensive goodies.
But by the same token, I will spend more on some stuff, as long as I'm fairly sure that that added expense will come back to me in terms of longevity.
That is, spending $500 for the 'same' item that you can get from ebay for $250 .. the $500 has to last 2x or more as long.

At the moment, I'm not using the fan shroud, as I broke it.
Was doing the harmonic balancer, took it off and put it aside. Gust of wind blew it over(standing upright leaning on fence) and I then stepped on it forgetting it was flat on the ground! It's only a clean crack and I could easily put it back in and use (say) duct tape on the crack .. I wanted to fix it properly before putting back in.
But in saying that, since having taken it off and not putting it back on again, car does seem to run a bit cooler than previously .. mainly with A/C on!
With A/C on on a 30°-ish day, 300 tdi would run at about 87-92° .. but now doesn't move past it's 83-85 standard running range.

The other thing I wanted to do at the same time as the 90mm I/C was to clean out the inlet manifold AND plumb in a provent type catch can so that it doesn't oil up(as much) again in the future.

About the fan shroud - does anyone else have any experiences with it running cooler with it off?

In theory, when the vehicle is stationary the fan wouldn't suck as much air through the radiators without the shroud directing the suction....
However when the vehicle is moving the shroud may not allow as much air to free flow through...

I am pretty sure the fan is really only for when he vehicle is stationary anyway - As on the highway the air rushing through is way more than the fan could ever provide?

Originally Posted by Finnius

....

I am pretty sure the fan is really only for when he vehicle is stationary anyway ...

and slogging through hard stuff. Increased engine load, but not much forward movement .. obviously the fan will be working double overtime.

Only recently I was also running my 300 Tdi without the fan (as well as the shroud).
Around town barely any noticeable difference in engine temp, maybe a degree or two at most.
But ambient temps were in the low 20's.
Strange thing was that warm up time was about exactly the same time/distance.
I have a set route that I use for getting about in my area and watch the temp gauge like a hawk on this route.
It gets to about 55°C in about 5-10 mins where I hit my first major stoppage. 4 stops up to this point but they're usually less than a min at each.
Without fan, on some occasions I had only got to about 53 or so, but about 55 was the norm too.
Then following a tram route(which is painfully slow) and lots of hold ups I hadn't seen over 85°C to the final point in that route without fan. 83° with fan.

On my regular freeway run to work which averages about 60-80 k/h in heavy traffic .. zero difference in temp.(as you'd expect).

Today pretty mild day on my freeway run to and back from work, temps are just a smidge lower than my normal 83.
It peaked at 82, and settled at 80 on the way to work in the morning(10° ambient) .. and on the way back it peaked and settled at 81.
My thinking for this at the moment is that a new water pump fitted yesterday could be helping a little.

A couple of days back went for a quick run out to a mini desert and back, and when I got home I noticed harmonic balancer was wobbly which had taken out the water pump and alternator.
Water pump had a constant leak from the weep hole(otherwise fine), and alt pulley had sheared and the pulley was basically doing nothing other than flop around wildly as the engine was running(all sorted now).
So the only difference for todays run as the new water pump and obviously coolant bleed. I use the same bleed sequence now(that I've found the great info on the easy way from this site), so I'm thinking at the moment the new water pump may be helping a little bit more.

With the fan shroud tho, as we're coming into the warmer weather I'm going to see how it goes before committing to refit it.

Thanks for all the info based on your experience.

I wonder why people say that the the 300TDi has an overheating problem?

From what you say it doesn't sound like they are prone to overheating - perhaps even the opposite (if you have driven around with no fan with no obvious consequences!)