Thread: Intercooler

Anybody seen these before? Haven't seen them pop up before. It's a company in oz. There's plenty of those cheap fleabay chinese copies around for next to nothing but this one seems more expensive and from a local distributor. The ad looks a bit like those cheap ones. wonder if they just bought a few of the cheapo ones and marked up the price by 300% or whether they are slightly better quality.

90MM Uprated Intercooler For Land Rover Discovery Defender 300TD 2.5 Turbo 94-98 356489872707 | eBay

Don't pay that kind of money for that thing!
From what I can see, it's the same Chinesium product that I have currently sitting in my kind'a sort'a about to be installed rad/IC/frame soon .. one day.

I got mine from an ebayer in Hoppers Crossing .. maybe 2+ years ago.
Also got a Chinesium rad(alloy) too and searching for a Al frame to go with it. Had issues with one off ebay, tried to get it modded to fit, but the idiots at the Aluminium engineering place two of the pieces I left them to mod!
Anyhow, finally committed to getting a Alisport frame for the larger IC, and then that all went balls up .. I reckon took close to 3 months for them to finally send me the right pieces, the right way around(seriously weird situation!)

Anyhow, frame/rad/IC now sitting idle in the small shed and not a lot of time to muck about an install it .. as I have work .. and a proper shed to build soon. And the not so hot summer we were supposed to have is over, so not a major priority for now to fit it all up.

So my IC, which for all intents and purposes looks pretty much 99.999% the same .. no QC sticker on mine .. I paid $200 from an ebayer in Hoppers.
I offered to pick it up too, and save them the cost of postage too, as I'm only 30 mins from Hoppers, but they declined the offer .. so my thoughts are that they aren't manufacturers, and possibly don't have a warehouse as such .. maybe just working out of their backyard.

This is not a negative commentary on the IC tho. From what I can see of it, it's well made, strong Al used, not just some flimsy cheapo half Rs'ed material.
Welding is OK, looks to be done by an apprentices hand, or someone in a rush to produce. ie. seen better, but doesn't anywhere as bad as my welding prowess!

For $200 .. I'd take the chance(remember yet to be fitted and tested) .. so I did exactly that(2 years ago) .. now just need to get shed done and get me out of the weather and off the gravel driveway to make D1 fixing upping less arduous.
For $800+ ... you'd be much better off with an Alisport version!(and get some change back)

***IMPORTANT NOTE*** to be mindful of with these, and I knew about it well beforehand tho.
This won't be a straight up replacement. The end tanks are larger, or over dimensioned than a straight out swap would be.
You need to grind out the LHD steering box bracketing on the LH chassis rail. Have a look on yours, down below and near the lower IC hose port. This has to be ground off/down/out or whatever, as the bottom end tank on these 90mm ICs will rub on the steering bracket there.
Also, it may be a struggle fit into the radiator/IC frame, as the seams on the end tanks protrude into the very small gap between std IC and rad. So what could happen is that the seam on the IC may rub into the copper rad and destroy it over time.
With that warning, you can see why I've had mine for over 2 years and still done nothing .. it's not a simple swap out(and my D1 is my daily).
All that doesn't mean don't get one tho. I reckon it may be worth the effort(dunno till fitted), but it will be a slight effort to fit.

Hope that helps.