Thread: Intercooler Upgrades

if your vehicle has air con, you have a problem as the condensor sits in front of the rad. most of the ones you have looked at will offer a replacement for the oe one, usually one thats the same size only more efficent. i looked into it for my 110 defender 300tdi WITH air con. the guys that fit my 3 inch mandrel bent exhaust, Tipan Xp, sugested a air to water intercooler, in line with the original, much more efficent. they have had alot of succes with these on fast FAST cars. it is proven tech. been around for a while. but any speed shop specializing in turbo's should be able to help you out. basicly use the best core you can get and make it as big as possible. DONT mount it out side the front of your car as it will be easy to damage.

cheers, serg

From what I've read water to air intercooling works better in stop/start speed situations, like around the city. The water to air setup has a more stable air temperature which makes "tuning" much easier. It is a seperate system so will only be effective if the whole of it works, the pump, the intercooler and the radiator. Without one of those parts there is no intercooling.

Air to air has benefits and limitations. In highway cruising, air inlet temperature falls much lower than the water setup due to effiecency and coolant (air)flow. Usually this gives an increase in engine performance from the more dense air stream. Problem is when in stop/start the intake temperature rises to a point the intercooler becomes ineffective due to reduced/no airflow, might as well not have it on there. So that's where problems arise in heavily boosted engines as they cannot cope with high intake temps, more so with petrols.

I think water to air would be a good option as it performs well in most situations, quite compact (the radiator for the system doesn't need to be that big) and compared to air to air much cheaper. Good chance you can use your existing intercooler converted to water setup to save on cost and should still be quite effective upgrade.

All you really need to know (and a lot you don't need to know) about intercoolers is here


Look in the Tech section under Intercoolers.



Paul [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif[/img]

Hi Volvo164
I have an air to water intercooler I got from a swapmeet for $20 that I intend to use as a hot water system setup.
I was going to fit it to our mitsi TRYTOO before its motor failed and I replaced it with an intercooled motor.
My main concerne in using an air to water intercooler would be that under heavy load(ie big hills) the coolant gets really hot and the intercooling effect is lost.
Whilst eating my nutrigrains this morning I was reading the extra mag that came with 4WD Monthly this month.There is a Jeep in there with a supercharger,it has a air/water intercooler but they have set it up with its own seperate cooling system which makes big sense.
Another option is to get a motor top air/air intercooler ala nissan/isuzu/mitsi and a bonnet air scoop.These also have a thermofan to suck air thru at low speed.There is no reason you cant run one of these and your standard intercooler,the total cooling area would add up to the same as quite a large intercooler.The cooler you can get that intake air the higher you can safely raise the boost pressure.An exhaust gas temp gauge is really needed to prevent piston meltdown.
Andrew

A friend fitted an aftermarket intercooler to his 130 300tdi. Reckons it's the best mod he's made (and he's got a few). Improved low-end torque by a long way, gains all the way through the rev limit. He's convinced me, and I've yet to drive his car with it!

RMP : what brand, what type, how much $, and where from????

cheers, serg

Howdy,
Thought i would give you all an update.
Today i pulled the intercooler and radiator out and cleaned them both.
I did not relise it would take so long to do what i did.
Anyhow, i pulled out the Intercooler and filled it up with petrol and let it soak. I reverse flushed the radiator and then had a look at the AirConditioning Condenser to find it was positioned in a position i thought was weird. It was mounted infront of the radiator as it should but it was mounted to the left as far as it would go. So it blocks the airflow to the Intercooler, and then if the Air con was on it would get hot and hot air would be blowing over the intercooler.... BAD....
So i moved it to the RHside as far as i could. ***** of a job as you have to make new brakets, move the twin fans and then the RH radiator assembly mounting braket would not fit as the condenser hoses were in the road. So i found an old radiator braket from one of my Volvo's and used that.
Last time i went out playing i went in and out a very orange clay water filled dam and it was nicely cooked on everything that got hot.
I used my Karcher and blasted out the fins of the Condenser, Radiator and Intercooler. Lots of crap came out. I'll use a blind next time
Intercooler. I emptied the petrol i placed in it and gave it a petrol rinse. it was not that dirty accually. i thought it would be nearly blocked. it had not been flushed for over 60,000km so i was happy.
I'm yet to drive it to see if the clean did anything. I doubt it, but who knows. I have to go and look at a intercooler tommorow and see if it is bugger than mine. If so i'll try adapting it to see what happens.
I also have to get made up a pipe from the turbo to intercooler, the one with the restriction in it to see if removing the restriction helps out.
I'll fill you all in.

Regards
Steve

Originally posted by uninformed
RMP : what brand, what type, how much $, and where from????

cheers, serg

Ditto - what Serg says.