Intercooler? What? Why?

Do you know if you can buy them in a kit or something and fit D.I.Y.
If not where to get one fitted. Im in W.A
thanks

Dan

im not sure if you have autobarn in w/a same as repco ect but here in bendigo autobarn suplie heaps of diferent intercoolers.
cheers

Dan

Just bash intercooler into Google and you can get all sorts of gadgets.

They are often fitted with turbos so search for after market turbo people and see if they have them.

I think you would need a turbo first!!!!! and you will have to customise the air intake duct. Look at some factory fitted ones to see what's involved. Check out Toyota or Nissan or whatever. The intercooler is the gadget that see sticking out of the bonnet of the later Patrols.

Alan

Dan - you may be shocked to find out what they are worth...... expect to pay around $1,500 for starters.... and then you get to the good ones.

Maybe look around some wreckers. Pity they know what they're worth though.....

Yeah they are not cheep.

I know a bloke with a supercharged commodore who is about to put an intercooler on it. Why= because he is pushing the supercharger from 12 to 18PSI boost. The cost of the Intercooler installed is $3000 now that’s not cheep.

Ask yourself is it required as if you are only running factory setting the power increase with a intercooler will be very minimal.

Alan, i've got a 2.8td rodeo, from what i've heard about the power increase it sounds like a good thing! Just looking into it, the price , hassles etc.
thanks
Dan

Dan,
an intercooler on a 2.8 is a wonderful thing. If I have been driving at 110 km/h with the cruise control on, and slow down to 60 km/h remaining in 5th gear, when cruise is re-engaged (still in 5th from 60), she pulls like a bloody train. Putting the intercooler on was the best I've ever done to me 2.8.

Cheers,

Dion.

Dion, cant see how an intercooler would make stuffall if any difference in the situation you describe. At those low revs I would have thoiught that even putting your foot down there would be almost no boost until the revs picked up a fair bit. In which case the intercooler would be doing nothing. Intake airflow only heats up when boost is being produced, and there isnt much until boost gets to 10psi or more really?

Dion's car is most probably still pulling 1600 to 1800 revs at 60km/hr in 5th, which is where the turbo starts spooling up. So if there is heat from the turbo compression, the intercooler is making a difference, especially as it gets to 70 or 80km/hr. Sound right?

bloody turbo's...dont work till they start spinning ...and when they do they over-run.....:-)

now, positive displacement blowers dont do that...all extra power is available even at idle

At 60 km/hr in fifth gear, engine is doing 1720 rpm, already in it's power band so the turbo is pushing a reasonable amount of air into the engine. When cruise is re-engaged or foot stomped at those revs, there turbo has no catch up to do. The before and after the intercooler fitment certainly proves quicker acceleration. (the intercooler takes five minutes to remove and less than five minutes to re-instate turbo to inlet manifold pipe).

Cheers,
Dion.

Trying to work out why you would go to a water intercooler?
Doesn't this put more load on the engine radiator?
I suppose you could go for a larger water pump and radiator to dispense the extra heat. Seems a bit crazy, transfering the heat to water, then to air any way.
From memory, the early tubocharged subarus (pre WRX) had this arrangement and it was always causing radiator and cooling system problems. They ended up going air cooled in the WRX.
If intercooler temp is a problem, and you don't want a bigger intercooler, why not do what my 2.8l pajero has, and put a fan behind the intercooler with a thermostat? The fan comes on at low speed and temps above 25 to 30 deg C ambient when the engine is working hard.

unless it has own water circuit? as the water leaving the radiator would be warmer than ambient?...would'nt it?

or does he mean water injection (atomised) into ....this is a common method of keeping the turbo discharge cooler.

A water (glycol) intercooler is an independant system with its own mini radiator. Does not utilise the engine cooling system at all.

A water/air (glycol) intercooler is more benificial at lower speeds than an air/air but can be more expensive (4wd systems have one for $1600). Air/air can be cheap and nasty to expensive but efficient. There is a lot of engineering know how to correctly match an intercooler to a turbo.

If you look on ebay there are a huge number of intercooler available and most quite cheap as well. Typically you can pick one up for around $300 but then you have to mount it and then plumb it in. The plumbing is not cheap and can cost as much if not more than the intercooler due to the use of custom bent pipe and silicon joiners.

If you do your research then you will find the equations that help determine things like airflow and thermal efficiency of radiators so you can source an intercooler that will best suit yout setup.

There is no doubt that an intercooler is a great addition with gains of around 10-25% typically but if you have a mechanical diesel then tuning it properly and increasing boost will yield far better gains. If an electronic diesel then rechipping or piggyback computer.

Regards
David

Very nice :)

Where did the airbox go?

air filter goes behind left headlight, they use the precleaner type from either GQ or GU.

You should see some of the IC Andrew makes for the gino crowd in their skylines etc.. MMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hmmm, I don't know where image number 2 has gone, I'm getting an error report, I'll try again.
Chrispy, it uses the standard GU air filter assembly, the plumbing for that is the large black tubing going forward on the passenger side.
Regards Andrew.

[ View Image]

So, they use a cylindrical filter in what WAS the cyclone off the inner LHS guard?

Whoops - I got some of the old lag going here. :( Sorry

Yep - I get it.

Tell you what - I'd give my left one to be able to weld alloys like that. Beautiful job. Bet Gino appreciates the quality :)

Can u make me one? pleeeeez!!

image #2 is missing the G off JPG

On another subject, I found that blue air compressor hose get's too hot under bonnet and will eventually let go. (burst). I find 10 Bar High Pressure 3/8th fuel line much better and fit's all the standard BSP connectors.

looks nice Andy, good shroud as well, have you got a slimline thermo under it, or just using ram air flow through a bonnet scoop ?

What ballpark coin for that unit ?

cheers Brad

Thanks for the comments Brad. It isn't setup with a thermo fan, the shroud underneath is a bit close for one to fit. It's a copy of DTS's intercooler except I'm using a thicker core and a better constructed core custom made for me by Adrad radiators in Adelaide. This is the 2nd one I've built for a GU and it uses the Nissan scoop and a seal made by DTS (damned expensive bit of rubber there). I haven't really thought of building them as a business it's just something that interests me and as I'm a specialist Tig Welder it's something I enjoy doing.
I'd really like to build a water to air intercooler as a project, doing away with having to cut holes in bonnets and Adrad build this absolutely beautiful core for water to air applications. I have no idea what that core would cost yet though. They use the same core for oil coolers and has been pressure tested to over 500 psi, more than adequate methinks.
Regards Andrew.

Cool mate, it looked like a quality core from the pics, have you checked out the Purple Pig for a price on making up a suitable seal instead ?? they do heaps of custom moulded gear and stock a massive range of rubber seal extrusions .

I take it you have checked out PWR's range of barrell coolers and heat exchangers with pumps etc. good quality gear. Is this similar to what adrads core looks like or is theirs a flat core like the Vortec air/liquid exchangers.

I keep looking at the various oil/fuel & oil/air coolers on the turbines at work but they arent big enough for auto use :-((

see ya Brad

Brad, check out water to air intercooling
This is the best info you can find on water to air intercooling anywhere. Also check out the water to air setup on Heath Lawson's GU ute on the same page. See their 1st version and then their new one. That is the core I would like to use but I wouldn't go as far as the custom inlet manifold/plenum mods they have gone to. Heath's truck is putting out nearly 200 k/Watts at the wheels on a TD 42 diesel, absolutely stunning.
I had a look at Purple Pigs cattle dog but it doesn't seem to have anything suitable for what I needed and the DTS seal was a moulded seal as well.
I'm not a big fan of PWR's water to air barrel units as their shape is very inefficient to maximise the number of tubes through the core. Also the Adrad cores are much better built in my opinion (I've built intercoolers using both PWR and Adrad) That being said, I prefer PWR's radiator cores over Adrad's.
Regards Andrew.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm doughnuts.....

Some great gear on there Andrew, must be a fairly impressive fuel pump feeding that beast!!

They certainly go all out on the r&d and it shows with those sorts of results.

Look out if i ever come into the cash to trick up my baby, i'm coming your way LOL :-))

see ya Brad

hey hey bugga
just reread the thread and noticed your not that close to sydney....... oooops, but they have done jobs for interstaters previously, a couple being from perth.