Intercoolings (water / air)

[dieselboy]

I'm gathering sources to make some modifications to the truck. One of these is some kind of intercooler. I used the search function and became distracted, when I eventually came to I found little information regarding this. Although some key points raised by Vince with regards to ECU and retro fitting a intercooler where there is not supposed to be one.

In any case, I began looking into a water cooled intercooler. I thought these were just usual intercoolers but also had water flow, Looking on ebay it looks as though they are purely cooled by water?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHARGECOOLER-L...item5d2f0e53f5

People that have fitted them, how did you go about scoops, pipework etc?

[BigBobE]

Core size 260*115*110
76mm /3" inlet / outlet
Good for over 700 BHP
Polished finish
Brand new in stock - in the UK

for £70 you get and instant 700BHP,

can i have 2 please

[dieselboy]

Ha, I think theyre all like that. 3" is too big of an inlet but was just using an example.

[Rustinho]

I don't know what your reasons are for wanting an intercooler but I fitted one a week or two ago.

I fitted a bonnet scoop from a Isuzu Trooper. Easy peasy - draw yourself a template on some cardboard, tape it to the bonnet where you want the scoop, then cut the bonnet open using a jig-saw.

http://toyotasurf.asn.au/techsite/scoop.htm

I fitted an intercooler from a Mitsubishi Pajero/Shogun - if you keep an eye out on fleabay there are tons of them around. If you're lucky you should get one fairly cheap.

I basically followed the instructions on the Aussie tech site:

http://toyotasurf.asn.au/techsite/in...lingpajero.htm

Took me no more than a couple of hours to cut the hole in the bonnet, fit the scoop and fit the intercooler. I took my time over the few weeks beforehand to try and paint the intercooler fairly nicely using paint from Halfrauds.

The effect?

Nothing hugely noticeable at lower speeds (maybe a bit better acceleration but this might be a placebo effect) but on dual carriageways/motorways/country roads at speeds over 40-50mph it's made a real decent improvement. I recently fitted 33/12.50/15 tyres and took a bit of a hit on performance/mpg. I've clawed some of that back since fitting the intercooler.

On 265/70/15s the truck would happily cruise at an indicated 80mph, maybe a smidge more. (2.4 LN130 - 2LTE engine). Absolute top speed was an indicated 90-95mph on long downhill bits of the motorway!

With 33s and no intercooler an indicated 70mph was an absolute top speed (downhill with a following breeze!). It would struggle up some hills on the M5 dropping to a max of 50-ish mph and the temperature gauge was getting a little bit too hot for my liking (small nudge upwards = potentially big problems - I only have a standard gauge)

Since fitting the intercooler the same hills on the M5 are no big deal and I don't end up being the slowest vehicle on the motorway!

Absolute top speed has nudged up very slightly to something just over an indicated 70mph. Cruising on the motorway (even up those cursed hills!) is quite happy at an indicated 60-65mph. No more worries about the engine overheating.

Bearing in mind that with the 33s on the speedometer is absolutely spot on wrt my sat nav speedometer and the fact that with the 265s the speed was over-reading by about 10% or so you can get an idea of how the intercooler has helped me grab a bit of performance back.

I didn't run the truck with 265s & intercooler so I can't comment on how it would have affected performance.

I reckon it'll be interesting to see what benefits a chargecooler gives but given the lazy nature of 2.4 Surf engines I'm not convinced it was worth the effort for me to do in terms of cost/time versus likely gains.

[dieselboy]

Thanks for this. How did you secure your intercooler in place? Or is it just held there by the pipe work?

[Rustinho]

Thanks for this. How did you secure your intercooler in place? Or is it just held there by the pipe work?

Seems sturdy enough just held by the pipework. Shouldn't be difficult to make a bracket if I decided it needed it though.

[dieselboy]

How did you make hoses up etc?

[Rustinho]

How did you make hoses up etc?

I basically just followed the recipe on the aussie tech site (link already given above) and bought the hoses as described from fleabay. There was a guy on the forum who said he had some sort of connection with someone that makes the silicone hoses and could get them cheap but I didn't have any joy when I tried to get in touch with them so I just bought them from a fleabay seller purely cos it was easier.

[Karma Supra]

You still need a "water to air" cooler for the charge cooler, and a resevoir too (if you are doing it properly )

Air/Air intercoolers and water/air charge coolers each have their merits but there is more "stuff" to fit with a chargecooler! - they can also reach a maximum limit where all the coolant has taken on more heat than it can get rid off for too long and efficiency drops through the floor.

I have an MR2 intercooler for mine sitting in the garage....

[dieselboy]

Understood with regards to the comments on the chargecooler. I'm in no rush because before I do any of this I MUST fit an EGT gauge and replace the stupid restrictive downpipe from the turbo flange. Did you know it is only 1.5" bore up there?

I was originally thinking just a plain intercooler with water spray like Subaru use. Then I see how small the charge coolers are, and it makes sense if you could run cool water up there from say the front bottom of the bumper, instead of heat radiating through from the engine bay.

Would there be any point spraying water over the chargecooler rad?

Also, it saves cutting any bonnet scoops too, but may be it would be worth cutting one anyway to help with air flow? This leads me onto another idea of what some people do with their bonnets, lift them up at the back or even like this bloke did with his Surf / 4Runner but I've no idea how: