Water to Air Intercoolers.

[Tommy]

After a lot of searching and price comparing i have finally found a place that does very cheap and supposedly good water to air intercoolers.

This is the site here http://www.frozenboost.com.

My mate has bought it from the states and the kit he ordered was the larger one and it ended up costing him just under $500 to his door.

We are installing it next weekend into his 42TD so i will let you know how it went if any one is interested.

[ozy1]

looks like a great kit, dude on ebay sells them for a grand for the large setup, same ones thou

[nzdarin]

Don't go too big or it won't work. If there is not enough air going through the intercooler then you don't get enough surface contact and therefore not enough cooling. After fitting you should get a boost drop across the IC of about 1psi to 1.5 psi. Obviously if it is too small then it won't work either! So you need to make the intercooler flow to the engine hp / flow.
The good manufacturers do this for you. ie PWR are ratedin size and also HP.

[spannercrab]

I have one of those intercoolers fitted to the TD42 - great performance and much easier to mount and plumb in than a FMIC air-to-air, although not quite as good as a custom job from ARE etc. I'm led to believe - but you can't beat the price!

Sounds like your mate got it at about the right price - good luck with the install, it's pretty fiddly work

[Dzltec]

I would be interested to see figures such as air temps in and out and boost pressures in and out to see how effective it is. It all looks good in black and white, but does it cool?


Andy

[Tommy]

Yeah it will be good to see how it goes. Thanks for the advice tho. For the price i dont think you can go too wrong.

You said it was fiddly work, what do you mean ? Any advice before we start ?

I wonder if you can give the turbo a cold beer ? It works for me !

[benhl]

Pics??

[spannercrab]

Dzltech: I'd be interested to see those figures also - the seat of the pants dyno is notoriously unreliable - the system is not fully tuned as yet so I hope to get those temp readings soon - possibly in conjunction with the dyno.

Tommy: Making up brackets to suit the engine bay AND fit all the other stuff in there was a real challenge - I ended up drilling and tapping my own holes in the 'cooler (M8 x 1.5) to get it to work properly

The filler I brazed up as a custom job - a couple of hours work to make everything fit just right. The system had air in it until I drilled and tapped the bleeder valve visible on the top LHS

The radiator took a whole day to do also, + mounting the pump and running 20mm hose through the engine bay

The overflow tank (which is hidden near the fuel filter) was also a custom job, as was the oil-water seperator bolted to the intake manifold.

The biggest challenge was the pipework, to make everything fit with all the bends at the right angles etc. was another day or so - I also made up a custom intake manifold flange from 316 bar and ported the intake manifold.

I removed my AXT air cleaner housing in favour of a ZD30 in order to reclaim some space - I realize this is not ideal in terms of airflow, but a compromise which was the easiest way to retain the snorkel without any major replumb (and I STILL have no idea where I would fit a larger 'cleaner even if I wanted to!)

Then there is the wiring for the I/C pump - not a huge job, but takes a while to tap in, fuse and test everything - mine is connected via relay to the IGN position - I was going to muck around and connect it via the oil pressure switch, but opted against it - too hard basket!

benhl: pics below

[Dzltec]

Spannercrab, it looks good, you will suprise yourself with the 3l air box, just remove the mesh gauze in it, it will be plenty good for what you want to do. As you said its fiddly and time consuming, for the people who dont do this, this is where a lot of labour time goes.


Would love to see at least before and after i/c boost pressures on it.


Andy

[Jimbo]

DID you need a body lift to fit the cooler?

[spannercrab]

The body lift was not required - There is room to do it without the lift, the clearances would be tighter though - you have to allow some room between the 'cooler, pipework and firewall to allow for engine movement, but it could conceivably be done on a standard height GQ.

[Snatchy]

Spannercrab - is that cooler the one they market as the 350hp, or the 600hp?
And i wondered why you have the core where both the inlet and outlet are on the same side - would the core with the inlet and outlets on different sides have made it easier to fit (or required less piping)?

im keen to hear how it performs , so please keep us updated when it goes on the dyno
cheers

[Tommy]

Sounds like there is a bit more work in it then i originally thought !

Your install looks good tho.

We have 2 more patrols to do the install on, so after the first "guinea pig" we should have it down pat!