Intercooled intake manifold question.
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Intercooled intake manifold question. Quick break down here. I'm ls swapping a bronco and I'm looking at doing a single turbo 4.8l. I'm trying to save as much space as possible in the engine bay. My question is how well do the a2w intercoolers that sandwich into the Holley midram intakes work? I'm only looking at a 450-500hp motor and I don't want an intercooler hanging low under the front of the bronco. With the a2w I can put a pretty large yet thin heat exchanger infront of the radiator and keep all my components safe that way. And no I'm not trying to troll lol. Trying to make the best use of the engine bay.
Last edited by Unclebud; Apr 10, 2021 at 04:31 PM.
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A small ebay air-to-air intercooler was enough to keep my temps down for 4 turbos making ~900 whp on a 4.8 with a stock truck intake at fairly mild boost.
A Hi-Ram or Mid-Ram and an air-to-water intercooler is far beyond what you need for half of that.
A Hi-Ram or Mid-Ram and an air-to-water intercooler is far beyond what you need for half of that.
It really depends on what you mean by beat on it. A lot of people think ohh that cute little intercooler works for XXX power on a single gear dyno pull, but what happens when you do 6 back to back 1/4 mile hits, or 25 street pulls in 30 mins, or get in a mud bog at high RPM with almost no air flow. Oddly enough in my testing no intercooler heat soaked less than an intercooler that was too small for the task. The small intercooler couldn't dissipate the heat fast enough and didn't return to ambient fast enough before the next pull, so it had a higher initial IAT than no intercooler. With no intercooler I was back to ambient before the turn around and hit the same max IAT every time, the intercooler results were wildly varied with cooler IAT's the first hit but progressively got worse up until a point they were no better than the non intercooled results.
What turbo are you using and what boost are you trying to run for 500hp? What fuel are you going to run?
What turbo are you using and what boost are you trying to run for 500hp? What fuel are you going to run?
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It really depends on what you mean by beat on it. A lot of people think ohh that cute little intercooler works for XXX power on a single gear dyno pull, but what happens when you do 6 back to back 1/4 mile hits, or 25 street pulls in 30 mins, or get in a mud bog at high RPM with almost no air flow. Oddly enough in my testing no intercooler heat soaked less than an intercooler that was too small for the task. The small intercooler couldn't dissipate the heat fast enough and didn't return to ambient fast enough before the next pull, so it had a higher initial IAT than no intercooler. With no intercooler I was back to ambient before the turn around and hit the same max IAT every time, the intercooler results were wildly varied with cooler IAT's the first hit but progressively got worse up until a point they were no better than the non intercooled results.
What turbo are you using and what boost are you trying to run for 500hp? What fuel are you going to run?
What turbo are you using and what boost are you trying to run for 500hp? What fuel are you going to run?
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Verdad Gallardo True, or even E50. E50 has been perfectly fine on lower boost levels for me non-intercooled and not as bad a MPG hit as E85 for a street car. I've also run direct port meth with pump gas which worked well. Just can't get greedy with timing, let boost do the work.
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I am trying to avoid a meth kit, not saying it won't happen but if I can avoid it I will. I did find out that I can fit a 2010 super duty bumper on my bronco so that may give me a protected spot for an intercooler seeing they have a slot for air flow. Id just have to see how much space there is behind the bumper.
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My only issue with e50 or e85 is that it's super difficult to find in my area and I plan on driving this bronco quite a bit. If I was just going to make it a toy I'd definitely go that route though.
Gotcha, if no E and no meth then your pretty much stuck with an IC core. The hi-ram style intercoolers work well, but I'm not a fan of the mid-ram style base. I think Ticks offering is a bit cheaper than 417 or Shearer.
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417 Motorsports and Shearerfab make the cooler bricks that sandwich between the upper and lower intake components. Is there another you are looking at? My point is they are not cheap, and you are pairing it with a 4.8 and a pretty small turbo.
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I was looking at a low profile one that I believe tick performance makes. It's about $1200. So yeah it's pretty dang pricy. I did manage to find some bmw a2a intercoolers that may fit the bill