[boots4]

I'm working on a swap and was lucky enough to find an intercooled stepvan. My van came with a mech. fan and I thought the regular 4BTs came with electric fans. The only reason I could come up with mine having a mech. fan was because of the intercooler needing some kind of air flow through it all the time.

In my project I'm planning on using an electric fan (actually a dual fan setup)for flexibility and was wondering if I need to figure out a way to always have air flow through the intercooler? Can you guys running intercoolers chime in?

 

[Driverswanted]

You don't need an electric fan cooling an intercooler all the time. You are not making any boost that needs to be cooled when you are sitting still. The only exception I can think of is if you have finished a hard run with high EGT's and are waiting for your EGT's to cool down. An electric fan pulling air through the intercooler can get you to your shut-off temperature slightly sooner.
I would think you would gain more by concentrating on keeping the air that does hit the front of your intercooler from flowing around the sides.

 

[boots4]

Thanks Driverswanted for the reply, good info. I'll be following your set-up on the motor mounts drilling and using gen1 stuff.

Here's the cliche question, if you had a choice would you run an electric or a mech. fan considering spacing isn't a problem?

Pros for mech fan would include simplicity, probably more reliable, I already have it.

Pros for an electric would be better cooling control, faster warm-ups, can wire to turn off in deep water crossings. I'm sure the list is bigger for both.

Does it depend on how many things are in the cooling stack? I plan on stacking like this: intercooler-AC-radiator. I was thinking of putting a tranny cooler in there (going with an auto) but wasn't sure if that was too many things to pull air through. This will be going in an FJ60 landcruiser. Thanks again for any insight.

This is the intercooler and Radiator. I will put an AC unit inbetween the two.

 

[CrewCab59]

A electrical fan doesn't take any hp from the engine!

A std fan blade with no clutch eats power,and a clutch fan after 40mph turns into a std fan .
If you already have it and have room than run it,if move is tight and have the cash to get high end good cooling than that's the way to go.

Thanks
CrewCab59

 

[Dougal]

That's a very nice intercooler, what's it off?

IMO on a front mount intercooler you don't need a fan. Your electric or mechanical radiator fan will do the job fine.

 

[boots4]

That's the intercooler that came with my stepvan. I did clean it up and paint it though.

 

[Mikel]

A electrical fan doesn't take any hp from the engine!

It does, through added drag on the alternator

 

[BobS]

Ok, I'm sitting here looking at your nicely painted intercooler with a sinking feeling. I was warned about 30 years ago by my local radiator shop when the trend was to repaint everything visible on the under carriage and behind the grille with either fluorescent paints or bright aluminum to NEVER paint any part of the cooling fins on the radiator because the paint would act as an insulator for heat transfer. He said they used a special non insulating coating instead of regular paint. Perhaps he was wrong?

Bob

 

[boots4]

I thought the same thing and that is why I cleaned off the paint that was already on it and only painted the end caps

 

[warpdriv]

What year was your van? I was wondering because it came with an intercooler.

Thank you,

 

[scout4bta]

Thanks Driverswanted
This is the intercooler and Radiator. I will put an AC unit inbetween the two.

If you look at all of the other manufactures that put turbo Diesels, in trucks, the AC condenser is first and the aftercooler is second. I think your AC will performance will suffer if you do this and the gain for HP is not measureable.

Steve

 

[papitt]

raditor paint

I thought the same thing also wow looks nice but I wonder if it kills the cooling .....and I put the AC fins on the outside .....
But man it looks good

 

[beck]

Nice intercooler!
You did the right thing if you didn't paint the cooling section of the intercooler. Most paint will inhibit the cooling effect of radiators so I assume it would do the same thing for intercoolers. Where you put the A/C in relation to the intercooler depends on what is the most important to you, HP or A/C. The front mounted piece will have an effect on the mid mounted piece. The intercooler appears to be plenty big. If you size the A/C condensor as large as possible you shouldn't have a problem with either. A transmission cooler located in the front or in the radiator shouldn't effect much. Unless you have a loaded trailer the cooler doesn't do much. If you decide to put the transmission cooler some place besides the radiator area there is another option. The street rodders have started using transmission coolers that are extruded aluminum. They are tubes with a lot of internal and external fins. The better ones are dopuble pass. Transmission fluid enters and exits from the same end. They are frame rail mounted. The non anodized ones cool better. The anodizing does the same as the paint on radiators and reduces cooling effeciency. I have on on my street rod. The transmission is lightly loaded and I don't have a trans temp gauge, but it seems to work well.
As far as the fan goes, I hate electric fans. Most are a pain. Most aftermarket ones have poor temp switches. I prefer the clutch type mechanical setups. On when you need it, "almost" off when you don't. No temperature switches to fail. No wiring. No fuses to blow. No doubts when driving. No extra wiring for the A/C, since the fan must run when the A/C is on. A good fan shroud is a must in my opinion. Make the fan pull the air through the radiator, not around it. With a good shroud the whole radiator is used not just the circle of it in front of the fan.
Now I just have to get my truck on the road. (No it doesn't have a radiator, intercooler, A/C condensor, or fan installed yet, so this is just me thinkin' in print.)

 

[warpdriv]

The way my F350 is setup is IC/AC/Rad. The AC is very cold.

HTH,

 

[boots4]

The truck I got it from is a 1980, but the engine tag says the engine is compliant with 1992 emission standards so I think the engine is a 92. The interior of the cab was all carpeted by the last owner (a contruction co. of some kind) and when I pulled it off the important information tags either came off or were covered with glue. I think it was rebuilt but I cannot be for certain.

If I go electric I was planning on running a DCC controller. I've heard good things about them. I was also going to upgrade to a cs144 alternator for a little more zap.

BECK do you have a link or a name of that tranny cooler that I could look up on the net?

 

[CrewCab59]

My 86 18ft has that same intercooler and a electric fan,my 82 had no intercooler and manual fan.

From what I have sean the intercoolers are hit and miss , you never know what your getting.

Thanks
CrewCab59

 

[66gaza]

boots4 you still have a few options for an tranny oil cooler 1. you could get an oil to air inline cooler the long thin ones and mount above the intercooler or 2. oil to water cooler (advantage that tranny oil warms quicker) here as I see it you have 3 options first a oil cooler built into the radiator header tank or an inline one that fits into one of the rad hoses top or bottom (racing shops will have these) and the oil cooler is built into that or go for a 2nd gen dodge tranny cooler, this is a cylindrical device where water is plumbed from engine and exchanges heat from the oil. these are larger than they look well made and appear to have a large surface area for cooling. I have one and this would be the route I would take (why reinvent the wheel). I am thinking about using it slightly differently though. These are quite cheap/common as the dodge guys upgrade them to a larger one when the bombing/towing get out of hand. I have includede a pic of a rad with a built in oil cooler and a dodge tranny cooler (on ebay now) BTW the dodge tranny cooler has brackets that mount to a 2nd gen engine plate and the other end bolts to the pas side engine mount or if you have used different mounts then a small bracket would need to be made.Thses fit under the turbo hugging the block. these brackets could be discarded and mount it anywhere though.

Gaza