Uprater intercooler experiences 300tdi?

[piper109]

Thinking of replacing my intercooler. Its dates to 1996 and probably lost some of its capacity.

I want to keep the aircon so I've been looking at the Allard and Alisport ones on Ebay which fit in the original space.

Has anyone used these? Are there others worth considering? Are they worth the extra?

I have been pulling a small camper around (about 700kg) and it really lugs the Disco down in hilly country and smokes a lot on hills (pump diaphragm turned about 60 degrees). This is what got me thinking about a better IC.

Anyone?

Thanks, Steve

[PaulN]

You could clean it out! Mines a 300 1996 and was surprised at how clean it was with only slight black misting at entry.

In the end I favoured the Brunel Performance Intercooler as it fits straight in where the old one came out with absolutely no mods and makes use of the directional airflow that's already there. I didn't favour the interuption of air flow to engine rad with a close proximity full width intercooler. Quite liked the idea that there is no obvious appearance of a truck 'performance modification' either!

Not cheap but certainly make a big difference! Will do for you and a pump tweak!

HTH

InfoLinky

[dave t]

In my opinion the same place replacement ones are not worth it, I had a brunel one fitted to a classic range rover with the pump already tweaked and it didnt make any difference at all.

I now have an allard one fitted to my air con disco 1 it fits across the front of the car infront of the aircon rad and it makes a much better performance improvement as long as the fueling is set to match it.

at the risk of stating the obvious an intercooler upgrade on its own wont improve performance, it may even reduce it if you leave the fueling standard.

bottom line, the bigger and more efficient the intercooler the more you can turn up the fueling and the more performance you will get (as long as you watch egt's)

[piper109]

Yes I understand you have to turn the pump up to realize any gains. I have already turned mine up a bit but I'm being careful as I dont yet have an EGT gauge. I cleaned out my intercooler about 10k miles ago. Granted it might need it again.

I have been unable to find a supplier for Brunel Performance. Are they still in operation?

Steve

[disco_al]

I've got an allisport one on mine - full width type - and apart from the hassle of fitting (drilling the pipe holes in the front panel), i couldn't recommend having one enough :) when coupled (as said) with the full set of pump tuning steps (not just turning the diaphragm, but also adjusting the star wheel etc..) it makes a phenomenal difference.

When i first fitted it to my green disco, i could spin all 4 wheels on a dry road (with cooper discoverer st's on) and the difference it made with towing and overtaking made the disco feel much better and safer.

However, it did highlight the shortcomings in the suspension (it was fairly original stuff, with 160k on it) so i had to fit new springs, shocks and anti roll bar links to bring the handling into line with the power gains. I have an EGT gauge, but do not welly it for long enough if i can help it, basically, if i can see definate black smoke from behind, then i'll ease off the throttle - simples - not had any overheating problems at all. Plus i haven't tuned the pump to it's full potential, or adjusted the boost pressures, and i'm well happy.

Yes they are pricey, and you can get universal ones for a quarter of the price which will give inmprovements. You could even go down the scrappy route, and find one of the biggest you can fit, and plumb it in yourself for not much £££'s.

Fit silicone hoses too (if you haven't already, and iirc they come with the allisport kit) as they don't swell under pressure, keeping all that boost heading where it needs to go

[dave t]

The problem with a lot of the cheap Chinese intercoolers on the bay is they have cast end cans which hold onto the heat much more than desired and the core is sometimes not welded its glued

I guess you get what you pay for. I umm and arr'd for ages about which one to get and in the end paid the money and got a proper full width one, and as disco al says "I couldnt recommend one enough"

[Boris113]

My old 300 discovery had a brunel intercooler which was standard size so the ac still worked. I can't comment on the difference because it was already fitted when i bought it, but it went a dam site quicker than a lot of tdi discos i have driven. It was very nicely made also.

[Boydie]

I simply replaced the core - the pics are on my profile and the improvement was quite noticable without bening mind blowing, I also replaced the standard solid supply pipe to the intercooler with a 2" 16 gauge copper pipe and brazed a copper strip on the outside to give it cooling "fins". The bonnet has a scoop on it and notched the cut-away bonnet so make blades to direct the air flow onto the alloy inlet manifold. A minor tweak on the FIP, adjuct the timing from 5 degrees BTDC to 10 degrees and the change in performance and economy is good. In short anything you can do to reduce the supply air temperature and therefore increase the amount of air going into the engine has got to be worthwhile.