Intercooler alternative?

[Warthog]

The standard intercooler (300Tdi) always gets full of crud and i never get all of it out when cleaning. So its effectivness cant be that good. Performance on road isnt my first priority, so i was thinking. Would replacing the intercooler with a straight through pipe be a dumb option?

Any comments/options welcome

Mark

[western]

Would replacing the intercooler with a straight through pipe be a dumb option

Yes, a straight pipe won't cool the air flowing into the turbo, diesels need cold air & lots of it to work effectivly

[Les Henson]

You will be getting the same amount of air into the engine (the turbo does that). It won't be cooled as much though - unless the pipe was quite long and narrow bore in a gridwork design.

Les.

[Turbocharger]

Your exhaust temps will be higher obviously, but I think the IC is still important. Even full of mud it performs an important function through its mass; with a decent lump of aluminium en-route from the turbo to the engine which will cool the air as it heats the IC matrix. If its full of mud then it won't cool itself as readily to receive the next slug of air and it'll heatsoak faster, but I suspect the effect is still important.

Look at it another way: you've already bought it and it's definitely not making things worse....

[Ruurd]

...unless the pipe was quite long and narrow bore in a gridwork design.

You mean, err, ehm, like an intercooler? ;-)

[TheRecklessEngineer]

I'd be more concerned about peak combustion temperatures in the cylinder than EGTs. Without the intercooler, even a clogged one, your inlet temperature will be much higher. This in turn will raise the peak temperatures in the cylinder with knock on consequences for pistons/rings/oil/valves.

Leave it there. Or find somewhere new to put it.

If you want intercooler performance whilst off road, you could consider water injection.

[thirstybeast]

I'd be more concerned about peak combustion temperatures in the cylinder than EGTs. Without the intercooler, even a clogged one, your inlet temperature will be much higher. This in turn will raise the peak temperatures in the cylinder with knock on consequences for pistons/rings/oil/valves.

Leave it there. Or find somewhere new to put it.

If you want intercooler performance whilst off road, you could consider water injection.

Despite what is being said on here I doubt your engine will self distruct just because you remove the intercooler.

An intercooler cools the air so it is denser when it reaches the combustion chamber, it there fore gives you a better bang for your buck!

I wouldnt remove it though as I cant see you gaining by doing so.

My defender TDI has no intercooler as I choose to run the larger V8 radiator, this helps when traveling in dusty conditions or when grass blocks the radiator core when traveling long distances off road. On many ocasions when TDI,TD5 or pumas have had cooling issues on long runs due to debries building up in the core I have been able to press on at full speed without a worry.

The intake temp without cooler is about 60 degrees C hotter at full throttle than with it fitted on my engine when air temp is about 1 deg C.

At idle its about 30 degrees hotter.

I have tweeked the fueling a bit and it has caused no problems.

I would say though that an intercooler makes the engine more crisp.

My Discovery with standard intercooler always feels like it has got more go than the defender without.

I would say its down to personal prefrence and how much you like tinkering with your toy.

[BigSi110]

Glycol intercoolers are becoming an option over here in Oz from many tuning firms.

I haven't seen a UK company doing them for LR's, and it's doubtful you'd ever use one because of that, but still something to think about.

I'd imagine the clogging problem wouldn't be as much of an issue with glycol?

[Aragorn]

By "glycol" intercooler do you mean an Air to Water chargecooler?

[robhybrid]

If you are only ever using short bursts of power (typical winch challenge) I cant see why you cant run without an intercooler, if you are towing a trailer or regularly hard on the throttle for long periods of time I would not recommend removing the intercooler.

I think the engine may well run slightly hotter without the intercooler depending on what you are doing.

[Aragorn]

It will run hotter and will make less power with more smoke without the cooler.

Hotter air is less dense, so you get less oxygen into the cylinder.

This is why people generally find a small performance increase when fitting a big front mount job without touching the fuel pump. You get cooler more dense air, and while your not adding more fuel, it allows the engine to burn the existing fuel more completely (ie less smoke) generating more power.