Aluminium intercoolers?

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hi folks,

I've been mulling over a front mounted intercooler conversion on my T16S for a while now, just to improve driveability (standard i/c is a small affair and mounted behind the n/s headlamp. There are various Saab/Volvo i/cs that fit after a fashion but require some chopping about that I'd like to avoid.

Just read an article in the new Practical Performance Car mag regarding aluminium intercoolers - very interesting reading. There's a company fcalled Allisport that will make custom aluminium rads/intercoolers for a fairly reasonable price (350 quid?). So you could get one made up the perfect size to fit without any surgery, it's alu so it works better than a standard item, and you can spec the hose outlets to be at the top near to the current ones so you don't end up with huge lag...

Has anybody done this? If not why not? Is there some huge flaw I haven't spotted?

[si_j]

I think thats where Alex (of Saabcentral) got his FMIC done.
They also made up the bottle/continer for his water injection.

[nicecupoftea]

Interesting, thanks Si.

As an aside, do you have any idea of the advantages/disadvantages of the various standard alternatives (9k, Volvo 740 , 960, etc)? I guess some of them offer better solutions than others (less cutting of metal, shorter pipework, etc.).

[si_j]

Personally I prefer the chargecooler route rather than the FMIC option.
But things are changing now and there are some good quaility FMIC options around now.
I'd avoid the volvo/9K secondhand FMIC all together unless money is a problem.

[saabstudent]

Volvo requires less cutting and bodging than the 9k one Martin. 9k one you need to chop off the tow hooks, volvo you don't.

Also likley to be fitting a decent fmic to mine in the new year. The custom idea is great but i think there should be a few out there that will fit that aren't customised. hoping to spend less than 150 myself on the cooler, plus more for pipes obviously.

G