Best Junkyard Intercoolers

My quest for a Powerstroke IC has been fruitless.

What else should I be looking for?

Aliexpress? Based on what we saw when we were running our salvage operation, almost every salvage car gets hit in the front. And the intercooler(s) will lead the charge. This leads to a high mortality rate for junkyard ICs because it doesn't take much to render one unusable. So I would either go looking for the best one you can find out of anything, or look for a cheap aftermarket generic one.

Saabs. Late nineties through 2010ish most were turbo of some sort.

But I do agree the IC is out front and gets smashed.

I think their vulnerability makes them an oft replaced and contributes to their scarcity.

I did go looking at Powerstroke intercoolers - looks like it's an air/water. That's relatively unusual, so most of my comments won't apply. I'd suggest going for an air/air. Porsche makes it work :)

Volvos have nice intercoolers, but not sized for a diesel. Are you actually running a Powerstroke, or are you looking for something that would work for a smaller application? 

Example:the lowly PT cruiser GT has a decent sized intercooler, as do some others, I'm sure. Saab? Cummins, but good luck finding that stuff. Ebay?

Call me. Phone numbers 828-260-1254. If you're doing what I think you're doing it I've got some stuff for you

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

Will do.

My junkyard has a section for heavy stuff.  We once got a huge intercooler out of an old school bus.

Hens teeth rare, but the 98/99 Mercedes E300TD has a decently large front mount.

These days, outfits like CX Racing have intercoolers that are decent quality, larger than most junkyard intercoolers, and a lot easier to find for only a little more money. I wouldn't bother with junkyard intercoolers at this time.

Keith Tanner said:

I did go looking at Powerstroke intercoolers - looks like it's an air/water. That's relatively unusual, so most of my comments won't apply. I'd suggest going for an air/air. Porsche makes it work :)

Only the 6.7s.  They had a separate radiator/water pump for the cooling bus for the charge air and engine oil and transmission fluid.  Possibly power steering, I forget.

I remember thinking FINALLY, instead of plumbing everything forward, which is an absolute mess to work around, they have a radiator and route coolant to unit-mounted heat exchangers.

Air/water IC is the future, I'd look into those.  The ones from Merc C300s looks fairly swappable, although the intake manifold mounted ones in 1.5 Ecoboosts look tempting if fabrication is high in your skill set.

After data logging some air/air intercooled setups, I would hesitate to intentionally use one.  Almost better off with no intercooler at all in some cases.

In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :

There is a whole lot of "it depends" when deciding if air or water is  better for a given application. As you pointed out, packaging is the main concern, and for most applications, is what would dictate the better choice. If you can fit an air IC with good airflow and clean piping, it is usually the better choice. If a proper air set up won't fit, then water is likely the better choice. Not because of the water. The water doesn't really do anything special, it just moves the heat from one heat exchanger to another. Air still ultimately does the cooling. You may get a little extra benefit from water before everything is warmed up, but once up to temp, the water works against you- the same quality that helps it absorb heat also resists shedding heat. There can be less pressure drop in a water IC system since the air charge doesn't have to go through as much piping. But the core of the air IC should be more efficient due to it's size. The size of the core isn't just for cooling. The bigger the core, the more the air charge slows down as it passes through it. Less pressure drop and more time to transfer heat. 
 

Now all of this goes out the window for specific applications. If you only need to go a 1/4 mile and have a reservoir full of ice water, it's no contest. If you are running an endurance race on a road course, the difference is just as dramatic in the other direction. Everything else falls somewhere in the middle. 

In reply to LionPride :

The Cummins used in the school buses uses an air to air  intercooler that is gigantic.  
      Or you could consider a  fuel change.  Alcohol has wonderful cooling properties.   
  In the 1980's  they ran turbochargers without any intercooler pumping up to 80 psi  just using alcohol.  Making up to 1200 horsepower.  For practice qualifying and the 500 mile race.     On the dyno they briefly reached 125 psi.  
 
Calvin Nelson. ( NIVLAC57 on U tube)   Started out with air to air, switched to water to air, and is now running E85 with a methanol supplement, no intercooler. 

MadScientistMatt said:

These days, outfits like CX Racing have intercoolers that are decent quality, larger than most junkyard intercoolers, and a lot easier to find for only a little more money. I wouldn't bother with junkyard intercoolers at this time.

Sometimes $20 is $20.

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

Oh, absolutely for endurance racing, air to air makes sense.  Constant airflow, probable better attention to same, and utter simplicity.

I vividly recall an F body with only 9 psi of boost that would hit over 150F IAT at the end of a second gear pull.  I never saw that on the (necessarily) water/air ICs in the supercharged engines I built/tuned.

Getting the Dash Control for my Volvo was eye opening.  Sitting in traffic or even idling in the staging lanes at the dragstrip, IAT would climb to 130-150F and would not cool back down even at 100mph.

Somewhere I had read (maybe here, maybe rx7club) that on pump gasoline, detonation can become uncontrollable over 120F.

With that in mind, "Colin" is getting a water to air IC with a heat exchanger the size of the original R53 radiator, with two fans to keep air flowing across it.  Its life will be 40-80 seconds of frantic scrambling below 50mph followed by parking in grid for 5 minutes or so, 10 reps each.  Slightly different operating region than lapping a road course for a few hours 

Be aware for air to air, that physcial size and density also matters. Plenty of aftermarket ricer intercoolers are thick multirows meant for low positions, whereas diesel intercoolers tend to be single row and the size of the radiator.

Corbin Goodwin tried to pitch a show to Motortrend a few years ago where he showed this off with a clapped out SVO mustang; he snagged some diesel truck IC that was bigger than the Mustang's radiator that flowed a similar volumetric level of air that dropped charge temps MUCH more because of the surface area.

GIRTHQUAKE said:

Be aware for air to air, that physcial size and density also matters. Plenty of aftermarket ricer intercoolers are thick multirows meant for low positions, whereas diesel intercoolers tend to be single row and the size of the radiator.

Corbin Goodwin tried to pitch a show to Motortrend a few years ago where he showed this off with a clapped out SVO mustang; he snagged some diesel truck IC that was bigger than the Mustang's radiator that flowed a similar volumetric level of air that dropped charge temps MUCH more because of the surface area.

Don't be giving people ideas (not that it makes a major difference in Challenge format).

In reply to LionPride :

When the 6.0 Powerstroke was new, people found that one could buy new all aluminum intercoolers for $195.  They could be easily cut down to fit an RX-7, 240SX, etc.

I think i recall a while ago people were loving the izusu NPR turbo diesel truck intercoolers. The cab foreward ones

Isuzu NPR, EVO 8-9, or Starion for front-mount.  But geez unless you get it free just buy an Ebay one or used from Facebook Marketplace.  That way you dont have to worry about the crap thats in it, modifying the tubes, damage, etc.