hello everybody.


i allways wondered how pepole weld/build intercoolers...

i know that you need to buy a core and to make end tanks.... and thats it...

how do they put it all togather...?? it seems hella complicated....

it would be nice if somone could throw a bone....

thx...

 

TIG welder and lots of practice.

 

Here's a pretty good write up from Weir:

http://www.homemadeturbo.com/f...243.0

but even if you know how to do it you still need a tig and a lot of practice

 

beat me to it... i think some of those pics need to be re-hosted though.

you could also click the link in my sig.

 

im building mine now...takes A LOTTT of time to do something that actually works. not just welding some boxes to the end that flow like crap

 

How's it coming Joe?

 

good, doing the 2nd side now....letting some welds cool.....i did the first side all in one day...this is my 2nd night doing the other side....probably going to be another night too haha. going to polish the end tanks before i weld them to the core..they are smoothed already

man i gotta post some pics of this intercooler i had to install today! let me go get my camera.

 

the instructions say something along the lines of "congradulations on your purchase of the BEST intercooler available" blah blah blah. kind of funny

I DID NOT MAKE THIS!!!!!



yup, bends are over rated....



aparently 1 inch air launch ramps are good for flow. the pictures dont show how bad this is.



1/2 of IC is blocked by the bumper support and about a 1/4 is blocked by the bumper cover.

 

Haha, that's awesome. I wonder why there are so many mandrel bending companies out there?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tony1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Haha, that's awesome. I wonder why there are so many mandrel bending companies out there?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

beats me

 

It is like anything else you fabricate, as long as your fit up is good you shouldnt have a problem fabricating an intercooler assembly. No matter how good of a welder you are, if your fit up is bad youre going to have a bad piece.

I build tanks out of 1/8" aluminum sheet, bend it on a brake and cut the blanks to size. Hole saws 1/4" undersized from the diameter pipe you are using for the inlets/outlets are used to bore the holes into the tanks.

You dont have to be a rocket scientist to get a good tank design, just use some common sense and have plenty of patience. As with anything else you fabricate dont skimp and do a 2nd best type of build just to save time or cost, you'll regret it in the end.

Heres a sidemount IC we've been developing for the 91-95 MR2 turbo using a Spearco core and our tanks.



And a huge 24x12x4.5" Garrett core based IC we made for a client in TX. This is going in his trunk in his MR2.

 

i remember back when i had a mr2 there was absolutely no intercooler solutions available that wernt shitty AND crazy expensive..not a good combo!

i wish i still had my mr2 with the knowledge i have now. i bet i could make it pretty cool.

 

who is mr. 2?


fab works looks great guys. Im going to quote you about fitment...that was my biggest problem when I was learning to tig...fitment.

 

do you guys prefer to weld stainless or aluminum? i picked up aluminum so much faster than stainless. i have a pulser but have never installed it...havnt really felt the need to...does it help a lot?

 

Stainless is one of the harder materials to weld properly. I like al. better, so much easier to lay down a perfect bead.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tony1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Stainless is one of the harder materials to weld properly. I like al. better, so much easier to lay down a perfect bead. </TD></TR></TABLE>

wow, i really hate you

 

I like aluminum MUCH more than stainless...same reason Tony posted. Stainless is a very finicky...aluminum you just have to get in a rythm and have enough power to get teh flow.

 

ok good that makes me feel better...when i first welded aluminum everybody scared me away from even wanting to try. now when i tell people i picked up aluminum easier they all look at me like im crazy.

 

yeah just keep telling people its impossible to weld...just like stainless. and they'll never attempt it...and you'll get all of the business that they would've had if they would've actually tried it before believing everything they hear. (note: this applies to a lot of things...monkee see monkee do racing)

I personally didnt care how hard it was...i had to learn.

 

haha yea im the same way....i probably picked it up quicker because people kept telling me thats it harder...or impossible to learn...blah blah blah. im a pain in the *** like that

 

Id weld aluminum over stainless any day of the week. Obviously everything has to be cleaned with whatever youre welding but aluminum is even more picky about how clean the base is. I think a lot of people think alum is hard or avoid it bc theyve tried welding something that was not cleaned well.

 

That's exactly what happened to me. The first time i tried to weld aluminum i grabbed a scrap strip of anodized aluminum and tried to weld on it. Needless to say, it didn't work so well. I had done absolutely no research and had nobody to tell me how to do it. So, for the next few months i never bothered to try again, just thought to myself, damn, that **** is hard, i wonder how they do it so good! Haha, then someone told me you have to clean it. With a little bit of practice actually doing it right, i was actually welding aluminum!

 

thanks for the relpys every one...

i know how to weld... and i'm about to buy a small tig.

i wanted to know how do you do this part...

do you buy the core like that or what?

thx

 

thats a ghetto core.....dont loook at that thing....the bottom of that intercooler was like press fit on and you could wiggle it nearly a 1/4 of an inch each way.

look at a precision core.....you just weld it like you would anything else.....except the first few times you do it your twice as nervous you will mess it up. just butt the end tank against it and weld away....just direct the heat more towards the tank and it welds just fine. i always pressure test htem afterwords to make sure it worked OK....and on air/water set up i pressure test the water section to make sure it doesnt leak into the air section. better safe than sorry

 

Here's a couple of pics from one I built some time ago here in Australia. I'm a big fan of pulse welding and it seems to work well for me. We are lucky here in that there are some very nice intercooler and radiator core manufacturers which will custom build to whatever you require. If anyone is interested in some very nice fabrication work here in Oz with some of the best technical info available anywhere, then have a look at http://www.are.com.au their attention to detail is world class. Check out their water to air coolers and dry ice coolers, the results are outstanding.
Regards Andrew.