Vanagon Air/Water Intercooler install

[blackdogvan]

After collecting bits & pieces for quite a while I finally got around to starting my air water intercoller install.


The custom intake manifold should even out air flow to all cylinders. This setup would work just as easy with the stock manifold inlet elbow rotated around 180*. This manifold created two problems, it interfered with the turbo outlet & the turbo oil feed line. Problem 1 was solved by reclocking the cold side which was easy, just had to relocate the wastegate mounts & the stock oil feed line was replaced with a flexible one copied from the stock line at a local hydraulic hose shop - $35.

Reclocking turbo:


While I do think air to water is the best option for intercooling an engine in a vanagon due to the issues associated with getting enough cool air to a air/air unit mounted in the rear I don't necessarily think my method is the best, there are so many options out there. That said I am quite happy with the way it's going so far & if I hadn't changed the intake manifold it would only have taken a few hours & with the exception of the hole saw required only very basic tools. I decided to mount the charge cooler forward of the transmission on the sloped firewall under the rear seat. My reasoning for this as opposed to installing the charge cooler in the rear behind the turnsignal are better flexibility when the engine torques over, more room for my air filter to install behind the tail lightand less clutter in the engine bay.

here's the view from the drivers side wheel well:


There is a fair bit of free space there, & its easily accessible to install, run piping & bleed air from the drivers side wheel well.

View from below:


Top view:


I tapped in a couple spots in the end for the boost sense line & an intake air temp gauge sender.

The easiest path was directly through the wiring junction box & some sheet metal, I've since made a bracket to hold the box flat.


The turbo outlet does a a few jogs but was a very easy run with only straight pipes, the tube to the intake only needed a single 90*  and a slice & weld on soome tubing I rescued from a scrap metal bin at work. A 45* coupler would have worked as well. (yes thats my 4"exhaust -  2.5"t with flex joint to cherry bomb to western star truck stack, sounds awesome, isn't actually very loud & looks baddass)


I bought all the bits online from cxracing.com. I'm very happy with the quality of the IC & heat exchanger & the price for all the bits was impressive, I called & they matched their ebay store prices which are significantly lower than their website prices in most cases. This wass their smallest core which wouldn't have fit behind the taillight anyway.

Another option that has a prefect charge cooler what will fit behind the taillight is frozenboost.com

I'll get to the heat exchanger soon! I hope...

[Syncroincity]

Nice work, I'll be watching this one! I have just about the same setup as far as the i/c bits.  With a Syncro, I have no space above the transmission, I have to stuff my chargecooler in behind the tail light. The only downside to this is that one water in/out port is then virtually inaccessable. I'm thinking a 90 deg fitting, running the hose down through the sheetmetal. I'll probably run the hoses through the old a/c hose right-of-way up to the front.

[blackdogvan]

Post IC sensor is visible on the end of the manifold, haven't done the pre one yet but either directly in the wall of the IC or on the tube that runs alongside the manifold. Not a priority just yet. For now i'll just watch the final result & see how well the system does compared to ambient.