WRX intercooler swap?

[Krazyistkarl]

So long story short, cruise weekend in Saskatoon was this weekend and all the cars and lifted diesels were out in full force.
Launching and beating lifted trucks off the line in a van is nothing short of hilarious in my eyes, but during the day the intercooler is getting really warm and I suspect my fan isn't working, I'll check the temp sensor before ditching the fan.
At night time with the cool air there is a definite power and response increase over daytime runs in the heat.
I'm wondering if I could manage to squeeze a wrx intercooler under the hood. Plumbing should be more straight forward then a FMIC, and I've got a few buddies who are big in the subaru scene, so I should be able to find one fairly easily.

[Krazyistkarl]

I'll be test fitting the intercooler as soon as he can find some time away from his newborn. In the mean time I ditched the fan underneath.

[Feds]

The intercooler is definitely a limiting factor, so an upgrade would be well worth it.

What boost are you running? You should try spacing your wastegate out before you do anything. Very noticeable power gains for minimal time and effort.

[Growlerbearnz]

Just be careful with intercooler swaps from gas cars- diesels are on boost most of the time, so their intercoolers need to be light and able to transfer heat quickly and constantly. Petrol cars are only on boost infrequently, and so their intercoolers are usually designed to be better heat sinks, but not necessarily so good at shedding the heat so quickly. To be sure your WRX intercooler is an improvement you really need to monitor the inlet and outlet temperatures before and after the upgrade.

Still: WRX intercoolers are super cheap and common, so I'd be really interested in your results!

[Big-Bird]

The hood intake is another limiting factor on the L400. If you could enlarge the intake scoop width/depth what would you do?

Theres not much room up front unless you redo the mouth of the grill/bumper for a larger intercooler.

There is the Aussie guy who put a put a double scoop on his L400 for the Lexus V8 engine swap. Lots of body work there.

[stever1000]

Here's someone from delicaclub.com that installed a bigger intercooler from eBay and a modified WRX scoop:





ref: http://www.delicaclub.com/viewtopic.php ... 82#p172082

[Krazyistkarl]

At this time all I've got is a single map sensor. I could T it into my boost line for turbo boost pressure, log it for a few days, then move the map sensor post intercooler to see the efficiency?

And that scoop and intercooler are drool worthy

[Big-Bird]

Wow. That's a wild swap!

He bought a hood from a gas unit and mod'd it to suit the massive scoop and intercooler.....wonder what gains are being realized?


I am still fiddling with the idea of a bigger turbo on my 4M40 and may have found what is needed....still need to research parts comparability for bolt on updates

[Krazyistkarl]

What are you thinking turbo wise?

My buddy is still really busy with his family and we haven't had a chance to fit up his intercooler yet. Sooo, after checking out the thread on making a carbon fiber snorkel and seeing the process, I'm going to attemp to make a larger scoop for the intercooler using similar methods. Should be relatively straightforward, maybe 2.5 times the opening for a better ram air effect