Front Mount Intercooler Vs Top Mount

[Jimmu]

An Intercooler is my next project for the MU.

I am led to believe a top mount of a Jackaroo will fit stright on to the 4JB1T engine.

However being from the school of petrol performance where top mounts are always replaced by front mounts if you want serious power I am leaning towards a front mount set up.

I just have to work out how to be able to mount it high enough that it is not going to contact the ground while 4WDing and get some decent airflow.

I can get a front mount intercooler with a 450 x 300 x76 core for about $270 like this:
i10.ebayimg.com/02/i/03/5a/85/ed_1_b.JPG
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I am thinking a full 600x300x76 will be overkill / Laggy.

Comments?

I know a couple of guys on here have front mount setups and am hoping you can post come pictures and some words of wisdom on how you fitted them.

Jimmy.

[wayne]

I went for the top mount because it was going to be an easier job to fit.
A front mount would be better performance wise (performance? what performance? It's a friggin diesel!) but I didn't want to be cutting holes to feed pipe work through, so I cut a hole in the bonnet instead!
Having to alter the intercooler to fit the top mount gave me a good excuse to pull it off the wagon and cut the butterfly valve out and unleash at least another half a horsepower.

W.

[James W]

If you front mount I would suggest you want to stay away from any mud....
Yes, front better on road, but if it's full of mud it will be worse than a clean top mount.

[wayne]

Simple James, when he plumbs in the obligatory boy racer water mister system he just has to put it behind the intercooler, use jet nozzles instead of misters and use a high pressure pump. ;D

W

[geeves]

Front mount is the pure way to go but like everyone has said not good in the mud. The reason most people use top mount is that it bolts straight on with no messing around (unless your a 3.1 Mu)
I did some testing a while ago on the bighorn and found that at open road speeds the top mount intercooler works quite well with temperature at the outlet never over 40 C on a 30+C day even climbing hills. Obviously at off road speeds this would be worse but I know of one Isuzu in Auckland that has fitted a fan on top of his intercooler for extra cooling and have heard od water sprays being used.
Someone posted pics a while ago of a front mount setup that was quite tidy it could be worth searching for.

[Roger]

A 9 inch thermo fan on the top mount will do the trick nicely- fan mounted below the cooler.
The temperature gauge won't move again if fan is ignition activated.
Otherwise go the switch.
Joe's 3.1 is ignition activated and seems to do the trick.

[Jimmu]

How do you mount a fan under the core?

I would have thought there would not be enough room?

Jimmy.

[draganlada]

I agree with Jimmy,plus have to add ; air which goes through IC core warmes up and has to have room to escape to otherwise cooling of IC wouldn't be eficient.
Just my 2 c/

Dragan

[namic69]

I have an 10" slim fan on top of my intercooler and it works very well (3.1 bighorn) it has distorted the rubber seal a little but with the fan in and working it is much better. Especially when im playing in the sand as I often do

[mulover]

I have put a fan on top of my top mount intercooler as well. I have a later model intercooler with an early model scoop so i made a new shrowd up to match the 2 together which gives me heaps of room for the fan. Has given me more pull but no more top speed.

[Bruce]

The big change in intercoolers these days is the air to water coolers. They have a heat exchanger (a cyclinder which goes between the turbo and intake manifold) a small radiator with fan (out in front of the main rad) a 12volt pump, two half inch hoses, which go to and from the heat exchanger. The liquid used is glycol.
With this system the air is being cooled all the time, going slow or fast. I first saw one on a winch truck at LCMP and now see that 4WD Systems in Adelaide, about $1500.
Now where is that $1500.
Cheers Bruce

[Graham]

You can get a similar water to air intercooler from the Subaru Liberty/Legacy, I would assume something very similar for much less than $1500 at the wreckers.

Cheers, Graham.

[Roger]

There's some pics of a top mount fitted to a 3.1 motor. It's got a fan mounted under it, you can see the bolts.

clubisuzu.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=Enginemods&action=display&thread=1114664628