Opinions on this water to air intercooler for LJ78 / 2LTE? (1 Viewer)

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You guys have probably seen these, but here are a few photos of a air/water setups that a few of us have built now. And I can say this design works very effectively. Facilitated transformation of my 2LTE from a pathetic anemic fragile thing into a decently capable and powerful engine.

My setup after I first built it:

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All of these are fantastic. I'm especially impressed by Malteser's build. Very clean.

It looks like everyone tossed the stock inlet pipe that enters the throttle body and fabbed up a new one to get the desired angle, is that correct? Wish I knew someone who can weld aluminum.

Also, is that top support bracket sufficient to support the weight of the intercooler, or is there a bracket on the bottom as well?
 
All of these are fantastic. I'm especially impressed by Malteser's build. Very clean.

It looks like everyone tossed the stock inlet pipe that enters the throttle body and fabbed up a new one to get the desired angle, is that correct? Wish I knew someone who can weld aluminum.

Also, is that top support bracket sufficient to support the weight of the intercooler, or is there a bracket on the bottom as well?

Yes, we all got rid of the stock inlet pipe. I have a CAD drawing somewhere that shows dimensions for a flange for the throttle body inlet. Can find it if you want.

You can buy a general purpose 2" aluminum piping kit from Ebay. They usually come with a few 90degree bends. Then just buy silicone couplers and clamps to put it all together. The setups with fewer couplers look cleaner, but they also flex less and are more prone to cracking. In fact, I think Jarrat said he ended up modifying his setup to add couplers back in.

We all made slightly different brackets. But yes, those mounting points we all used are strong. The real key is to design it in a way that the intercooler can rock back and forth as the engine torques and vibrates (moves) side to side. That type of intercooler has mounting holes on top and bottom. I made a bracket that attached to both, but was suspended only from the top. This allowed movement.

The reason I went with a water/air setup as opposed to air/air, was to retain my A/C compressor. If you did not want your A/C, an air/air setup would be easier.

Oh yeah, and don't be tempted by larger than 2" piping. There is no point for the CFM's that our engines use. I think 2" can support over 200hp. In fact my friend used 2" on his HDJ81 running a Supra turbo. It is not restricting his power either.
 
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Here are a few pictures of a Prado LJ78 air/air setup done by @pradocruzer . He's since gone to a 1uzfe V8...which he refers to as the 'best mod ever' for the Prado.

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I don't much care about A/C. I never use it when I'm alone in the car, but my wife can't live in the summer without it.

Regarding the inlet pipe, I expect I can just cut the base off of it and weld to that, no?
 
I don't much care about A/C. I never use it when I'm alone in the car, but my wife can't live in the summer without it.

Regarding the inlet pipe, I expect I can just cut the base off of it and weld to that, no?

I think it's cast aluminum? Not sure if you can weld to that? I've attached a pdf of the part I had made (attached to this post).
 

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Thanks for the file. I'm saving that and the photos above for future reference.

I love the idea of swapping in a UZ1 and if I were a better mechanic, I'd probably go for it. But based on everything I've read, it looks like at least a $5K to $8K job when you're paying for labor. I can bodge things pretty well, but engine swaps are a bit beyond my capabilities.
 
All of these are fantastic. I'm especially impressed by Malteser's build. Very clean.

It looks like everyone tossed the stock inlet pipe that enters the throttle body and fabbed up a new one to get the desired angle, is that correct? Wish I knew someone who can weld aluminum.

Also, is that top support bracket sufficient to support the weight of the intercooler, or is there a bracket on the bottom as well?

Thank you for your compliment!

Regarding the intercooler support bracket, the pipework alone supports the intercooler very well thus the mentioned top bracket is enough to hold it in place. Also, being supported between distant points lets the intercooler move with the engine acting sorta like a leaf spring.
 
Here are a couple of photos I saved from a Facebook Toyota group post. By far cleanest front mount intercooler setup I've seen on an L engined Prado and still managed to keep his AC!

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Here are a couple of photos I saved from a Facebook Toyota group post. By far cleanest front mount intercooler setup I've seen on an L engined Prado and still managed to keep his AC!

Wow, I love the simplicity of that one. I couldn't figure out how he managed to find room for that intercooler behind the grill, though. I only measure a couple of inches clearance before I start bumping into A/C plumbing. Looking closer, it appears that he was able to move the entire radiator/condenser assembly back about an inch. It's very subtle.
 
Yeah in his comments he mentioned he moved and bent some ac pipework to make it fit
 
That's a clean install for sure. Any mention of what intercooler he used?
 
So the 9.25x6x3.5 air to water radiator is not available anywhere I can find. Any thought on what the largest dimension is that will fit in the space by the fuel filter?
 
Yep that’s the smallest I could find. Order placed! Thanks.
 

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