PWR v. Denco Liquid Air Intercoolers any difference??? (1 Viewer)

[Volcano cruiser]

Guys,
I have to admit that before reading a post in another thread I didn´t know that Denco made liquid air barrel intercoolers. I had been looking at either the 4x10 or 6 x 10 PWR barrel kits for the 1HZ that I swapped into my 40. I have to wait another week or so until I see how much room I have left after upgrading the originally 40 series MC and booster to the non ABS 80 series one. I reached out via email to John at Radd on pricing for the Denco kits. My question more generally for diesel mudders is what are the differences between the PWR and Denco liquid to air barrel systems? Are folks aware of differences in barrel construction or materials, pump efficiency or intercool rad size options, materials or efficiency? Are there any quality differences or ease of installation differences? Also it would be great if folks could share their experiences running either system or both.
Thanks,
John

 

[Hulsty]

Pretty sure the barrel component is the same between both, PWR make them, Denco rebadge. The differences are in the kit. PWR sell generic kits, Denco have model specific kits, which include things like specific cast bends etc to mate everything up.

 

[Adam B]

Glad to be able to answer a second question of yours in the same day! I have the 4x10 kit from Denco (actually purchased from Radd Cruisers). As stated above it is the exact same barrel as the PWR.

My advise is to get the largest one you can fit. In my case I cannot easily fit anything bigger in either dimension. I still haven't got my temp sensors to prove it but I'm fairly sure that I'm pushing the effective limit of my IC setup @ 18psi continuous up big long highway hills.

You can do it much cheaper by piecing it together yourself and in a semi-custom application like yours you probably won't be able to just take a kit and throw it in. Even my application, which should have been direct bolt-in required a bunch of monkeying around. Still an easy day install with plenty of breaks, taking photos, etc. I still think the kit concept is good because you will get all the stuff you need in one shot. You'll probably need to modify the mounting of the water pump, mini rad cap, rad, and hose routing but that's all really simple compared to the engine swap you've already been through...

 

[Adam B]

Actually, I'd like to add a question to this since it's closely related.......

When it comes to liquid-air intercoolers, is there more to be gained by having the largest possible barrel or the largest possible heat exchanger (radiator)? Or is it the balance between the two that counts most?

It seems to me that you'd want the largest of both but knowing that you're going to run out of room at both ends I'm wondering if it's worth going much larger in one area if you can't also go larger in the other.

 

[Dougal]

Actually, I'd like to add a question to this since it's closely related.......

When it comes to liquid-air intercoolers, is there more to be gained by having the largest possible barrel or the largest possible heat exchanger (radiator)? Or is it the balance between the two that counts most?

It seems to me that you'd want the largest of both but knowing that you're going to run out of room at both ends I'm wondering if it's worth going much larger in one area if you can't also go larger in the other.

If the water in the system gets warm, get a bigger radiator out front. If the air leaving the barrel is still hot and the water is cold and moving fast then get a longer barrel.

It's about getting the whole system right.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

If the water in the system gets warm, get a bigger radiator out front. If the air leaving the barrel is still hot and the water is cold and moving fast then get a longer barrel.

It's about getting the whole system right.

Dougal,
Are people putting water and air temp guages into the IC system in order to monitor IC performance? Clearly there are no rules against doing so, just in researching the components of these kits I never noticed that water and air temp gauges and senders were either included or recommended. Don´t get me wrong I´m a fan of never too much information but neither do I want my dash to look like the cockpit of a 747. Assuming that not many folks do add gauges, is there a formula for calculating the balance between the barrel and the rad.
Thanks,
John

 

[Dougal]

Dougal,
Are people putting water and air temp guages into the IC system in order to monitor IC performance? Clearly there are no rules against doing so, just in researching the components of these kits I never noticed that water and air temp gauges and senders were either included or recommended. Don´t get me wrong I´m a fan of never too much information but neither do I want my dash to look like the cockpit of a 747. Assuming that not many folks do add gauges, is there a formula for calculating the balance between the barrel and the rad.
Thanks,
John

Most people just bolt parts on and hope they work. I'd expect the manufacturers to do at least some testing, but that doesn't mean the people putting together kits are.

You can get digital temp readouts which switch between several sensors. That would be a clean way to do it.
I have a laptop DAQ unit which can record voltages from several sensors at once. I ran that sitting on the passengers knee when I was doing some testing a few years back. But my air/water intercooler hasn't been ressurected since.

 

[lshobie]

I had the 4x10 PWR on my 1HZ, was great, no I didn't take measurements but there as an improvement over my front mount. If I flogged it on the highway for an hour and stopped to check it the rad would be warm but never hot, I ran a 12x12x2 rad with fan.

I just ordered a frozen boost 12.5x12.5x4.5 water/air intercooler as an experiment - going to see if it is better and will weld some fittings for probes in it - I'll get some numbers on with this one.

Anything helps.

 

[Volcano cruiser]

I had the 4x10 PWR on my 1HZ, was great, no I didn't take measurements but there as an improvement over my front mount. If I flogged it on the highway for an hour and stopped to check it the rad would be warm but never hot, I ran a 12x12x2 rad with fan.

I just ordered a frozen boost 12.5x12.5x4.5 water/air intercooler as an experiment - going to see if it is better and will weld some fittings for probes in it - I'll get some numbers on with this one.

Anything helps.

Louis,
You did the PWR barrel but the rest was homebrew, i.e. not the PWR kit if I recall, correct? If so what size pump did you use, a marine bilge pump or something else.
John