The Official 12HT intercooler thread (1 Viewer)

[maat]

one of these days i will pull my finger out

 

[neetu]

This is what worked for me.
- 2.25 piping
- HKS 2.5 intercooler
- Hallman boost controller @ 11psi haven't touched fuel yet
Dropped close to 200degreesF post turbo temps . Truly the best mod

 

[maat]

fxxx yeah nice work dude

 

[traveldud]

Neetu asked me to cut and paste this into the thread....

Hey, it was very easy and cheap to do since i'd removed my AC condenser and plumbing. I did this in exchange for another side mount alternator and a third battery as well . This is not a kit , I've custom made/designed it myself.
Parts.
1. 2.25 aluminum pipe kit $100. silicone intakes
2. 3x90's , 2x45's , 3xstraight couplers $50. aero exhaust
3. 10 Stainless steel tbolt clamps $70. lordco
4. HKS 2.5 intercooler , bought used $100.
Cut machined welded adapter to intake tube to keep it stock looking , did myself. And I have a spare one I did a top mount using the same intercooler , no where near the results to a front mount even with fans under it. I live in surrey, bc ur welcome to come by have a look.

 

[neetu]

Here is a recent pic .

 

[dogfishlake]

Since I dug up this old thread, I thought I would add here rather than start a new thread.

I am considering an intercooler (or really, an aftercooler but lets not start splitting hairs) to my 12ht at some point.

I also had water/methanol injection on my old supercharged 1fz-fe and am strongly considering this for the 12ht. I need to get with Snow Performance and see if they will sell me the goods to convert my gas system to a diesel one. That really just involves the trigger system and flow rate control.

I am appreciative of all opinions on this one

 

[dogfishlake]

Snow Performance MPG-MAX Universal Water-Methanol Injection Kit

Add 50HP, cool EGTS 100-300 degrees, and increase fuel economy by 1-3 MPG with a Snow Performance MPG-MAX Diesel Water-Methanol Injection kit!

www.snowperformance.net

Something like this with EGT reduction being the true goal.

 

[relaxedcruiser]

So this an old thread and and sometimes I read that people are sort of apologising to keep an old one alive by posting new ideas or posing questions.
I have always found that a bit odd - why not adding information to an older thread ? - and actually quite like reading different approaches to our ideas or issues over the years.
It also keeps things in order...sort of.

So my trusty 12ht finally gets a well deserved refreshment in form of a front mount I/C. There are some very well made kits available but I have not, or I'm not willing to spend, $1800 AU plus shipping for it.
I found a unfinished project, a conglomeration of parts including a 550x140x65 intercooler,aluminium piping, silicone joiners and a unfinished stainless turbo knee for a good price on e-bay while on a visit in Germany half a year ago.
After coming back to New Zealand I quickly found out that my ideas while far away from the cruiser were not going to happen and that I/C just was too long and would not fit at all. anyway a bit on the small side...
So I bought a relatively cheap probably Chinese bar and plate 450x230x65 mm which is slightly larger in volume while shorter. It was not a question to get rid of the A/C so space is a bit limited.
Here is the first try fit and the mixture of parts...It's all 63.5 mm / 2.5" in dia.

My goal is not to gain the best performance possible - I'm rather want to get the egt's down on those long high speed inclines. During normal driving it's all good but going uphill while maintaining 100 km/h flat out soon brings the egt past 600°C. To knock those peaks down is what Is what I'm aiming for. The possible gain in performance while driving in normal conditions is very welcomed too - don't get me wrong here. I might be possible to give her a bit more juice too ...
I started some days ago with finding the right position for the I/C - and abandoned the first plan to use aluminium angle for the bracket. I thought that that would look sort of cheap and I can't deny the fun in constructing something.

I made the bracket out of 10mm round plus 25x5 flat steel for the fixations.
The brackets got some more additions for the bonnet catch and it's brace ....they are drying their paint right now...
To be continued.

 

[relaxedcruiser]

Fitted the painted brackets and I/C today and spend quite some time to shave the back of the grille to match it. As the grille slightly tilts towards the intercooler there is not much left in places. I wanted to keep it as stock looking as possible from the outside so went carefully. Used the dremel with a saw blade first but that was far to slow. The angle grinder with a fresh grinding disc used at a right angle did the job faster but left a rather coarse finish. The orbital sander with a 40 grit was good to use for the final job. Wonder how much the quite solid Toyota emblem is limiting direct airflow. Once up and running I'll attach in/out temperature probes check the difference driving without the grille (or for fun just without the badge. I guess there's a bit of 'pre use' excitement to it right now. Next is the pipework - looking forward to hone my actually not really existing tig skills. Spend some time to get the bonnet / hood catch support nicely arranged as the catch is kinda wobbly without it.

 

[Silveredition]

Here is what mine looks like with the PDI front mount….

 

[relaxedcruiser]

Looks good - I notice that you had to cut the entire grille at the lower end to accommodate the cooler.

Meanwhile I have tinkered quite a bit to get those first pipes bit from the turbo towards the cooler finished. After a bit of practise the tig welding went better than expected. Ok,
its not as consistent as if done by a experienced tig welder but absolutely fit for purpose I would say.
Interestingly I could not find any silicone joiner which fitted the 12HT 54 mm turbo outlet here in NZ - I eventually found one in Sweden while visiting Germany. I was quite sure that the many CT26 /CT20b turbos which are getting tinkered with would make this size a popular diameter. I fitted a direct step from 54 to 63 mm.
The 'S' is quite tight and took a good while to get right - in fact it is not touching anything despite looking so in the picture.
I'll replace the second / blue silicone joiner from the turbo with a weld in the end and trim the last silicone joiner connecting the intercooler - it looks horrible being in fact too long.
So next week end I'll hopefully get the outher side done.
I fitted a temperature gauge in the inlet just below the butterfly just for an before and after comparison and it's getting shockingly hot there !
Cruising at 80 km/h in ambient temperature of 26°C (80F) the charge air is about 60-70°C (140-158F) but on a bit of an incline or cruising at 110 km/h it gets quickly to 90°C (194F) and above - I haven't yet driven up a decent longer hill yet. So it is well worth the effort to do fit the I/C !

 

[cruiserpilot]

Looks good - I notice that you had to cut the entire grille at the lower end to accommodate the cooler.

Meanwhile I have tinkered quite a bit to get those first pipes bit from the turbo towards the cooler finished. After a bit of practise the tig welding went better than expected. Ok,
its not as consistent as if done by a experienced tig welder but absolutely fit for purpose I would say.
Interestingly I could not find any silicone joiner which fitted the 12HT 54 mm turbo outlet here in NZ - I eventually found one in Sweden while visiting Germany. I was quite sure that the many CT26 /CT20b turbos which are getting tinkered with would make this size a popular diameter. I fitted a direct step from 54 to 63 mm.
The 'S' is quite tight and took a good while to get right - in fact it is not touching anything despite looking so in the picture.
I'll replace the second / blue silicone joiner from the turbo with a weld in the end and trim the last silicone joiner connecting the intercooler - it looks horrible being in fact too long.
So next week end I'll hopefully get the outher side done.
I fitted a temperature gauge in the inlet just below the butterfly just for an before and after comparison and it's getting shockingly hot there !
Cruising at 80 km/h in ambient temperature of 26°C (80F) the charge air is about 60-70°C (140-158F) but on a bit of an incline or cruising at 110 km/h it gets quickly to 90°C (194F) and above - I haven't yet driven up a decent longer hill yet. So it is well worth the effort to do fit the I/C !
View attachment 3561708View attachment 3561710View attachment 3561712

I was trying to figure out how you did that then realized RHD! Got me! Looks great.

 

[Silveredition]

Looks good - I notice that you had to cut the entire grille at the lower end to accommodate the cooler.

Thanks!
Yep - I decided to cut the bottom of the grill off as it was getting pretty thin. The lower corners of the grill are attached to the end tanks of the Intercooler with sticky-backed Velcro.. it works well! I had already cut the valence below the cooler to fit a home-made Intercooler - that I never ended up fitting. I quite like the look of the half-grill with the cooler visible out the bottom…

 

[coldtaco]

Here’s mine. PDI intercooler HZ kit. Haven’t re-installed the AC yet.

 

[coldtaco]

Bought a plastic grill, shaved the back side till the grill fit

 

[relaxedcruiser]

Quite happy to have finished my pipework last weekend and fitted it all together. I'll replace the blue joiner after the turbo with a weld and actually all other blue joiners with black ones as soon as I'm back in the mood - for now it's just good as it is. I ditched the earlier plan to use stainless for the intake adaptor - (some stainless elbows came with the mixed bag of parts) and instead used two cast aluminium 90° elbows welded together on a 10mm flange plate - for my taste it looks way better - way more stock than shiny S/S.... I even got a scratch pad and blunded all the polished aluminium pipes - after all that fiddeling they were anyway scratched.
In my opinion it looks way more professional and less boyracer - ish in the matte finish. Ideally I would like to anodise all the parts.
The IAT (Inlet Air Temperatures) (Is that the correct term?) have dropped dramatically - from easily over 90 to 100 °C (194-212 F) just up a short hill flat out in fourth they are now just at 30°C that's 10°C above ambient. OK - its a cold, rather rainy day today.
The boost dropped from 0.85 bar to 0.75-0.70 ~ (1.5-2 psi) and I could see that the EGT were not dropping as much as I was hoping for - so I upped the boost at the compressor by that amount and now the EGT are as low as expected. Probably 100°C (212F) lower under flat out uphill conditions.
These are only the first impressions - But it feels good to me. Proud to have finalised it after so much thinking and planning beforehand - then got that tig feeling again after literally 30 years of not using a tig at all.

Happy to finally have that I/C on the engine, a well deserved refreshment for the 38th birthday.