Intercooler air intake grill (Easy to made and free)

[MauricioMontenegro]

Hi everyone!

First excuse me for my limited English language (my mother language is Spanish)

Probably some of you has do it, but has long wanted to place a grid either as extra protection and also for aesthetics.
I always find leafs inside, (once a sparrow), so I guess going to help.




This afternoon disarmed, cut and pasted




Cut to size and fold the edges along the inside of the intake.




Then has stuck, using the heat gun for plastic rods



The funniest "zero cost", the grid took it out of here



Regards

[Steve9R]

Nice use of old materials Mauricio... well done..

[Quinny34]

Awesome job.. Will look to do the same after I replace my air filter...

[9W6VX]

Well done!

Zero cost.

[olcoolone]

Why would you want to restricted the amount of air entering the intercooler?

By using that mesh you have closed the catchment area by about 40mm X 25mm (about 10+%) , thats a lot of air not getting in.

Sure it might look cool but it also lowers performance of the intercooler in high temps.

[MauricioMontenegro]

Why would you want to restricted the amount of air entering the intercooler?

By using that mesh you have closed the catchment area by about 40mm X 25mm (about 10+%) , thats a lot of air not getting in.

Sure it might look cool but it also lowers performance of the intercooler in high temps.

olcoolone:

Previously I asked the Toyota Tecnicians, they told me about the intake holes are over calculated around 30% more air capacity that intercooler needs, to ensure the right operation in extreme weather condition ( different places around the world). This grill no oppose air resistance, literaly cuts the air.
Regads

[hilux xcab]

nice one Mauro looks good

[Batman]

Why would you want to restricted the amount of air entering the intercooler?

By using that mesh you have closed the catchment area by about 40mm X 25mm (about 10+%) , thats a lot of air not getting in.

Sure it might look cool but it also lowers performance of the intercooler in high temps.

Olcoolone,

I could if I wanted to be pedantic say exactly the same thing to you regarding the front of your Hilux and the spotties you have restricting air flow into the radiator...

Steve

[olcoolone]

Steve you could and I'm quite aware of the air flow restriction but I have this thing called a temperature gauge that I watch...

I have no choice if I want a bull bar for protection, driving lights to see where I'm going and a winch to get me out if I become stuck.

I do have a choice if I want to restricted air flow to my intercooler!

There is no temparature gauge for the intercooler and top mount intercooler need as much air as they can get as they suffer from heat soak from the engine.

So Steve what options do I have if I want frontal protection, being able to see where I'm going at night and when travelling alone the ability to get myself out of a bog?

Waiting for your reply!

[Batman]

Steve you could and I'm quite aware of the air flow restriction but I have this thing called a temperature gauge that I watch...

I have no choice if I want a bull bar for protection, driving lights to see where I'm going and a winch to get me out if I become stuck.

I do have a choice if I want to restricted air flow to my intercooler!

There is no temparature gauge for the intercooler and top mount intercooler need as much air as they can get as they suffer from heat soak from the engine.

So Steve what options do I have if I want frontal protection, being able to see where I'm going at night and when travelling alone the ability to get myself out of a bog?

Waiting for your reply!

Olcoolone,

It was in jest...

But just check Mauro's photos again and have a look at the grille that Toyota put across the top of the intercooler, I personally believe that his addition is tiny in comparison and I would doubt that you could measure the difference with either a temp gauge or on a dyno. Much the same as I don't really think the spotties/bullbar effect the cooling of the radiator, check my shed I have exactly the same set up as you with Bullbar and lights.

I have in the past had flywire covering the top of my intercooler on my Patrol, you could not tell the difference in real driving conditions. I have also had flywire covering my radiator to keep out locusts when driving through plagues. Again no change was noted to running temp on gauge.

Such things as humidity and ambient air temperature have a far greater affect on the performance of an intercooler and are completely unavoidable.

One final thought - on the Falcon XR6turbo there was an upgrade in model, I think from BA to BF (not exactly sure on that) and Ford added a grille in front of the intercooler below the bumper. No change to power/torque up or down were gazetted with that change.

I have found your posts on technical things to be well written and incredibly insightful, knowledegable and helpful. I just didn't really think you needed to burst Mauro's bubble with your post, so I humourously had a dig at you, I hope I did not offend.

Steve.

[olcoolone]

You grab all the mm wire and put it together and see how much.

I think I counted 40 of 1mm wire going across and 27 of 1mm wire going up...compress the wire and it is a big restriction in air flow for some thing that requires air flow to keep it cool.

Chances are you will not notice it from driving only.

With humidity and ambient air temperature that is something you have no control over but restrict the air flow is something you have control over and in those circumstances you want maximum air flow to help cool.

When they do it in the factory they do it under controlled conditions and monitoring as per XR-6.

I wasn't trying to burst anyones bubble, I think it looks good but so many people on here what to extract every last bit of power form there engine with out internal mods I just thought people should know the truth.

Not many people take this into consideration when doing mods, I work on the theory of "what I am going to do is it going to increase or aid the end result".

You haven't offended me as I hope I haven't offended Mauro.

But these days any alteration to air intakes will decrease performance especially something that needs maximum air flow to cool.

I'm surprised someone hasn't come out with a bigger air scoop for the intercooler yet.

[MauricioMontenegro]

You haven't offended me as I hope I haven't offended Mauro.

But these days any alteration to air intakes will decrease performance especially something that needs maximum air flow to cool.

I'm surprised someone hasn't come out with a bigger air scoop for the intercooler yet.

Olcoolone:

I'm happy with my cheap grill.
You do not offend me. I respect your engineering analysis, and I guess you can have all the reason for a very intensive use of the truck.
Fortunately I use it just to go with family, different would be working in the oil fields or in the desert.

Highly restrictive is this grill, offering on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Invincible-Interc ... 286.c0.m14

[olcoolone]

Mauro, you grill does look good, for your use you will not notice any difference.

You should look at making a larger scoop to catch more air, like Subaru do with the WRX STI compared with the standard WRX.

[matty87]

Mate that grill looks sweet.
To all you blokes arguing about air restrictions ever driven through tall crops or grass like in the kimberly and territry, or for that matter those really thick locust swarms? Belive you me an hour in the long grass and we had a 3litre patrol and a 3 litre turb hilux the previous modle over heating, but the third vehicle the 3 litre patrol that i had put flywire grill protectors out from the radiator and also across the front of the intercooler was still going fine. I dont disagree about the loss in airflow infact i concure with ocolone about the 10%, infact it would be more due to the disturbance to the air flow that it would cause, but still well worth while for certain conditions.

[Ox Man]

Looks great.... if my rig never saw out side of the city I would put it on!

Speaking of air restrictions, does a factory bonnet protector limit the air flow to the intercooler as the angles of the unit appears at first glance to spoil the air flow off the bonnet? I saw a larger one on a lux in Thailand that had a scoop to direct airflow straight to the cooler. Looked sweet as.

I also heard the pre filter mod can deprive flow of fuel to the injectors?

[Hilux Max]

Yeah I seen a larger "bolt-on" scoop for the hilux bonnet on one of the thailand auto accessory websites...looked ok too.....

maybe just retrofit a nice 3 hole bug catcher on top.....Hmmmm!