Captain Bondo
12-06-2003, 12:49 AM
Below is a rough draft containing info on the powerstroke ic install and general ic info. The measurements for the notches are not exact, I did not complewte the step in this faq that tells you to paint the cuts so they don't rust, so I'm going to take everything apart, measure it all exactly, paint it, and take some good clean pics. But this is the basics of it anyways. Thanks.
--------------------------------------
The Powerstroke Intercooler Install
Installing a Ford Powerstroke Intercooler into the Volvo 240
Disclaimer:
No promises. This is what worked for me with 7” lights and Rob with quad rectangular lights. Many people insist it still won’t fit. To my knowledge this does not work with euro lights. Also, until I get hold of a 740 to sort out an install for, this install applies to the 240 series only. Use all proper safety gear. Not responsible for any damage incurred to either persons or things as a result of this install. If you saw right through a frame rail, or smash into a tree testing it out, the damage ain’t mine nor Turbobricks’ fault. Attempting any of this is entirely at you own risk.
Intercooler Theory: The subject of what makes a good intercooler is widely debated, and in practice it has been shown that intercooler “upgrades” do not always function in the way “theory” would have suggested.
There are, however, a few absolutes- rules of thumb, if you will- that should be considered when talking about intercoolers and intercooler upgrades.
First, intercoolers have 2 primary characteristics:
1) Their ability to remove heat from the air passing through them.
2) Their ability to allow air to pass through them with a minimal pressure drop (this applies both to boosted engine air, as well as ambient air) across them.
The Volvo intercooler is a large, but fairly old tech intercooler. It has a decent surface area, but modern IC’s have fins on the INSIDE of the tubes as well as externally- which help create more surface area internally to help absorb and transfer heat out of the boosted air to the external fins where it is then “carried away” by the ambient air passing through the core. So- although reasonably sized, the stock Volvo IC has in general a significant disadvantage efficiency-wise when compared to more modern designs.
The Volvo IC also seems to develop significant pressure drop as flow rates are increased, but since the IC has a decent number of tubes and no internal fins to restrict flow, I personally suspect it is the end tanks, but regardless of the reason why it is restrictive, the bottom line is the Volvo IC is both that as well as inefficient at higher loads when compared to many of the more modern IC’s available.
So then, why should you want a better IC?
All other things equal, if an IC performs better in characteristic 1, it will result in cooler intake air temps, which means denser air, and less chance of detonation this means the result will be more power for a given boost level thanks to higher density, and also potentially a higher peak boost potential for given fuel octane since the cooler air means a lower tendency for the air/fuel to detonate. If an IC performs better in characteristic 2, the pressure drop across the IC is less, meaning the turbo does not need to work as hard to produce a given manifold pressure because it does not need to first overcome the restriction of the intercooler. This means less strain on the turbo -> less heat -> less pumping losses, etc.
Oftentimes an IC can be sourced that performs better than the original in both characteristics which in general spell a good improvement in torque and power. Better heat rejection and more efficient use of the turbo’s available pressure ratio capabilities and efficiency also means you can run the turbo further towards the ragged of the compressor map (see compressor map FAQ for more info on this), which means you will be able to make more power with your existing turbo, meaning you may be able to put off a turbo upgrade and/or use a smaller turbo.
The “Powerstroke” IC, named such since it is found in 2000+ (?) Ford Powerstroke 7.3L diesel trucks; has far more heat radiating/exchange surface than the Volvo IC, internal fins, and better (and in some cases aluminium) end-tanks, all at a similar thickness to the Volvo IC. I like this because since increasing thickness dramatically increase the flow capability of an IC and also it’s heat exchange area by a significant amount, increased thickness means that ambient air may not be able to pass through the core at as great a rate, so increasing core thickness is often unpredictable.
Adding height to the IC helps flow and heat exchange area and length increase greatly aids heat exchange area but slightly increases pressure drop.
The Powerstroke is relatively cheap (very cheap compared to a custom IC), has a useable thickness, massive (probably the largest realistically possible) dimensions otherwise for a large heat dissipating area and heat-sinking ability, and good (often metal) end-tanks, in a modern, internally finned design that has been used in Powerstroke apps in excess of 700hp, all of which make it an excellent candidate for a Volvo 240 upgrade.
A note on lag: After hours and hours of internet battle on this subject, all I can tell you is that, if you crunch the numbers comparing the volume of the Powerstroke IC to the volume of the non-internally finned (this increases volume) stock intercooler, and then look at this with respect to engine and turbo compressor flows rates, any lag introduced is simply insignificant, and if you don’t believe that, neither myself nor anyone else I know has experienced a significant change in engine response as a result of this upgrade. The proof is in the pudding, so-to-speak.
On to the nitty-gritty…
What You’ll Need:
-A Powerstroke IC: best bet is E-bay or some dealers will have a decent price. Get one with aluminium end-tanks if you can.
-Frightening cutting implement: I used a regular old hacksaw and cobalt blades, 10 of ‘em or so. You can use a sawzall or whatever though too. The manual labour version takes long but allows much cleaner cuts- if you care about that sort of thing.
-Drill with a bit slightly larger in diameter than the hacksaw/sawzall blade.
-Some thin rubber to pad the IC. Pieces of inner tube or something should work
-Rust inhibiting primer and black paint (or the colour of you car ideally)
-A hammer
-A metal file
-a Dremel or die grinder is nice but not necessary. a small cutter on a drill would work too.
What to do:
1) Disassembly
The Powerstroke is going to sit between the subframe rails, right behind where the bumper shocks bolt to them. So, you need to remove the grille, headlight bezels, headlights, rad support, radiator, front bumper, hood latch, and anything else that impedes your access to the front part of the subframe. The more stuff you remove the more room you will have to work with.
2)Initial Cuts.
Hold the PSIC above the subframe rails it is going to fit between to get an idea where you need to cut, you may need to sit it on “backwards” with the inlet/out facing front if they are in the way. I marked around where the tanks would sit with a felt marker so I would know roughly where to cut, you can go ahead and do this for a guide- but if you make your cuts to the depth and spacing indicated here you should be fine. One thing to keep in mind here id that cutting the notch too big is better than cutting it too small. A little big and you put a little more insulating rubber in- a little to small and you either have to re-cut it larger or laboriously file/grind the notch bigger which sucks. Believe me.
You are going to cut a notch 3”x2.5” in each subframe rail, just behind where the bumpershocks bolt up. So, start be making the cuts perpendicular to the rail first.
Make one cut, 3” into the rail, about ¼” behind where the bumper shock bolts up. WARNING: YOU WILL CUT INTO THE BUMPER SHOCK, WHICH MAY STILL CONTAIN SOME SORT OF PRESSURIZED GOO. GUARD YOUR FACE, AND PLACE SOMETHING UNDER THE CUT IF YOU ARE DOING THIS IN YOUR MOM’S DRIVEWAY.
Do this for both rails.
Then, make another cut parallel to the first, 3” deep again, about 2.5” further “up” the rail.
Now you have 4 cuts, all too narrow for you to get the saw turned sideways in to actually cut between the 2 cuts and make a notch in the rail.
Most solutions to this I have seen while functionally fine, look somewhat frightening, so here’s what worked for me:
3) Drilling the initial cuts.
Drill a hole at the end of one of the cuts so that the hole touches the cut, but is inside the “perimeter” of where the cuts are so that you can have a square corner.
4) Cutting the “Connecting” Cuts.
Now that you have a hole at the end of one of the initial cuts wider than your saw blade, you have room to turn the blade sideways, and saw up the rail to connect to the second initial cut. If you are using a hacksaw, you may have to remove the blade, put it through the hole, and then reconnect it. Once you do this, a nice, square, notch-shaped chunk of metal should drop out. Yee haw!
5) File and Hammer
File the cut marks smooth and hammer the top edge of the cut downward so the tank will have a nice rounded surface to sit on rather than a sharp edge. It’s stuff like this that will make the difference between something that looks like a cool mod and something that looks like it was done be Conan The Barbarian. The rounded edge also lets it sit that much lower in the bay increasing your chances of getting the rad support back on.
6) Test fit and Trim
Jam the IC in as best you can, bend the remaining material that the rad support and headlights bolt to as far into the engine bay as you can to help the end-tanks clear.
You will see that some of the sheet metal needs to be trimmed to make way for the end-tank inlet/outlet, so make a rough mark with a felt pen if need be of what needs trimmed, trim it with the saw (or the Dremel/die grinder is nice for this), file it smooth (you’ll cut yourself on that jagged edge), and try again until it fits.
7) Paint
Now pull the IC out, and prime and paint everywhere you cut, because it will rust quickly.
Let it dry as long as is practically possible.
8) Put the IC in w/ rubber padding, and reassemble everything. You may need to trim of parts of the surround edge of your headlight bucks, but 7” round and 4 quad will fit when trimmed a little. Euro lights will not work from what I can tell. This is all just more trim, test, trim some more.
9) Piping
Make up some piping by ABS pipe, random mix of stock pipes, or custom fab, and you’re done! Only last step is, if you’re one of the people who insisted it’d never fit or that it’d be laggy, give yourself a nice swift kick in the bum! ;)
A Note on safety:
The question of whether or not this mod is safe has come up, so I thought I would add what I have found regarding this: The Department of Transportation released an official document in the 90’s stating that bumper shocks proved to be no safer than a rigidly welded bumper structure. What this means is that disabling the bumper shocks is fine, in many demo derbies, welding bumper shocks up to be non-functional is actually a requirement. You have effectively disabled the bumper shocks, and you have removed metal from their supporting structure- while replacing it with a cast aluminium end tank that is certainly weaker than the material it replaced, but, the only purpose of that material is to hold the bumper shock- which in themselves crush in at like, 10mph, meaning any of that infrastructure is redundant in a serious accident anyways. So, the only problem with this setup is damage form minor accidents- that if you rear-end someone hard, or have something hit the front of the car from the side, the notches could potentially squish in and mangle your end tanks which means you’d need to get them repaired- one solution to this would be to have a piece of flatbar welded between the two bumper shocks so that they cannot be easily pushed off-axis, causing the endtank to be “pinched” by the notch on a side impact. At that point it’d probably actually be safer than stock.
Best of luck!
-Kenny Watson, Owner of the original Trogdor wagon, aka The Green Meanie, aka Green Death
--------------------------------------
The Powerstroke Intercooler Install
Installing a Ford Powerstroke Intercooler into the Volvo 240
Disclaimer:
No promises. This is what worked for me with 7” lights and Rob with quad rectangular lights. Many people insist it still won’t fit. To my knowledge this does not work with euro lights. Also, until I get hold of a 740 to sort out an install for, this install applies to the 240 series only. Use all proper safety gear. Not responsible for any damage incurred to either persons or things as a result of this install. If you saw right through a frame rail, or smash into a tree testing it out, the damage ain’t mine nor Turbobricks’ fault. Attempting any of this is entirely at you own risk.
Intercooler Theory: The subject of what makes a good intercooler is widely debated, and in practice it has been shown that intercooler “upgrades” do not always function in the way “theory” would have suggested.
There are, however, a few absolutes- rules of thumb, if you will- that should be considered when talking about intercoolers and intercooler upgrades.
First, intercoolers have 2 primary characteristics:
1) Their ability to remove heat from the air passing through them.
2) Their ability to allow air to pass through them with a minimal pressure drop (this applies both to boosted engine air, as well as ambient air) across them.
The Volvo intercooler is a large, but fairly old tech intercooler. It has a decent surface area, but modern IC’s have fins on the INSIDE of the tubes as well as externally- which help create more surface area internally to help absorb and transfer heat out of the boosted air to the external fins where it is then “carried away” by the ambient air passing through the core. So- although reasonably sized, the stock Volvo IC has in general a significant disadvantage efficiency-wise when compared to more modern designs.
The Volvo IC also seems to develop significant pressure drop as flow rates are increased, but since the IC has a decent number of tubes and no internal fins to restrict flow, I personally suspect it is the end tanks, but regardless of the reason why it is restrictive, the bottom line is the Volvo IC is both that as well as inefficient at higher loads when compared to many of the more modern IC’s available.
So then, why should you want a better IC?
All other things equal, if an IC performs better in characteristic 1, it will result in cooler intake air temps, which means denser air, and less chance of detonation this means the result will be more power for a given boost level thanks to higher density, and also potentially a higher peak boost potential for given fuel octane since the cooler air means a lower tendency for the air/fuel to detonate. If an IC performs better in characteristic 2, the pressure drop across the IC is less, meaning the turbo does not need to work as hard to produce a given manifold pressure because it does not need to first overcome the restriction of the intercooler. This means less strain on the turbo -> less heat -> less pumping losses, etc.
Oftentimes an IC can be sourced that performs better than the original in both characteristics which in general spell a good improvement in torque and power. Better heat rejection and more efficient use of the turbo’s available pressure ratio capabilities and efficiency also means you can run the turbo further towards the ragged of the compressor map (see compressor map FAQ for more info on this), which means you will be able to make more power with your existing turbo, meaning you may be able to put off a turbo upgrade and/or use a smaller turbo.
The “Powerstroke” IC, named such since it is found in 2000+ (?) Ford Powerstroke 7.3L diesel trucks; has far more heat radiating/exchange surface than the Volvo IC, internal fins, and better (and in some cases aluminium) end-tanks, all at a similar thickness to the Volvo IC. I like this because since increasing thickness dramatically increase the flow capability of an IC and also it’s heat exchange area by a significant amount, increased thickness means that ambient air may not be able to pass through the core at as great a rate, so increasing core thickness is often unpredictable.
Adding height to the IC helps flow and heat exchange area and length increase greatly aids heat exchange area but slightly increases pressure drop.
The Powerstroke is relatively cheap (very cheap compared to a custom IC), has a useable thickness, massive (probably the largest realistically possible) dimensions otherwise for a large heat dissipating area and heat-sinking ability, and good (often metal) end-tanks, in a modern, internally finned design that has been used in Powerstroke apps in excess of 700hp, all of which make it an excellent candidate for a Volvo 240 upgrade.
A note on lag: After hours and hours of internet battle on this subject, all I can tell you is that, if you crunch the numbers comparing the volume of the Powerstroke IC to the volume of the non-internally finned (this increases volume) stock intercooler, and then look at this with respect to engine and turbo compressor flows rates, any lag introduced is simply insignificant, and if you don’t believe that, neither myself nor anyone else I know has experienced a significant change in engine response as a result of this upgrade. The proof is in the pudding, so-to-speak.
On to the nitty-gritty…
What You’ll Need:
-A Powerstroke IC: best bet is E-bay or some dealers will have a decent price. Get one with aluminium end-tanks if you can.
-Frightening cutting implement: I used a regular old hacksaw and cobalt blades, 10 of ‘em or so. You can use a sawzall or whatever though too. The manual labour version takes long but allows much cleaner cuts- if you care about that sort of thing.
-Drill with a bit slightly larger in diameter than the hacksaw/sawzall blade.
-Some thin rubber to pad the IC. Pieces of inner tube or something should work
-Rust inhibiting primer and black paint (or the colour of you car ideally)
-A hammer
-A metal file
-a Dremel or die grinder is nice but not necessary. a small cutter on a drill would work too.
What to do:
1) Disassembly
The Powerstroke is going to sit between the subframe rails, right behind where the bumper shocks bolt to them. So, you need to remove the grille, headlight bezels, headlights, rad support, radiator, front bumper, hood latch, and anything else that impedes your access to the front part of the subframe. The more stuff you remove the more room you will have to work with.
2)Initial Cuts.
Hold the PSIC above the subframe rails it is going to fit between to get an idea where you need to cut, you may need to sit it on “backwards” with the inlet/out facing front if they are in the way. I marked around where the tanks would sit with a felt marker so I would know roughly where to cut, you can go ahead and do this for a guide- but if you make your cuts to the depth and spacing indicated here you should be fine. One thing to keep in mind here id that cutting the notch too big is better than cutting it too small. A little big and you put a little more insulating rubber in- a little to small and you either have to re-cut it larger or laboriously file/grind the notch bigger which sucks. Believe me.
You are going to cut a notch 3”x2.5” in each subframe rail, just behind where the bumpershocks bolt up. So, start be making the cuts perpendicular to the rail first.
Make one cut, 3” into the rail, about ¼” behind where the bumper shock bolts up. WARNING: YOU WILL CUT INTO THE BUMPER SHOCK, WHICH MAY STILL CONTAIN SOME SORT OF PRESSURIZED GOO. GUARD YOUR FACE, AND PLACE SOMETHING UNDER THE CUT IF YOU ARE DOING THIS IN YOUR MOM’S DRIVEWAY.
Do this for both rails.
Then, make another cut parallel to the first, 3” deep again, about 2.5” further “up” the rail.
Now you have 4 cuts, all too narrow for you to get the saw turned sideways in to actually cut between the 2 cuts and make a notch in the rail.
Most solutions to this I have seen while functionally fine, look somewhat frightening, so here’s what worked for me:
3) Drilling the initial cuts.
Drill a hole at the end of one of the cuts so that the hole touches the cut, but is inside the “perimeter” of where the cuts are so that you can have a square corner.
4) Cutting the “Connecting” Cuts.
Now that you have a hole at the end of one of the initial cuts wider than your saw blade, you have room to turn the blade sideways, and saw up the rail to connect to the second initial cut. If you are using a hacksaw, you may have to remove the blade, put it through the hole, and then reconnect it. Once you do this, a nice, square, notch-shaped chunk of metal should drop out. Yee haw!
5) File and Hammer
File the cut marks smooth and hammer the top edge of the cut downward so the tank will have a nice rounded surface to sit on rather than a sharp edge. It’s stuff like this that will make the difference between something that looks like a cool mod and something that looks like it was done be Conan The Barbarian. The rounded edge also lets it sit that much lower in the bay increasing your chances of getting the rad support back on.
6) Test fit and Trim
Jam the IC in as best you can, bend the remaining material that the rad support and headlights bolt to as far into the engine bay as you can to help the end-tanks clear.
You will see that some of the sheet metal needs to be trimmed to make way for the end-tank inlet/outlet, so make a rough mark with a felt pen if need be of what needs trimmed, trim it with the saw (or the Dremel/die grinder is nice for this), file it smooth (you’ll cut yourself on that jagged edge), and try again until it fits.
7) Paint
Now pull the IC out, and prime and paint everywhere you cut, because it will rust quickly.
Let it dry as long as is practically possible.
8) Put the IC in w/ rubber padding, and reassemble everything. You may need to trim of parts of the surround edge of your headlight bucks, but 7” round and 4 quad will fit when trimmed a little. Euro lights will not work from what I can tell. This is all just more trim, test, trim some more.
9) Piping
Make up some piping by ABS pipe, random mix of stock pipes, or custom fab, and you’re done! Only last step is, if you’re one of the people who insisted it’d never fit or that it’d be laggy, give yourself a nice swift kick in the bum! ;)
A Note on safety:
The question of whether or not this mod is safe has come up, so I thought I would add what I have found regarding this: The Department of Transportation released an official document in the 90’s stating that bumper shocks proved to be no safer than a rigidly welded bumper structure. What this means is that disabling the bumper shocks is fine, in many demo derbies, welding bumper shocks up to be non-functional is actually a requirement. You have effectively disabled the bumper shocks, and you have removed metal from their supporting structure- while replacing it with a cast aluminium end tank that is certainly weaker than the material it replaced, but, the only purpose of that material is to hold the bumper shock- which in themselves crush in at like, 10mph, meaning any of that infrastructure is redundant in a serious accident anyways. So, the only problem with this setup is damage form minor accidents- that if you rear-end someone hard, or have something hit the front of the car from the side, the notches could potentially squish in and mangle your end tanks which means you’d need to get them repaired- one solution to this would be to have a piece of flatbar welded between the two bumper shocks so that they cannot be easily pushed off-axis, causing the endtank to be “pinched” by the notch on a side impact. At that point it’d probably actually be safer than stock.
Best of luck!
-Kenny Watson, Owner of the original Trogdor wagon, aka The Green Meanie, aka Green Death