Aluminium Radiators & Engineering Pty Ltd
Unit 11/ 60 Kremzow Rd
BRENDALE  QLD  AUSTRALIA
Ph +61 (07) 3205 4620  info@are.com.au  Fax 61 (07) 3205 4691

 

Nissan Patrol GU Top Mount Intercoolers
 
ARE has gone too extremes to provide the very best intercoolers possible !
There are 1000's $$$ & hundreds of hours spent in R&D on these top mounts that no other company in Australia has done, & because of this, there are none better - period. (as at October 2009).

**Please note, there are some big claims being made by a few companies, but they can't supply proper back up test data. Talk is very quick & easy, genuine real world R&D is time consuming & costly ! **

Data Logging Graphs of actual real world driving efficiency gains near bottom of this page

Pricing
ZD30 Direct Injection Nissan Patrol.

     $ 000.00   1.8% more efficient  Just take 15 minutes too tape the four corner gaps closed in the top rubber seal.
     $ 598.00   11% more efficient  ARE Replacement. 500% stronger. Our Australian made replacement recore with tanks TIG welded. Exchange
     $ 588.00   65% more efficient* Our bolt on louvered 'Stealth' scoop. The 79% more even air flow gives a big boost to the poor factory intercooler.
     $ 588.00   68% more efficient* Our bolt on louvered 'Aggressive' scoop. The 82% more even air flow gives a big boost to the poor factory intercooler
    $ 1058.00   52% more efficient*  ARE Performance Upgrade. Our special 68mm Australian made core & our welded & reworked tanks. Exchange
    $1586.00  83 or 85% more efficient* 'Stealth' scoop & Intercooler combination as above $1526.00, or with 'Aggressive' scoop' 1556.00 Exchange.


 

ZD30 CRD.  OE tank replacement & Mk 2 Sheet Metal Tank Upgrade
 

     $ 588.00   68% more efficient * Our bolt on louvered 'Stealth' scoop. The 81% more even air flow gives a big boost to the poor factory intercooler.
     $ 588.00   71% more efficient * Our bolt on louvered 'Aggressive' scoop. The 84% more even air flow gives a big boost to the poor factory intercooler.
     $ 696.00   10% more efficient * ARE Replacement. 500% stronger. Our Australian made replacement recore with tanks TIG welded. Exchange
    $1298.00   58% more efficient* ARE Performance Upgrade.  73mm Australian made core & our own sheet metal tanks. No Exchange
   $1796.00  87 or 89% more efficient* 'Stealth' Scoop & Intercooler combination as above $1796.0 or with 'Aggressive' scoop' $1826.00 No Exchange.

 

 

 Mk2 Sheet Metal Tank Upgrade -- RD28T and TD42T
This is the best we can supply without going to a front mount !
 

     $ 588.00   71% more efficient * Our bolt on louvered 'Stealth' scoop. The 82% more even air flow gives a big boost to the poor factory intercooler.
     $ 588.00   74% more efficient * Our bolt on louvered 'Aggressive' scoop. The 85% more even air flow gives a big boost to the poor factory intercooler.
    $1298.00   59% more efficient* ARE Performance Upgrade. 73mm Australian made core & our own sheet metal tanks. No Exchange
   $1796.00  89 or 91% more efficient* 'Stealth' Scoop & Intercooler combination as above $1796.00, or with 'Aggressive' scoop $1826.00. No Exchange


We do not sell front mount intercooler kits, because the performance of our upgrade intercoolers when fitted with our scoop, is very close to an average front mount (& better than some), without the hassle of routing the pipe work & then the chance of it rubbing, the extra throttle lag they cause, but most importantly, drops the engine water temperature slightly, whereas the average front mount increases the engine water temperature approximately 7°c ! This is very important to consider. An air/water system also raises the engine water temperature, but not as much.

 

* Note - These figures are right. The factory scoop delivers little air through the intercooler which our engineered louvered bolt on scoop gives 84% more ambient air.
The increased air helps the inefficient factory intercooler more than our efficient unit. Unfortunately 100% heat transference is impossible to achieve.

If you fit a larger exhaust (quicker spool up) & as you raise the boost level, our product will give an exponentially increasing gain over the factory setup !

Following is a whole bunch of technical information & data on one product - Nissan top Mount intercoolers.
There are no better products when comparing apples to apples.
Straight bolt in. Trim rubber seal on 4.2 & plastic on 3.0L.
Complete 'Stealth' scoop with base & louvre -
$588.00 or 'Aggressive' scoop $588.00
All cores are made in Australia.

These products are being stocked in Victoria by -

194 Grange Road.  Fairfield. 3078.  Victoria.   Ph. (03) 9497 3899.     http://www.guest4wd.com.au

 

  
 Nissan ZD30 Direct Injection Intercoolers
Our oe replacement - Much stronger with a small performance/economy gain.

           Picture coming !    
 These are 23 of the 24
Patrol oe intercooler
cores we've replaced
since Dec.08 to Juy.09
Mostly 3.0L's & only 1
(out of 100+) has ever
come back in 4 years.
An Australian core replacement using Oring seals. We won't do these as they are not a strong as our welded tank replacement on right. Our replacement assembly. They have been stripped, degreased, bead blasted, high pressure washed & blown off. Tanks are linished where welded & then TIG welded onto a new Australian made core. Header plates on the core are also linished. Tested @ 50 psi. $598.00 incl. gst. The difference in strength between our recores & the oe Nissan is like two worlds ! Tube wall is 463% thicker! Tube face is 1000% thicker! Tube corner is thicker again! No wonder we've never had one come back.

 
The oe Nissan header plate is much better than the tube wall, but still lacking compared to ours, which is 73% thicker! Couple this with the tube advantage & you can see how our recore header plate to tube joint is 'bullet proof'.

 

Our High Performance upgrade - Stronger with a substantial performance gain.
 

                      
This is the finished exchange unit you will receive. Note: remove your steel pipe & pressure sensor to refit to our unit. We supply 2 new o rings to suit. Stronger, big increase in cooling with less pressure drop.
$1058.00 incl. gst . + $200 exchange fee refunded within 24hrs. of receiving your assy. with reusable tanks
These measurements speak for themselves. You can see the much thicker material in the PWR cores made to our specs. Our header plates are 71% thicker !  Front face of the tube - header plate joint is where 19 of the above 24 cores leaked. The tubes in the cores we use are 869% thicker at front & back faces & 318% thicker in entire side walls - that's bloody strong. The other 5 of 24 leaks were where the plastic cover rubbed the front face of the tubes, on the 3.0L model. On any part of an aluminium core we weld, we linish the cladding as far away from the weld as we can, although usually only a couple mm. on the underside, 5mm outside - very important on header plates. The 3.0Ltanks require little work too perform properly & much better than the 28 & 4.2,hence the $180 price difference between them. There flow rate is excellent & our louvre fixes their distribution problem. When I was young a mate of mine was right into model planes& wing profiles, but this profile comes from an article I kept out of 'Circle Track' magazine on Sprint car wings. It directs the air with minimum drag

Nissan ZD30 Common Rail Intercooler
Our High performance replacement - Much stronger with a performance/economy gain.

      
This is how the GU wagon came into our workshop. It already has a Riken piggy back & 3" exhaust fitted by Robert - Chapman Dyno Tune @ Cooroy. After trimming the shroud,  the intercooler is a nice fit. Viewed from the R H side. Passengers side. The 51mm pipe is not necessary, but gives a small gain in flow. Shroud has been trimmed & is ready to fit. Only cutting that has to be done. The 4 areas that have to be cut on the plastic engine shroud
Close up of the areas to be cut. The intercooler sits lower in the frame, so we supply this shorter pipe to save cutting the hose. The two bolts are to save the oe pressure sensor bolts bottoming out on the tank, & the oring is to seal the sensor This is the 2nd or 3rd leaker in 2009. we have had a gradual increase each year since, but no where near the number of earlier ZD30's. The frame is the reason for this. ARE upgrade top The core is wider, longer & thicker. Slower air speed & in longer, means much better cooling with less pressure drop, double bonus. oe Nissan Bottom ARE upgrade bottom
    Please check the quality of our work. It is probably overkill for a 4x4, but all jobs are the highest standard we can do, regardless.  
    This shows the lines from the rubber seal boot. Allot of wasted cooling volume here.   We fabricate these in batches of three to 5 at a time  

Louvre blurred to hide it's exact position, angle & shape
Showing the approximate position
of the important louvre inside the tank
Close up of the blended radii to smooth flow & more evenly distribute the charge air across the core face. Difference in our inlet/outlet tanks, showing our raised triangulated roof we use. Inlet/outlet tanks end on. Brackets & tanks are tacked together for a trial fit mock up, in case we miss measured ! Bottom front of the intercooler. Outlet tank end

Testing the oe Nissan intercooler before we start.

Bottom back of the intercooler. Inlet tank end Top front of the intercooler. Outlet tank & boss for the factory pressure sensor. Top of the intercooler. This is our first unit & has 2 bosses fitted for our pressure data logging sensors pick up. Temperature in/out & boost pressure in/out probes for our MSE data logger. We know exactly how good our products are!  A Sunshine Coast customer was kind enough to leave his vehicle with us for 4 days. Our core is 79% larger in volume but unfortunately doesn't drop the temperature by 79%, because of the deltaT factor- the closer to ambient, the harder it is to remove the heat,averaging just under a 60% gain in efficiency
   This graph is a run as the vehicle came to us - already fitted with our scoop.    This graph is a run after fitting our sheet metal upgrade intercooler - cooler day & in the rain. Intercooler more efficient with 'a natural water spray' evaporative cooling effect !     This graph is the third run on the next day. A bit warmer & fine. Intercooler not quite as efficient - by 2.4% without the rain.
Notes - 48.9% efficient.  Factory approx. 36%efficient, a gain of 36% ! Actual ambient temp was 25°c. The run took 95sec
but I missed the start. Actual pressure drop across oe factory core = 0.24 bar  (3.5psi).
70.5% efficient.A gain of 96% over factory! Actual ambient was 20°c & it was raining. Run took 92 secs. but I missed the start again. Actual pressure drop was 0.9 bar (1.4psi). 68.1% efficient.  A gain of 89% over factory. This is the figure too use as comparison, not the 96% which benefits from the rains evaporative cooling. Run took 102 secs., but I had to wait longer to turn around, car was 8 kph faster @ the top of the hill.

Notes to go with above 3 graphs
-- 
The blue area is the difference between the temperature of the charge air entering the intercooler, to the temperature of the charge air leaving the intercooler. The larger this difference is, the more torque, power & better economy the engine will produce.
-- The yellow area is the difference between the pressure of the charge air entering the intercooler, compared to the pressure of the charge air exiting the intercooler (pressure drop). The smaller this area, the better the engine will perform as the turbo does not have to work as hard (heating the air less) for the engine to run at the same boost level. The ECU reads the boost level from the outlet tank.
-- In the third graph, the charge air temp. out of the  intercooler starts off much hotter. This is because I had just done 2 runs over the hill & the engine & components were at normal running heat soak levels, but once the vehicle was moving the larger scoop quickly normalized the charge air outlet temperature.
 

 

Nissan TD42 & RB28 Upgrade Intercoolers
Our TD42 & RB28T  Mk2 Sheet Metal Tank Replacement - no return & deposit required
Check the theory section below to see that compared to our original upgrade, this new Mk2 version takes that much extra heat out of the charge air that it enters the engine at the same temperature if you raise the boost from 10 to 17psi, or if you raise it from 16 to 20 psi.
 

    Nissan tanks at rear.       
ARE sheet metal fabricated
tanks in front
   
This shows our longer & thicker core compared to your Nissan oe., it is also wider, making it 79% larger in cubic volume Unfortunately, because of the delta T factor, the efficiency gain averages just under 60%. This shows how we gained the extra core length, but still be a 'bolt in' fit. Our tank design is also more efficient than our first version. The tanks have a similar profile to our very successful big h.p. race intercoolers & the inlet tank incorporates our internal louver. This is our first production batch, we are making them in batches of 4 or 6 at a time Every single part of these new upgrades has to be made, which totals eighteen components ! We fabricate in batches & have the flange & bosses water jet cut, to reduce the price
    Two Modifications Needed to fit this new intercooler.

 

  Bend Frame
  Trim rubber shroud   
    Lay the frame on a flat sur-face & bend at these 2 places This should be your oe measurement This is the measurement needed for rubber seal to fit properly. The last fold of the flap has to be cut off or it presses to hard onto the intercooler. Mirror reflection shows the longer core fits the rubber shroud perfectly when trimmed, it's right on the weld beads.

Nissan GU  Upgrade Scoops

 
Aggressive Scoop
 
  
              
Our 'Aggressive' scoop sitting on a customers GU ute. Yes, it is higher & more aggressive looking, but this is to make the thing work properly !Nissan have put the bonnet bulge in the wrong place for air flow into the scoop & then people add a bull bar & if they add the ultimate 'bad boy', the bonnet perspex (next column please)- - deflector, then the poor old oe scoop almost suffocates! Our scoop suffers too, & I suggest trimming the section of the top edge that is in line with the scoop.
It may look different, but you'll pick up approx. 1Litre/ 100klm.
A comparison of our scoop shell beside the oe unit. It is designed to catch all the air that is deflected upwards by the bulge in the bonnet. Yes, it looks more aggressive but it works - air speed through the core is increased 79% ! The gain in efficiency is 68% Eye level view out of the drivers seat for a 5'10" driver. It is about half the distance again above the center section of the bull bar, so it is a very small restriction to the immediate front forward vision, I'll say again though, a very small restriction. This is the alloy base frame we fabricate to attach the scoop too. It traps & forces the proper ratio of air through the front section of the core, & seals the rear section off, increasing the scoop efficiency even more. 6mm studserts are used - as oe, for straight bolt on fitment. There is well over two hours work for us, just in this, but as I keep saying, the gain is more than the upgrade intercooler gives. Power & economy wise, I know it's extremely good value. The louver might not look much, but after allot of R&D getting the size, position & profile right, it makes a hell of a difference to the intercooler cooling efficiency.
            
It may not look much, but this will increase your factory intercooler efficiency 68% over the low factory plastic scoop. The louvre we weld into the alloy base plays a big part in that increase. It has the same effect as the louvre we weld into the ic inlet tanks( see drawing in above section), it forces the air much more evenly through the core, getting the charge air that much cooler & closer to ambient temperature. The louvre is very prominent as it has to trap allot of air, otherwise it rushes straight down to the back & tries to force itself through the core. Without this, nearly 1/2 of the air goes through the back 1/4 of the core This is the under side of the completed scoop, as you buy it & ready to just bolt on. Yes, some say it's not cheap, but it gives 68% more efficient cooling with the oe inter -cooler & even more on our upgrade. There are hours of work making each one, so we believe it is very good value !      
 
Stealth Scoop
             
This is our 'Stealth' scoop. It will be available early November '09. We have had feedback from several potential customers that their wife would not let them buy our upgrade. So we are tooling up for this one now    We have laid the front lip back - chopped off it's aggression - as much as the factory bonnet bulge will allow us. If we cut it back any more than this, we exponentially loose efficiency, so this is our limit.  This has only cost a 3% loss in efficiency, so if it keeps the minister of finance happy, we will live with it ! We have to supply value or we're not interested in a sale.  Looking front on, the scoop appears nearly the same, but as soon as you start moving side on, it's laid back shape really does soften it's looks. From the drivers seat, this scoop is a little less obtrusive, but neither 'block' much of your forward view.   Our Stealth scoop uses the same base as our original aggressive scoop so the louver can do it's important job.
 
  The ARE upgrade is only a little larger in frontal surface area, but still requires the rubber sealing boot to be trimmed on both sides, so there is no point in a bigger core, the extra area will just become a heat soak. We are as large as possible for a bolt on,

                        

 

The Theory behind Our Nissan upgrade Ic's
 

I don't know how I can stress  enough how unique & accurate our in house computer program is for sizing intercoolers, we have been developing  and refining this program over ten years now. It gives us an extremely detailed knowledge of intercooling.

From the 11 years of R&D & real world testing, our computer programme tells us very closely how an intercooler should work, which shortens our development time. Unfortunately, there as some aspects that it can't tell us, the main one being the ambient air flow through the ic. All models of vehicles vary & then people add on their own accessories, some of which can have a substantial bearing on the final result. In this case, we have to take an educated guess until we get known data.

Legend A B C D E F G H I J K  
Nissan 3.0L 3800 rpm 16 psi 420 cfm 25°c 124°c 78°c 10.8 kw   617 btu 84.6 kph 0.0073 sec  
ARE 3.0L 3800 rpm 16 psi 420 cfm 25°c 124°c 42°c 18.4 kw 1047 btu 58.7 kph 0.0102 sec  
ARE 3.0L 4100 rpm 20 psi 513 cfm 25°c 148°c 52°c 27.6 kw 1571 btu 63.3 kph 0.0097 sec  
                         
Nissan 4.2L    3900rpm       10psi      486cfm      25°c        118°c       82°c        9.8 kw         559 btu        143.1 kph     0.0058 sec  
ARE 4.2L    3900rpm       10psi      486cfm      25°c         118°c       44°c      20.2 kw      1148 btu          96.4 kph     0.0091 sec    
ARE 4.2L    3900rpm       16psi      604cfm      25°c         142°c        57°c       28.8 kw      1639 btu          96.4 kph     0.0091 sec    
ARE Mk2 4.2L    3900rpm       16psi      604cfm      25°c         145°c        44°c       36.6 kw      2083 btu          90.1 kph     0.0112 sec    
ARE Mk2 4.2L    3900rpm       20psi      683cfm      25°c         154°c        58°c       42.9 kw      2441 btu          90.1 kph     0.0112 sec    

Code & Details for above chart.
 

A

Patrol engine capacity B Engine revs computer modeling worked at, I believe maximum sustainable !
C Maximum boost pressure out of turbo used D cfm - cubic feet per minute of charge air forced into engine
E ambient temperature - outside air temp for this calculation - only small effect. E Temperature of charge air out of turbo. Least known of any data, but important
G Temp. of air out of intercooler  - more efficient - more power - more economy H Amount of heat intercooler pulls out of charge air measured in kilowatt/minute
I Amount of heat ic. pulls out of charge air measured in British Thermal Units J Speed of the charge air traveling through the intercooler core
K Time it takes a molecule of air to travel through the core - bloody quick ! Legend Intercooler manufacturer
M      

 

The 'Actual'  in our Nissan upgrade Intercoolers

    Maybe okay in Japans winter, but here , it just really takes the top off the charge air temperature. This wastes both   POWER  &  ECONOMY !               
This is the same flow bench I have used for 15 years. It's had quite a few switches & worn out a few motors, but Woody -Fataz Engines( ex Bryant Engineering)-keeps it in tip top shape. The flow bench provided factual back up to what I already knew - the stifling limitations of a Patrol intercooler. Like a Mazda rotary oil cooler, they are so small the factory left clear passages without turbulators (fins), too keep pressure drops acceptable. Trouble is, hardly any cooling occurs in these areas. Two wrongs make a big wrong in this case ! Our upgrade goes a fair way to fixing this This is how I found out exactly how much charge air is by passing the internal cooling fins. The 17.8% area allows 37.8% of the charge air straight thru Without this the boost pressure drop would cause a very noticeable loss of power, but this causes less cooling of the air - we've fixed both ! Dru made this tank (on the left)so I could accurately test all of the actual cores only.
It has a 3" outlet that
passes more than twice the air the core can flow, without any  pressure drop at these sub 600 cfm figures.
 These are the worst 7 & by far best 1 out of the 24 cores we have replaced in 7 months of '09. I actually picked about the third worst for testing, to be fair & give results I can back up by repeating at any time.
     ARE tank mods             
I calculated the area mathematically first, the laid graph paper over the tracing, both very close. Our scoop is 270% larger That's allot more forced air for better cooling. This is not the position or angle of the louvre, but it shows why our intercoolers work as well as a much bigger unit ,because we utilize all of the core as evenly as possible. Turbulence is impossible to eliminate, only minimize This is a drawing of what the charge air does in the tank. It is the tank in the next pic. 1/2 the charge air is rushing through the end 1/4 of the core !
  *A
These are Nissan 200sx intercooler tanks, the oil residue clearly showing the air flow pattern & turbulence inside the tank. I keep saying, pressure drop & lag-no good. The scoop is a very important part of our upgrade. Our ic is still not as big as it could be, so it needs all the help it can
get. Our ic is still a very substantial gain over factory & 300% stronger in construction.
  *A Pressure drop rises & heat dissipation falls exponentially to increased charge air speed through the core. It is also exponentially harder too cool the charge air the closer it is too ambient, so the more even the air speed is through the core, the more efficient it is In this picture the air speed in the first few tubes is approx .40kph, where as the air speed through the end tubes is approx. 180kph, even though the pressure is 12psi at the mouth of every tube. In ARE cores with our louvers the air speed only varies from approx. 95 to 125kph - a huge difference !
 

  

 

 


The Actual in our Nissan 4.2 Litre Intercooler & Scoop.
 

           
Ambient air speed through core only.
As Nissan oe. except for turbo upgrade
             
Air speed thru core, temps. out of turbo
& into engine. Sealed 4 corner gaps in
rubber - with tape.
        
Still oe intercooler, but fitted ARE scoop
Air speed, charge air temps
               
Next day, same set up, reran with
the two boost sensors connected, but
no air speed thru core.
        
ARE intercooler & scoop combination.
Air speed, temps & pressure drop.
34% EFFICIENT @ 60kph 35.8% EFFICIENT @ 60kph - 5% more effcient 44.7% EFFICIENT @ 60 kph - 75% more efficient 45.6% EFFICIENT @ 60 kph- 76% more 65.1%  EFFICIENT@ 60kph Actual gain of 91.5% in cooling efficiency.
Being designed for race cars, our
logger measures air speed in
meters / second, not kph. As a reference an alloy crossover pipe
no intercooler is 1.1% efficient.
Air takes the least path of resistance & it loves escaping through the four
corner gaps in the oe seal. All we did was run some masking tape around
each corner to seal them.
Nothing is easy. A 270% larger opening gave the  oe. ic.59.3% more air & it reduced the charge air temperature by only  %. This is why accurate testing is needed, some times "looks like it will work" is not good enough & can actually be worse ! Cooler temperatures, no traffic, driving the truck harder made 0.9% increase in efficiency. This is a minimum gain as a
customer who was getting an air/
water ic. fitted, graciously let me use
his truck for this logging & so I had to rush & we ran out of time.
Jobs not done properly are listed in a
picture in the table below.

Notes to go with Graphs above.
All logs were made over two days in the same GU trayback with a MR Turbo upgrade turbo, 10 psi boost, 3" exhaust, 35" mud tyres.
Runs are as similar as traffic conditions would allow. Accelerated to 60kph & sat pretty accurately on that.
Started logging, drove down driveway, turned right & drove up the hill & down the other side, turned around at the bottom & drove back over the hill & into the driveway of our workshop.
Our Data Logger is an MSE (Motor Sport Electronics - 02  4648 0030) Technology unit that was mandatory by CAMS for all GTP race cars to have fitted for scrutineers monitoring purposes.
It is very fast & accurate & before you start studying the graphs, have a look at the time line along the bottom. These graphs are all less than 2 minutes long - total !
The spikes are the gear changes accelerating up the hill & then some stabs on the throttle to maintain 60kph. This is how fast & accurate our set up is.
Virtually, as you depress the throttle, the boost & temperatures rise in unison, straightaway !
Also notice that as how intercooler efficiency increases, the variance in the charge air temperature into the engine decreases - being more stable - meaning there is not as much expansion
& contraction of the metal components & so must increase the life of the top half components of your engine by a small amount.
Note that as standard the intercooler actually becomes an interheater at times, with the charge air out of the turbo being cooler than the intercooler. The red difference at the start of the
runs is after warming the engine, backing out of the workshop, then driving down the lane. Heat soak has effected the ic & very slow to recover. This is not a problem with our upgrade
intercooler & scoop combination as it's 91.5% @ 60kph better efficiency is less effected & has so much higher recovery rate.


You can see in the below graphs that travelling at 60kph in a standard Patrol, the Ambient air speed through the core is 2.5m/sec or 8.9 kph.
You will note that with our scoop & the oe core the air speed through the core rises too 4.67m/sec (16.8kph), & the cooling efficiency goes up 11.6%.
 Now with our upgrade intercooler & scoop, the ambient air speed drops too 4.0m/sec (14kph.) but the cooling efficiency goes up another 20.4% !! This
is a total gain in cooling efficiency of 
91.5% !!  This translates into noticeably more torque & horsepower, & lower fuel economy, if driven sensibly. This
 is where a big proportion of our R&D time & monetary costs went, balancing core surface area, core thickness & core fin pitch, as each time any of these
is increased too gain more cooling efficiency, ambient air flow drops, causing a loss in cooling efficiency, so it's a very complicated balancing act to get
the highest cooling efficiency possible for the Patrol, without cutting up the bonnet.
Cooler Charge Air = more engine torque & power = better fuel economy (if driven similar) !
In real world terms, the best example is a good intercooler makes your vehicle drive on a hot day, like on a cool night before installation.


The effect of Fans on your intercooler performance

 In fan testing we conducted for Repco back in 2003, we got the following results.
Their imported 10" ICE fan pulled 2.92m/sec or 10.5kph @ 382.8cfm. through a 56mm water core. Note the actual dia. was 11".
A Davies Craig 10" fan pulled 3.31m/sec or 11.8 kph @ 381.1cfm through the same 56mm water core.
To make this worse, a 16" Davies Craig fan rated @ 2210cfm pulled 1822cfm through the same 56mm water core, but only 1358cfm through a 55mm intercooler core !
This means the air flow through a 10" fan will be down around 8kph through your intercooler & 7kph through ours, so it's slow speed slogging only, the increase will
be a small gain, but at 100kph it will be a small loss. This is an assumption, we have not tested this yet.
Also note that from our R&D testing
, if the fan blade is around the wrong way & you just swap the wire polarity, you will loose 32 - 39% air flow ! In other words, if you buy
a puller fan & you can't turn the blade over, -  take it back or sell it, & buy a pusher, or vice versa.
I will calculate the cfm. figures  for air speed though our intercooler cores & scoops very soon & publish here - this will make the above figures more relevant.
The above paragraph was my 'guesstimation', table below is our facts.


These are figures from testing on the 02/10/2009. PDF here
Nissan oe factory Intercooler & Scoop @ 60kph Nissan Intercooler & ARE Scoop @ 60kph ARE Scoop & Intercooler @ 60kph
Air speed through core = 2.64m/s, 9.5kph Air speed through core = 4.67m/s, 16.6cfm Air speed through core = 3.9m/s, 14.1cfm
                                                      260.5cfm                                       460.8cfm                                     434.9cfm
Maradyne M093K-F 9" fan    Pull                 Push                               Pull                        Push                    Pull                             Push
                             4.49m/s - 16.2kph    3.79m/s - 13.6kph         3.61m/s - 13.0kph      3.18m/s - 14.5kph         3.61m/s - 13.0kph      3.18m/s - 14.5kph
                                           398.4cfm          336.3cfm                 319.5cfm                  282.4cfm                           319.5cfm                  282.4cfm
But through the ic. =         358.2cfm         302.3cfm                 255.3cfm                  225.6cfm                      254.3cfm                  224.8cfm
From the above figures, a noticeable gain will be achieved with a fan under the factory scoop pulling, & the scoop is so bad a small gain will  be realized with a pusher on top. With the ARE scoop, there may be a small gain with a puller underneath, but a definite loss with a pusher on top. At 10 kph, a puller fan will make a definite improvement in every case, at 100 kph, a puller fan will help the factory scoop but do very little with an ARE scoop. Remember that a fan can't be fitted under a TD42 ic. anyway, & I still believe the restriction of the fan on top, pushing, will only help under 20kph.


 

Now, a myth that needs changing. On internet forums, it is very common too read that little air goes into a Patrol scoop & if the car has a bull bar,
no air goes into the scoop at 100kph.The first part is right, in relation too the vehicle air speed, only a small amount does go into the scoop &
through the core, BUT, at 100kph, more air is going through than at 60 kph. Tests have been done with rain drops & ribbons taped in front of the
scoop & why they have given a false 'picture' of what is actually happening is because there is an intercooler under the scoop. Reading above &
checking fan air flow testing in our R&D page, the core presents quite a resistance too air flow, so it only allows a percentage of the air that enters
an open scoop to flow through it. Once the scoop cavity has filled with air (compressed too it's limit), no more air can enter the scoop, so it flows
over the top of the scoop, which is why rain droplets or pieces of ribbon, stand up & over the top of the scoop, giving the appearance that no
air is going through the intercooler at all. 

I know it's a
'toyota', but the results will be similar to a Patrol. Note - No Bullbar. No Wind deflector - future test.

                              
We had to make a mount system for our sensor too fit in close under the core for an accurate reading. It's not allot of air, so we can't afford any spillage & the converted sensor is not cheap, so no damage This is a run - on a closed track - from 0 to 130kph, back to 0, turn around & gass it up & over a hill too 140 to 0kph. This is air speed through the core as picture on left. This is to see how much air is actually flowing over the bonnet & at the scoop mouth. A bloody lot! This is the exact same run repeated as left side graph, but measuring air speed at the scoop mouth. You can see that the ic restriction stops a mammoth amount of air flow!  *A
  *A This is why I struggle being polite about Australian companies that are using Chinese Intercoolers (have a look at their pictures closely or ask them - & I have to say Ebay is the easiest place too spot them) in their 'kit' ! We have spent endless hours testing to achieve the optimum fin pitch ratio & pay extra money to the (Australian) factory to make our cores too our specs. It's a fine line between having an open fin pitch & letting plenty of ambient air through but not having enough fin contact for good heat dissipation, too a close fin pitch which will dissipate allot of heat, but not let the air through & it becomes a heat soak !  

 


If you need full power at very slow speed, I seriously suggest air/water intercooling. If our intercoolers are too expensive for your budget, I  also suggest staying right
away from a 4" barrel, the air speed through these is horrendous ! especially If you have done the usual exhaust mods & upped the boost a little .Also, on most of the kits,
the pump is too small, the hoses too small & the radiator too small, so I guess they are close too suiting the 4" barrel anyway !   A  6" barrel, well that's a totally different ball game !


ARE has air-water intercoolers that have been in service for 10 years ( yes - we have had two weep out of all the assy's we've sold). The Frozen Boost intercoolers out of the USA
are made in China (as at this writing) & boy, I can't wait to see them in 10 years time - we've already had one in for repair, so good luck, being bar& plate it was a throw away !


ARE has gone out on a limb here as the above are all actual accurate results, & you will probably be told by some 'salesmen' that our results
are pretty poor, theirs performs allot better, but if you've read this far, I know you'll ask for their printed results. Talk is very easy, & cheap !!!

Sorry - There is no PERFECT Intercooler -
they all have their drawbacks !
The trick is to pick the best for your application and pocket !

 As far as development time, effort & results go, we have found the following.
 Front Mount intercooling is the easiest & happens to be the first we developed way back in the mid '90's. Or tank shape is still superior too most. Pipe work can be difficult. Definitely cause lag  to varying degrees.

 Air/Water intercooling was next & is by far the hardest to engineer for the ultimate results. The complexity & componentry make it by far the most expensive. Unbeatable in low speed applications. Radiator efficiency is it's archillies heel.

 Dry Ice intercooling followed  & is not much harder than front mount, but very hard to tune & brutal in mid range torque surge. Extremely limited in application - drag race & dyno shootout only.

 Top Mount intercooling development has taken most of our R&D time over the past 14 months & now we have to try & educate people to overcome the perception that it's just for reducing the charge air temperature enough to appease both the Manufacturers accountants & marketing people. The poor factory  stylists & engineers have to do the best they can within restrictive company briefs. We are engineering top mount  intercooling too provide the maximum power, performance & engine safety possible. The problems we were unable too satisfactorily solve were cured after a mid year ('09) tour through the PWR factory. They had not long received a shipment of their new generation CAC tube extrusion & it looked good. Between talking with their engineers & doing our own computer modelling & testing, we came up with a core specification ( there are four changes to cores made for us) that I'm assured by them is exclusive too ARE (it better be, we pay a fair amount extra per core for it), that has surpassed all the performance parameters that I originally thought  would be unachievable, actually to the point of our upgrade top mount being a better all round deal for a fair percentage of drivers, than a front mount. Please note, I'm not saying all drivers, but street driven, tow rigs, mid competition with some speed, mild to mid type power upgrades, etc. Exaggerating ? check the charts & results below, & you'll see the evidence to back this up.
 
Our testing to date has resulted in the following results :-
   Factory top mounts, in most cases, are too small in size - causing a higher pressure drop together with a less than desirable temperature drop. Being too small means the charge air travels too fast through the core (high pressure drop), & is not in the core long enough for the hot air to be cooled for performance. All they do is 'take the top' off the heated charge air.
  
Factory  top mounts are nearly always fed ambient air from too small a scoop compounding there inefficiency. The only good example I can think of is the late model Subaru WRX sti version. The new Mazda 3 mps also look reasonably good.

 Factory top mounts are mostly made with minimal material, both the thickness of the header plate, tube & fin alloy, & with the later models,  some with plastic tanks. Please check our comparisons below too see just how unbelievably thicker & stronger the Australian made cores are.
  
  The latest Factory Top Mount trend of funnelling air from the grille area, up through ducts under the bonnet can be the least efficient of all. The Toyota Landcruiser twin turbo V8 diesel has two ridiculously small intake vents in the upper grille area too feed air to a reasonable sized intercooler. The grille is a high pressure zone, but they are just, too small.

Fans fitted to the intercooler are an increasing occurrence on the forums. Well, if it's on top of the ic, it is decreases efficiency at any speed above a 15 kph & really costs at 100kph ! If it is under the intercooler, it will be of assistance until approx.  30kph & then from approx. 40kph., it will be an exponentially increasing hindrance & also cause loss of efficiency. This relates to the oe scoop, the ARE scoop is still effected but not as much because these so much more volume in comparison to fan size For a touring vehicle, we don't believe they are worthwhile. See the test data at the bottom of this page for related fan R&D.
   

 

Please note. If you don't want to pay the $300.00 'tanks' price which you will be out of pocket for approx. 6-7 days depending on the freight, you can remove your assembly, send it too
us, pay the appropriate price + return freight & we will send your exchange unit within 48 hours. At present we only have 3 of each  of the 3.0 & 4.2 Litre units in stock, but because the
cores are specially made too our specifications, we always have at least 5 of each of them in stock.

If there is not enough cooling for you here, please check our 'Shaker'  Intercooler page for larger units.
This page is also for people who have turboed a naturally aspirated diesel & don't have the factory parts for exchange - under development now !

Tuners Please note - when you run our upgrade up on the rollers, if possible have the nose of the vehicle down - if a ramp is used on a 4 wheel dyno, strap the vehicle down on the front rollers only (if possible - not AWD etc.) close the bonnet & angle the fan too simulate driving on the road. Or else, raise the fan too centre (yeh, I know it's a pain) on the top of the grille height, otherwise, you will not be tuning to the actual driving temps.

 

I thank you for reading all this & I hope you have learned more than just 'something'   ! 

Currently A.R.E. is spending considerable R&D time on developing
our own range of Alloy cooling products.
Check back for updates.

 

 

 


 

 

© Aluminium Radiators and Engineering Pty Ltd (ARE Cooling) - while every effort is made to ensure details and information is correct at time of publishing (August 24, 2017)
please contact ARE by phone, fax or email to confirm prices before order.