Charge cooler?

For reasons too complicated to explain (bought a replacement rad / oil cooler / intercooler assembly from ebay, wrong one) Everything fits apart from the intercooler. Actually runs fine without a cooler, but I have been thinking a charge cooler might be worth experimenting with.

I picked up a cheap kawasaki radiator with fan, and a scrappy near me has a fine selection of water / air heat exchangers (charge coolers). As there is plenty of room behind the rad assembly it should all fit in easily.

Anyone tried this?

a good few engines use if you mean water cooled , big advantage can be much shortened pipe work so less turbo lag

That's just what I mean James. The turbo will blow into a water / air charge cooler, as used on Subeys and some other cars. Water will then pick up the heat, flow through the Kowasiki radiator, whose fan will cool the water down. Main advantages for me seems to be it will fit into the space available (as the rad has it's own fan), and it should be very efficient.

As you say, short pipe runs as well - win all round I think

only thing i can think of here would be the need to pump the coolant between the two, you'll need to find an electric water pump to suit

i've no idea if you'll really gain anything by going this route unless you're running a tuned/tweaked engine, what engine is it ??

if you're running a 200/300tdi and intending turning the pump up along with boost pressures i'd be considering monitoring exhaust gas temperatures

I'm going this route as it would not be easy to fit a standard air to air intercooler - not enough room left by the radiator, and no room in front having fitted a winch.

I was surprised at how many pumps are out there designed just for this purpose.

I'm not looking at over tweaking the pump / turbo, just getting the standard intercooler advantages. It's a rebuilt 200.

i fitted a TD5 intercooler in my 2a, real easy