ATS Intercooler kit- worth it?

[reklund]

ATS Intercooler kit- GOT IT!

Hey guys, help me out here real quick.
I'm in Denver for work, and decided to bring the wife along. I jokingly said we should go by ATS tomorrow on the way out of town, and pick up an intercooler kit for my F250. To my surprise, she asked how much, and then said "OK".

The question is, should I drop the $1000 on their fancy kit, or put it to use in the form of one of Kens IP/stage one injector kits? The truck only has 85K on the clock, and is running pretty well....

Ryan

 

[towcat]

I like mime alot
but do yourself a favor....burn the instructions. they are unecessarially complex. do a search for the thread "let's talk intercoolers" and you will find my ATS IC kit install buried in all the posts. I even posted a bunch of neat pics to look at too.

 

[reklund]

Well, I drove over to ATS and picked up the kit this afternoon before heading home. I just opened it up, and everything looks great!

The bad news: ATS no longer makes their "high rise" intake hat for use with the intercooler system. They happily included a new "aurora 2000" intake hat, but that won't directly bolt up to the intercooler piping. Anybody have an ATS intake hat intended for use with an intercooler system?

The good news? I got a bit of a (generous) discount since they didn't have the right intake hat. As with my last visit to their shop, the service was top-notch and the people were very helpful. None of the snobby attitude some places give when you tell them it's for a pre-powerstroke engine! They were happy to help me keep my old truck on the road! The twin-turbo Cummins on the engine stand looked enticing tho...

Ryan

I'm planning on fabbing an adaptor pipe to make it work, but if I can get the right parts somewhere, I'd rather do that...

 

[TLBREWER]

Ryan

Congrats! Can't wait to see it!

Tom

 

[reklund]

I'm headed down to get a piece welded onto the intake hat right now...we'll see if it works...

Ryan

 

[reklund]

Well, the welding didn't materialize on Saturday. I'll try to take a look at it again this week and see if I can get it going....

Tom- did you get my last PM??

Ryan

 

[Rawpower]

Sounds nice...

but isnt the intake hat a cast aluminum piece?

 

[reklund]

Yes, it is a cast aluminum piece. Getting a fitting welded to it shouldn't be a problem, provided that I can get the rest in place without interference anywhere. That's what's gonna make this whole thing a little iffy...

My turbo setup is the "old" ATS 088 Turbo. Its looking like I may end up having to ditch the ATS intake box assy and just run a cone filter. That will creat a whole other problem of where to mount the CDR Valve.

Anybody have any pictures of this setup installed? I called ATS today, and they're trying to round some up, but for now all I have is a parts layout diagram.

Ryan

 

[towcat]

ryan-
once again...do a search for "intercoolers" and find the thread "let's talk intercoolers" in the IDI section and you will find my install there. here's a couple of pics to get you started.....

 

[reklund]

Thanks man- Just spent 30 minutes reading that thread. TONS of good info there for sure. I agree with you about the radiator support mounting tabs. I'll probably end up installing some nut-serts in my setup rather than those goofy brackets that ATS supplies.

Ryan

 

[TLBREWER]

Well, the welding didn't materialize on Saturday. I'll try to take a look at it again this week and see if I can get it going....

Tom- did you get my last PM??

Ryan

Ryan

I got it and replied to it, but I just checked my outbox and it doesn't show up. I'll send you another PM tonight sometime.

Tom

 

[reklund]

I got the Intercooler core installed today, as well as the two lower pipes up into the engine bay.

The intake hat is prepped and ready to go to the welder tomorrow (hopefully). I'm bugged that I can't do the welding myself. I'm a skilled fabricator, but only with steel. I don't have the equipment or experience to weld aluminum. I suppose that's a project for another day.

The 2 upper pipes in the engine bay are about to be cut up and re-formed so they'll work. It's gonna be tight, but I might just get it all to fit. I'm a little concerned with the immediate 90° turn off of the compressor outlet, but that's all I can do. I probably won't be able to keep the upper pipes outta the way for every type of service, but hopefully they'll come off easily.

If I had any spectacular pictures, I'd post 'em, but right now it's just a non-functional intercooler mounted behind my factory solid bumper. Guess I need to track down a factory bumper with the holes in it...or point the plasma cutter at mine.

Ryan

 

[Agnem]

Nice project! Please consider documenting it, and we can post it as a tech article here on OB!

 

[reklund]

Mel-

I'll start taking some good pictures as soon as I get some decent progress going! The intake hat went out today- we'll see the results on Monday (hopefully!)

I'm looking into modding my factory bumper to use the factory cutout trim, but haven't had a good occasion to look at a factory cutout bumper to evaluate things yet.

I think I traced my oil leak to the rear main seal, caused primarily by the thermal expansion of the oil when its hot outside. I removed about 1.5 quarts today, and ran it with no leakage. Either I need a new rear main, or I need to not fill it all the way to "full" in the summer. Advice?

Ryan

 

[troutwest66]

Calvin,

one question on the intercooler. What find of air filter is used since the factory airbox can't be used? I'm thinking of doing the "Godzilla Air" mod but I'd have to move my fuel filter to the alternator bracket to make room for the Tymar style set up. I want to do a coolant filter, too and I don't know where to locate it if the fuel filter gets moved. Is there any type of filter that will attach directly to the turbo so the fuel filter can stay put? I would rather go with a larger paper type (like a Donaldson) rather than an oiled filter.