I have been thinking about upgrading the stock intercooler on the 242 for years. I’m not sure that it is the limiting factor in how much power the car makes, but I think it is close to being a problem if it isn’t the weakest link. Testing others have done show the stock intercooler becomes a restriction around 12 psi, and I am running somewhere in the neighborhood of 13psi right now, though I rarely drive it hard. Eventually an upgrade will be needed, so I’ve kept my eye out. Various powerstroke and NPR intercoolers fit with varying degrees of cutting and creativity, but I didn’t want to cut up the car or spend money hacking up an intercooler so it sort of fit but looked terrible. The later 940 unit is larger (and wider) with center inlets, so I got one of those, but in order to fit it in a 240 I would have to modify the battery, move the K-Jet airbox, and remove the factory oil cooler. Not ideal. So I delayed and thought about it and kept my eye out. Recently I learned that do88 makes a drop-in aluminum upgrade and decided to go with that option. I took advantage of a holiday sale and bought one from Eurosport (cheaper shipping from Canada than from Sweden).
I really wanted to go with their group-A replica intercooler just because it is cooler and wider, but given the necessary changes to fit that are just as involved (or more so) than the 940 intercooler I decided to go with their drop-in 200/700/900 series intercooler. I didn’t want to relocate my oil cooler, go to a smaller battery, create new charge air pipes, and whatever other small changes were needed. And then of course I would want a wider radiator to match the bigger intercooler. Maybe some day.
It is a well-built unit. Much heavier than the stock unit of course, but as you can see it is a much wider core using bar and plate aluminum construction with nicely shaped endtanks. The endtanks also serve as legs to locate in the lower mounts. There were a couple of locations where the fins were not even (which bothers me but isn’t a big deal at all) and one location where a tube had been welded and repaired. Surprising for a new one, but that is just me being picky.
It is not quite a drop-in. The upper and lower rubber supports must be trimmed slightly to fit the wider core. The lower support in this picture has already been trimmed and the topmost part of the one at the top as well. The lower half of the upper one has not been trimmed yet. As you can see it is a pretty minimal amount of rubber to trim, I just wasn’t expecting to have to do it.
Even with the rubber trimmed it was a tight fit. I had to remove the stock rubber seals between the body opening and the intercooler and also the rubber rub strip between the slam panel and the top of the intercooler. I will monitor it and see how it goes, but I would feel better with some buffer between the metal and the intercooler.
Here’s the before picture.
Here it is installed. I am undecided about how it looks. I don’t want to paint the core but maybe I will paint the endtanks and top of the unit. I liked the look of the stock black one better. We will see if I get used to it or not.
Now for the driving impressions. That is pretty easy. It is absolutely worth it. I drove it pretty hard and the pipe into the throttle body was still ice cold. Of course the temperature today was just a degree above freezing, so that isn’t amazing.
Update:
The bare aluminum look was too flashy for me so I removed the Intercooler and painted the end tanks and top of the cooler under hood black. I am much happier with the look now. I also managed to fit a thinner rubber bumper between the splash panel and the top of the cooler so there is some protection there. It is the fender seam seal from a 140 (also found in the 240 trunk pass-through) and works great. I did have to slot the bolt holes in the metal top brackets to provide enough room for that thin bit of rubber, and in fact I should probably slot them some more, but I don’t want to see that under the bolt head.
Impressions are still good after driving it for a while. The engine feels a bit strong after it has been in boost for a while. Seems to boost smoothly just a little bit longer before it falls off. Subjective of course since I don’t have any before/after temperature numbers. I will say that the cold side end tank (and pipe) is cold to the touch even after driving for about an hour, but then again it is very cold out right now, so that isn’t exactly a shock. The real answer will come this summer sometime. Another unintended benefit of the install is that there is clearly more air flowing through the intercooler and getting to the radiator now. The car is running noticeably cooler water-temp wise. There is some junk in the old intercooler fins but not a lot since I wash it out every couple of years. I hadn’t realized there was that much flow restriction either from the dirt or the old style intercooler. Again, it will be interesting to see how it performs in the winter.