How to - Make your own chargecooler, Going one better than TTE Options

[Insanity-74]

Having done over 9 months of research into charge cooler designs I have decided to make my own. Not as difficult as you may think as the charge cooler design is pretty simple....basically a box with a radiator in it. There has been loads of debate throughout several forums as to which is the best method for things like waterflow direction ... placement of filler caps etc etc the list goes on and on...all I can say is that Toyota didn’t get it wrong...they just didn’t get it right enough....I know why they came up with the design that they did...it wasn’t choice..it was lack of choice...cost savings and motorsport restrictions at the time. I could go into deep descriptions as to why the water flows the way it does ...I have yet to prove that its the wrong way or the right way...but with some help from the technical bods from the GT4 owners club I should soon have an answer...although changing flow direction is a simple job...just a matter of swapping two hoses around...no biggy.
Day one
Obviously the first step is to come up with a design which I have done over the past nine months...hopefully it will be worth it. I won’t bore you with technical specifications, you`ll see what it looks like from the photographs.

Next up was to source some material, and after ten minutes with Google I discovered a place called UK aluminium who have managed to supply me all but one of the pieces of alloy that I wanted...funnily enough I got the hardest to find piece from Motorworld (a local cheap car parts shop) in the chav section.

For my design I required –

appologese to you guys over the pond as you work in inches dont you 3mm is roughly 1/8 inch (1 inch = 25.5mm)

2x 500mm/500mm/3mm sheets.
1x 250mm/500mm/3mm sheet
1x 25mmOD/1000mm tube 1.59mm wall thickness (16 gauge IIRC)
1x 70mmOD/500mm tube 1.59mm wall thickness
2x 390mm/100mm/100mm charge cooler specific radiator core (with extra dense fin arrangement and extra galleries)



So let the work begin...I have managed to control myself and not rush into it headstrong and fluff it up...patience is the key...lots of it.

I started off by designing a simple header tank which could also double as a swirl pot with minor modifications.....be award though that if you want to attempt this yourself...you are limited to a 100mm tall charge cooler, as if you go taller than this (there is room) you will not be able to fit a header tank at there are only one or two place it can fit, and both positions have limited head room due to the bonnet framework....I have decided to put mine where the current charge cooler overflow fits and reposition that elsewhere.

Right.....back to the header tank production...it’s only small and loosely based on the TTE version. I started off with some 70mm alloy tube...cut it to length...you can make it pretty much any length as there is plenty of space downwards.



Here is the 70mm tube cut to length with the first of the inlet outlet holes marked up....that one happens to be the inlet.

My next train of thought was to start one of the more difficult tasks first...and that was to cut the inlet pipe in such a way that it matched the curve of the header tank....an easy task with a CNC machine or power tools, but I am making this entirely by hand using some of my granddads tools....a bit of a promise that I made to myself. The task is slightly more time consuming but the results thus far have been good. I marked up the 25mm pipe and started to hacksaw away......I got the shape 80% there...I then rapped a spare piece of 70mm pipe in wet n dry and used it as shaping tool. After over an hour of sanding it is a near perfect fit and actually forms a perfect seal between the two pipes.



This pipe will eventually be cut shorter, but I left on a little extra to hold onto during welding



I then cut the inlet pipe to length and marked the corresponding hole onto the 70mm pipe ready for working away with a hand drill and a needle file. Which I will be doing as soon as I have posted this up.



I will then cut a second Outlet pipe (sigh another hour of sanding) and cut a second hole in the 70mm pipe.

This will be an ongoing blog type thing which will continue until the charge cooler is up and running...hopefully within two to three weeks.

Day Two...nothing much to report

No pictures I`m afraid......drilled and shaped the holes into the headertank/swirl pot hybrid and cut and shaped the second inlet pipe...well..... outlet pipe in this case. Thats about it...the hours of sanding and shaping have been a little painstaking but are complete.

Day five - ish

Spent an amusing two hours filing away at some alloy sheet whilst watching the Monaco grand prix...both inlet and outlet for the header tank swirl pot hybrid have been completed....the end caps have been cut out...what an irritating process that was...cutting circles from alloy by hand is not easy, so alot of filing has been needed....a smaller hole was cut into the lid to enable fitting of the rad cap neck...I`m afraid I had to go with an electric drill with this as trying to use a 30mm hole cutter to cut a hole in 6mm sheet alloy was....well lets say I almost broke my wrists trying to do it.
Needless to say working with alloy has been pretty easy so far...I `m looking forward to the arrival of the cores so I can match them perfectly to the casing and start the serious side of the manufacture.
Just one question for anyone that knows about aluminium fabrication....is it required to put little castleations (sp) along the edges of the joining surfaces to allow the weld to penetrate into the joints????

Anyway...here is the header tanks as it stands....excuse the tape holding it together.....it needs finishing and polishing but i`m not going to do that until its all welded up.

[presure2]

great work so far!