P38 intercooler installation finished

It took a while but finally I came around to install the bigger volume intercooler on the p38. 

I ordered it as a Brit part but it seems the supplier is Serck motorsport. 

When I received it the weather was bad and I was in a rush to install it. Needless to say it wasn’t that straightforward to install let alone in a hurry.

For ease of access you should drain the cooling radiator,so I did. I also removed the right radiator holder which bolts into the chassis to make it easier to install the intercooler. 

The intercooler is thicker and somewhat different in shape so you cannot re-use the original fixing points. The different shape is also a very tight fit. 

With the intercooler in place I then installed the radiator again. The engine oil cooler now must be installed on top of the intercooler instead of below. With everything in place, I marked some points to drill holes to fix the intercooler and engine oil cooler to the 2 side pillars/ holders. I also added a thick 3mm washer behind the intercooler to allow for a little more clearance.

The installation height for the intercooler is dictated by the oil cooler, because it sits right below the top of the radiator. Like this the hoses for the intercooler line up with the turbo and intake hoses. Just make sure the left side clears the wash bottle filler neck.

I used self tapping screws, I might change that later to bolts and nuts.

Now do I really feel a difference? Well firstly I noticed that the old intercooler was leaking and so I was losing boost pressure because of that. I didn't drive it all that far or long because I still have the transfer case issue that needs sorting, but I will say that in my opinion it feels more powerful in lower rpms. I also noticed the engine is running cooler. Now I have to say I cleaned the radiator a bit while the coolant was out so maybe this helped as well. 

All in all I'm happy with the result, maybe later on I'll try to increase the boost pressure only ever so slightly to extract a little more horses but first the transfer case, the ball joints and the panhard bushes😏😐😂. But that's for another time.