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My Water to Air intercooler install

Weld, grind, some Bondo and a lot of elbow grease, but you can definitely see where this is going and what it'll be when it gets there. Nate, have you thought about welding on an integral chin spoiler to the bottom of the bumper, the bottom edge of which would be even with the bottom of the CAC radiator frame? Two reasons. 1) Increased aerodynamics/fuel mileage/low pressure area behind radiator to help pull air through. 2) It would really stiffen up the entire new opening which would help tons in reducing possible impact damage to the CAC radiator area from road critter strikes, deep snow drifts, high curbs when parking, etc.
 
Husker6.5 said:
Weld, grind, some Bondo and a lot of elbow grease, but you can definitely see where this is going and what it'll be when it gets there. Nate, have you thought about welding on an integral chin spoiler to the bottom of the bumper, the bottom edge of which would be even with the bottom of the CAC radiator frame? Two reasons. 1) Increased aerodynamics/fuel mileage/low pressure area behind radiator to help pull air through. 2) It would really stiffen up the entire new opening which would help tons in reducing possible impact damage to the CAC radiator area from road critter strikes, deep snow drifts, high curbs when parking, etc.
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I have thought about it. And I'm still considering it. My initial plan when I conceived this in my head was to actually cut and stack 2 bumpers, but went this route instead. I was thinking keeping a plastic deflector on the ends would be smarter for future road damage, but you bring up good points about rigidity. Hmmm.
 
Husker6.5 said:
Weld, grind, some Bondo and a lot of elbow grease, but you can definitely see where this is going and what it'll be when it gets there. Nate, have you thought about welding on an integral chin spoiler to the bottom of the bumper, the bottom edge of which would be even with the bottom of the CAC radiator frame? Two reasons. 1) Increased aerodynamics/fuel mileage/low pressure area behind radiator to help pull air through. 2) It would really stiffen up the entire new opening which would help tons in reducing possible impact damage to the CAC radiator area from road critter strikes, deep snow drifts, high curbs when parking, etc.
Click to expand...
Haha, I read "chain spoiler". Confused me. (Insert face palm smiley....)
 
Husker6.5 said:
Weld, grind, some Bondo and a lot of elbow grease, but you can definitely see where this is going and what it'll be when it gets there. Nate, have you thought about welding on an integral chin spoiler to the bottom of the bumper, the bottom edge of which would be even with the bottom of the CAC radiator frame? Two reasons. 1) Increased aerodynamics/fuel mileage/low pressure area behind radiator to help pull air through. 2) It would really stiffen up the entire new opening which would help tons in reducing possible impact damage to the CAC radiator area from road critter strikes, deep snow drifts, high curbs when parking, etc.
Click to expand...
It would be a lot easier if the hooks weren't there. It's tempting to remove them, since I've only ever used them once, but the one time I did need them it was to drag a tree out of the road that had fallen during a storm and was blocking the road home. I like being ready to handle stuff like that, so the hooks are staying.
 
Or just cut holes in the welded chin spoiler that correspond to the ones in the plastic OEM spoiler for the tow hooks.
 
Nosferatu49534 said:
Could you make them removable with a hitch pin? And when you don't need them have a cover for the holes?
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That would be even more work. I don't mind seeing the hooks, they're just in a location that I think is going to make a difficult transition in the metal. We'll see during the test fitting.
 
n8in8or said:
Yeah that's the route I would go. What do you think about the spoilers being bolted on?
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I think that would be a great idea, Nate! The stock bumper already has the bottom lip with the bolt holes in it for bolting on the plastic OEM spoiler, so use the OEM as a template for the upper part of the new dam. Instead of using those wimpy clip nuts, spot weld the nuts to the back of the bumper lip. Cut the dam as a contoured tall vee that is cut out to extend around and below and flanged to bolt not only to the bumper, but also to the CAC radiator housing. You could spot weld nuts on the inside of the CAC radiator housing. Very rigid and still removeable.
 
Well I did the test fitting tonight. It could have gone better, but I got the info I needed. The bumper itself fits well, but I ran into 2 problems with the heat exchanger.

The first one was that one of the fittings is right inline with the hook on the passenger side. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that yet.
IMG_7727.JPG IMG_7731.JPG IMG_7732.JPG IMG_7730.JPG

This is a companion pic of the driver side.
IMG_7729.JPG
The other was that it was hitting the oil cooler lines. This could be addressed with some subtle rerouting.....but for tonight I thought I could just push the line out of the way a little. Well this is when I found out that Leroy's oil cooler lines are MUCH stronger than the cooler itself!!! So I got to be in emergency repair mode, yay!!!
IMG_7728.JPG IMG_7736.JPG IMG_7737.JPG IMG_7739.JPG

Anyway, take a look at the pics and let me know what you think! I think it looks pretty good, just gotta figure out the hook thing.....
 
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