PowerStroke intercooling a Turbo Minivan

The time had come to intercool my new turbo minivan. Gary Donovan points out on his intercooling web page that not all 'coolers are created equal... but I was mesmerized by size and I went huge: I chose Ford part number F81Z-6K775-BA, the intercooler from a 1999 PowerStroke 7.3L turbo diesel truck! (If I knew then what I know now, I would have chosen something that performs better!) Paul Smith, who has also performed this same upgrade on his turbo minivan, once referred to this operation as "putting ten pounds of crap in a five pound bucket." Now that I've followed in his footsteps I see just how correct he was. But Paul was very kind and helpful and offered many words of assistance, so I wish to do the same for you. Thus I present my own page on how to stuff a monster intercooler into your turbo minivan.

Before you even begin, you will need to modify the intercooler itself. As delivered from Ford, it has 3" inlet and outlet pipes. Not only were these pipes too large, they were also aimed in unforgiving directions. So I took my 'cooler to a local aluminum welder and had him cut off the pipes, then graft in 2.25" OD replacements. (These actually fit well since the stock 3" pipes neck down inside to about 2 3/8".) To further facilitate the install, I had the passenger-side pipe aimed up quite a bit (to clear the alternator) while the driver-side pipe was aimed slightly downward and inward (to clear the overflow bottle and battery tray). You'll see photos of this later.

The picture at the top of the page shows the grille already removed from my van. You'll have to take that off plus a whole lot more, including the bumper, headlights, headlight mounting brackets, the radiator and the trans cooler. Then, with everything removed, hold the intercooler up to the front of the van to test fit it. You'll see there are clearance issues in a number of places. Mark each one, then set the cooler safely aside... and start carving like a Thanksgiving turkey! When you get done, the van will look something like this:

I know that picture is a little small, so here are two closer shots to better illustrate where I made my cuts:

On the left, you may noticed I removed quite a bit of excess sheet metal which surrounded the (former) A/C condenser fan. An intercooler is no good if air cannot freely flow through its fins, so I decided to open up as much of the nose as I could. I began carving with an air-powered grinding wheel, but that soon proved to be far too slow for my schedule. So I ran out and bought a shiny new Sawzall and some tungsten carbide blades. Holy cow, this tool rocks! If you don't have one, go get one--it'll make the job a whole lot nicer.

Now that the nose has been sufficiently prepped, it's time to relocate the radiator. The stock position will not leave enough room for the 'cooler pipe, so you must shift the rad toward the passenger side a few inches. Once I had measured and test fit to ensure clearance, I simply drilled some holes in the upper support and slipped the stock 'speed nuts' into them. With the top of the radiator nice and snug, all I had to do was ensure the bottom would not be able to move. After that, you'll need to customize the two hoses. I simply snipped a bit off both ends of the upper hose, while the lower hose was re-routed slightly to prevent kinks. (If it ever acts up I will shorten it in the straight section near the water pump.) With the radiator mounted, I then bought a new trans cooler and mounted it directly to the radiator. The lines were carefully routed so as to not interfere with the intercooler plumbing.

Finally, you're ready to attach the intercooler to the van. Once again I held it in place while a friend made some marks on the cooler and the van itself. I then used four little brackets, kinda like what you'd use to help secure a shelf to a wall. To attach these pieces to the 'cooler, I used short sheet metal screws and cautiously drilled into the bottom 'plate' of the intercooler's core. If the screws are the right size, they will attach firmly to the plate and the fins but not puncture the air tube. Longer screws were used when attaching these brackets to the van itself. When you're done screwing everything down, you'll see this:

Again, here are some closer shots for you to examine:

The top of the intercooler was left free, where it could theoretically move back and forth a small bit. (Not much since the little lip hanging down in the center would stop it.) I wanted no movement, so I used a long zip tie and carefully secured the top of the cooler to the upper support. The result is a nice, snug fit. Due to having the welder make accomodations for the alternator, clearance is a complete non-issue:

Once the intercooler mounting is complete, you can reassemble the nose of your van. The headlight brackets will fit once they've been trimmed; the headlight bezels will require no cutting at all. Here are some close shots to illustrate:

Once you have the headlight bezels installed, hold up the grille to test fit it. You'll see there are some areas on the backside which need to be carved for clearance. Not a lot of trimming needs to be done, actually, so this is pretty easy. Once you're through, install it. The lower anchor points are no longer there, of couse, since we hacked them off; the grille simply hangs down as usual and its lower mounting tabs fit into the appropriate slots on the headlight bezels. After running like this for a few weeks, I've noticed no problems with vibration or loosening.

Now we return our focus to underhood and plumbing in the intercooler. Once again, a few AutoZone radiator hoses and some scrap exhaust pipe are all that's needed! For the turbo-to-cooler hose, I used AZ hoses L-1095 and L-395 plus a 6"-8" long chunk of 2.25" OD exhaust pipe. I trimmed a bit off 1095 and cut a lot off the 395; when you have the hoses there in front of you it'll become pretty obvious how everything goes together. Here are a couple pictures (it's hard to see since this hose is under all the other ones):

For the cooler-to-TB piece I used hoses L-395 and M-206 with an 8" chunk of pipe and another 6" chunk of pipe for the Talon BOV. One end of hose 395 is flared and is about seven inches long; I cut off about three inches of this flare and used it to form the BOV-to-TB piece. Speaking of the Talon BOV, I got one from a junkyard and merely had a friend cut the flange off the dinky Talon pipe, then weld it onto a piece of 2.25" exhaust pipe.

In the photo above, my 90^ bend is actually not hose M-206. The one I used--it was just lying around, I don't know its part number--has a larger diameter bend. Hose 206 will work fine; it simply has a sharper 90^ bend. No big deal.

The final hose needed is for your air filter. I currently have my K&N cone sitting next to the radiator, trying to draw in relatively cool air rather than suck in the hot air which has just passed through the radiator. To do this, I began with the stock turbo-to-airbox hose and installed it backwards onto the turbo (to clear the turbo-to-intercooler hose). Then I used a small exhaust pipe reducer which necks down to 2" diameter, which has a small straight piece of 2" ID radiator hose connecting it to another 2" pipe. This second pipe is special, though; it has a formed-in hose barb for me to connect to the PCV valve. After this small pipe is more hose and another exhaust adapter which returns the diameter to 2.25 inch, then a miscellaneous bend or two to end up next to the radiator. Sounds a bit daft, perhaps, but it works fine:

That pretty much wraps up the operation. If you have a turbo minivan, can live without A/C, and value low charge air temps above all else, you'll enjoy the use of this intercooler. And no matter what you drive, I hope this page helps guide you in your quest for high boost and serious horsepower.

Modified: 11-3-08.