My truck was lucky enough to recieve a Vortech Supercharger setup, but not so lucky as to get an intercooler. I have seen the vortech aftercooler systems for their chargers, but I am not sure if there is one available for my setup. Here's the thing... I checked the Vortech website, and they dont list one, but in a section for installation manuals, they list instructions for an aftercooler for the 5.4 Ford truck. Can I fabricate a front mounted intercooler from parts myself? I have seen pictures of other centrifugals, that were intercooled, and they looked to be about the same size. Has anyone IC'd a Vortech on their truck, or does anyone know about the aftercooler? I would really like to hear your responces. Especially with all this talk about DETONATION!!!! Thats a pretty scary word.......

 

I was looking around and found the Procharger setup, with an intercooler. It really looks to be about the same dimensions in the picture, and I am sure that I could fabricate everything to fit. All I would have to do is contact Procharger and see if they sell the intercooler setup as a kit, or by components. Here is the picture of the intercooled Procharger unit, and a picture of the Vortech setup, which is on my BOSS 5.4

Procharger intercooler

Vortech setup...

 

I installed a vortech 5.0 mustang aftercooler on my 4.6 F150 with a powerdyne supercharger, very easy install. I used factory lightning heat exchanger pump hoses and degass bottle, and the vortech aftercooler, works well. There are some frontal pictures in my gallery.

 

You need a good tune to prevent the detonation problem. Basically the cooler the air charge the more advanced the timing can be. The pcm receives the temps from the iat, and will advance timing more for cooler air charge.

The set up chucks_bp has is the best, as there is so little loss of boost. I thought about it for mine, but it looked to be too difficult for me.

I am putting together an air to air aftercooler for my new Powerdyne, similiar to the ATI procharger, but customized. It is very time consuming, but the final hard cost of parts/materials including aftercooler, pipes etc, and a 12" efan with controller will be about $ 650 - mostly e-bay parts which so far seem pretty good................ " a little imagination: priceless"

LOL, Burns

 

Like chuck told me, if you watch ebay long enough, you can find that air to water kit for a decent price. DOn't expect to pay less than about $800 for it all, as I have been watching them for months and haven't seen one sell for less.

 

.....I have no patience......

Most of the used " kits " I see on ebay are incomplete from the original application, and when you cross over to another vehicle, and buy the little pieces seperately and retail probably, they are expensive... it all adds up, and up.

I looked at the pic of the Vortech mounted, and it looks like it would be fairly easy to pipe like the ATI.... plenty of height clearance, down to the bottom of the radiator, and then forward to a cooler. Efans make for more room, andmake the 3" pipe work much easier.

By the way - the polished pipe I bought on ebay is pretty decent if you choose to go that route, but I like the matte finish of the ATI pipe. I am using steel wool to dull it down, and it looks ok.

 

Are there any adjustments I can make with my Predator tuner to avoid detonation? I have not had a custom tune setup yet, as I am still waiting for a few parts to arrive so I can install them. Dyno tuning will be done after I upgrade the injectors to 42s and throw in that lightning MAF. I have another question. I have a friend who charged his F, and upgraded the pumps, and injectors, and said he had problems with the fuel lines not standing up to the increased pressure. Anyone know about this?

 

For an aftercooler for your truck follow this link.

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=215308

 

I took the same route chucks bp did with a Vortech aftercooler. Mine is from a 4.6 Mustang and fits pretty well but some fabrication is needed. There are more pictures in my gallery as well. Total cost was probably about $500 with a new Lightning pump and degas bottle, a used lightning heat exchanger and a very good buy on the aftercooler on e-bay.

 

You can get an air to air intercooler for less than 200 bucks. Its not that hard to build it all yourself.

I prefer the air to air over the air to water, but thats just my preferance. Air to air is cheaper and less of a hassle to install.


Marlon

 

Fredman,
What are all the components I would need to gather to put that together? I know I would need the IC, and piping, but what else? would I have to bolt in an electric fan to cool the setup?

 

The intercooler mounts up front where the air blows across it when you are driving, so you don't really "need" a fan, but some people do use one to cool the intercooler after it becomes heat soaked when you are not moving. I would say a fan is only necessary when you are drag racing, when you heat the intercooler up during your run, but then you are parked until you run again. In this case, there is no air flowing over the IC to help cool it, so a fan comes in handy.

You only need the intercooler and the pipe, and some good silicone couplers to piece the pipe together. I used 2.5 inch mandrel bent pipe from Summit, its not that expensive at all. I used some small flatbar from Lowes to weld up a bracket to mount it, and thats about it.


Marlon

 

What kind of HP gains could be expected with an AIR 2 AIR setup? I guess what I'm trying to ask is, how much can the air to air system lower the temperature of that blown air?

 

I don't think 2 1/2" pipe is big enough.....the Discharge on my Powerdyne and throttle body are 3", I thought it was pretty standard.

I used 3" polished aluminum pipe from an ebay vendor... 6 nice pieces of 90 degree mandrel bent .... 17" long x 7-8"...... included cheap couplers and cheap hose clamps, but the pipe is worth the price, and the couplers are prolly OK for this type of low pressure application.
I also used a cooler from ebay, mounted vertically..... has 3" inlets which angle to the center of the radiator to get past steering box, etc, 12 x 18 x 4 core........about $ 450 for all as "buy it now".
You may need to experiment a bit to get over the top from the s/c discharge down to the cooler, possibly two 45 degree fittings to make the turn, or a 45 & 90....... some combo will work OK.... you can cut the stuff with motorized miter box and fine carbide wood blade, and file the cuts clean.
LOL, Burns

 

The effecincy of the air to air system depends mostly on the quality of the IC and location on the truck. A well setup system will run 10-15 degrees over ambient temps under full boost. You can pretty much figure about a 1% to 3% increase in horsepower for every 10 degrees you drop the intake temps. But to take full advantage of the intercooler, you need to have the tune setup to add timing, thats where you really get the extra power.

2.5 inch pipe is plenty big enough for most daily driver applications with a supercharger or turbo. You only really need 3 inch for something like 450+ horsepower. Having 3 inch doesn't really hurt, but the more area you have to fill up with air before the compressor can compress it, the slower it takes the compressor to do its job. Now we are talking milliseconds here, so you probably will not notice any difference when using either pipe size.

If your on a small budget, like I am, you can get 2.5 inch mandrel bent pipe from summit really cheap. Its aluminized and won't rust, and you can paint it and make it nice and shiny.


Marlon