Intercooler?

[Chris H.]

Thinking about throwing a turbo on the LS, anyone have any ideas where to mount an intercooler?

So far my only thought is water to air, maybe under the bed?

[Pat Landymore]

Howdy Chris!

As the former owner of a big block turbo 35 truck…I gave up on the idea of an intercooler. What I did was have a big enough engine I didn’t need much boost…and then backstop that with a (name brand, electronically controlled) water/meth system spraying directly through the centre of the air cleaner that was mounted to the turbo. That worked great for me.

And of course with an LS you have knock sensors and such to keep you even safer…if you build a safe tuneup in the first place.

My thinking is that if you will be (as I was) running 5-7 psi…which is a LOT of power in a 35 pickup…use the water meth and don’t look back.

If you’re thinking 10 psi and up…or 5 psi and up plus using your end product vehicle for auto cross etc…well, then you’re 100% correct. Go with air-> water intercooler and a water to air heat shedder (plus an ice bucket?) in/under the bed of your pickup.

Guess it amounts to how much power you prefer to use and how often you use it. A two second ‘giggle pull’ with your buds is a whole different arena to a few minutes of partial to max boost without letting off.

TBH…my 35 was in the giggle pull/200 ft burnout category. Regularly!! 😂

That’s my 2 bucks worth based on four home built turbo/blower systems… because 2 cents doesn’t buy much anymore.

Cheers!

[Dgc333]

Might make more sense to go with one of the supercharger kits that have an air/water intercooler between the supercharger and the intake manifold.