Horizontal Intercooler Mounting

[Z's Cobra]

I have the D-1 blower with 3 core intercooler. I currently have the intercooler mounted vertically in front of the radiator but I'm interested in possibly mounting it horizontally (I've been told several shops, like Larocca's, do it this way). In the summer my car gets a little hot and I think it could be from the intercooler sitting in front of the radiator. Has anyone mounted their's horizontally? Pro's/Con's? Will the tubing fit or does it require modified tubing to work? Thanks guys.

[John91coupe]

I prefer the horizontal mounted cooler but I also don't have a front swaybar. With a swaybar in place it forces the back part of the cooler to be pretty low and close to the ground, especially if you have a lowered car. I'm pretty sure that the horizontal mounted cooler does a better job of cooling the discharge temperatures better also, not to mention that you get better cooling for your engine radiator. I have a custom scoop on mine.

[Z's Cobra]

Thanks John for the reply. Unfortunately I need my sway bar (I drive to & from work on nice days) and its lowered so the horizontal mount is probably out for me. That custom scoop looks very cool.

[Sybersport]

So what if the car is lowered with no swaybar? Would it still be a problem?

I do want to lower my car ~1" in the front, so would I be able to run a horizontal mount intercooler?

[Dan H]

I've got 5.75" of clearance on my 3 core sheetmetal with a griggs front suspension which lowered my car. The way to do it is remove the stock radiator support and fabricate a new one that is forward of the radiator and also raises the radiator. The bottom of the new support should be about flush with the bottom of the radiator. Then the intercooler can be placed right up to the bottom of the radiator. I gained about 3" of clearance doing this. This also allows moving the intercooler forward of the radiator which eliminates problems with contacting the sway bar in the rear.

edit: I double checked my measurements and I have 5.75" clear to the bottom of the intercooloer itself (at the back which is the lowest) and the scoop has about 4.5" of clearance in the front.

[Dan H]

Here are some pictures of the intercooler and radiator support:

http://home.gci.net/~polarak/dan/P1010001.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~polarak/dan/P1010003.JPG
http://home.gci.net/~polarak/dan/P1010009.JPG

[Z's Cobra]

Dan H that is a sweet set-up. Thanks for posting the pics, I don't have the ability to fabricate something like that but I know some people who do so I'm definitely going to look into that.

[K.C.90gt]

i have the 3-core horizontal intercooler on my lowered stang and I have no swaybar.. the intercooler sits a little low where the tubing connects but it doesn't scrap that much at all.. even on pot holed filled roads in detroit.. there has only been a few times when it scraped and that was when I was accelerating fast on a sharp uphill bridge.. and sometimes on really high uphill curbs/driveways.. but I think mine sits lower than its supposed to.. anyway here is a crappy pic of the intercooler... it looks a lot lower in this pic than it actually is..

http://images.cardomain.com/member_i...79_17_full.jpg