[BOT_ROCKET]

A while back, I was shopping craigslist for a roll top desk, and I found one. I also noticed the same lady was selling one of those cheapy looking generic intercoolers for something like $25. I figured I could get a two'fer, and I did. She threw in the IC for nothing.

It been sitting on a shelf in my garage for a few years now waiting for me to fab some custom tanks to fit it to my Sport. I knew it wasn't likely to be a huge improvement, but there's no way it could be worse than stock. Even if it had a low density core, the increase in volume would help with heat soak, I thought. Right?

Wrong.

I finally poked my eyeball in there to see what kind of core it had. I honestly couldn't believe what I saw. Even though it was free, I feel like I got ripped off. This cheap ass... thing (it's not even an intercooler, really) has straight through extruded aluminum tubes for the hot air runners.

Needless to say, this will not be going into my car.

 

[DaMiFo]

I wouldn't say you got ripped off - that's gotta be worth at least something in scrap metal to bring down the cost of that desk! 😂

 

[BOT_ROCKET]

I wouldn't say you got ripped off - that's gotta be worth at least something in scrap metal to bring down the cost of that desk! 😂

Pretty much my thinking. I'll toss it in with my next load of beer cans.

 

[DarkArkAngel]

I wouldn't say you got ripped off - that's gotta be worth at least something in scrap metal to bring down the cost of that desk! 😂

No, I still think a ripoff. Your car likely used more fuel to bring it home than the piece of junk was worth. A 10 year old with a welding torch and stainless steel might do as well.

 

[Shawnski]

BOT_ROCKET: can you post a picture of what the whole thing looks like from the outside? Just for giggles, because I can probably tell you what it’s really made for...

 

[Engineer]

BOT_ROCKET: can you post a picture of what the whole thing looks like from the outside? Just for giggles, because I can probably tell you what it’s really made for...

I just have to say: How cool is this, that we have folks on here who can, and are willing, to do things like this. We have a really great collection of people on here with a lot of skills. It's one of the reasons (and there are many) why this forum is so great!

 

[BOT_ROCKET]

BOT_ROCKET: can you post a picture of what the whole thing looks like from the outside? Just for giggles, because I can probably tell you what it’s really made for...

This isn't it, but it's about 98% identical. If there's something specific you're looking for, I can snap a shot when I get home later if I remember.

 

[Shawnski]

That wasn’t what I was expecting to see. The large extruded passages internally looked like they belonged to an air/fluid cooler. However the tanks and inlet/outlet look like air/air. I’ve seen heat exchangers with large extruded passages used for hydraulic coolers on mining equipment, hydraulic-electric drive units, etc. but typically they will have a port(s) for the fluid. The large passages are associated with lower viscosity fluids rather than water unless it’s a really high rate of fluid flow.