55.2-59 Help! Turbo LS 56 Truck - Intercooler fitment

[CurtaChevy]

Hi All,

My Dad and I are (incredibly slowly) building a 5.3 Turbo LS 56 Truck and am looking for intercooling inspiration. Despite looking pretty large, there isn't as much space up front for radiator, fans and a decent sized intercooler. I'm starting to think maybe an air-to-water intercooler might be the best in terms of packaging but I would still really like keep it simple with an air-to-air. I'm running a corvette LS3 water pump ICT Billet accessory set up to claw back 1.5"s.

Has anyone got pictures of an intercooler set up on a 55-58 truck?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[fauXGT]

Ever look into the combo intercooler/radiator setup?
Custom and kinda pricey, but much narrower than separates.
Air to water heat exchanger is much smaller in front, but need room for reservoir tank and plumbing under hood.

[dsraven]

how about an Audi copy where they put a smaller intercooler on each side ahead of the wheels and scoop/direct air to them. they are connected with a tube, which could also be finned for cooling assist. so, from turbo to primary cooler, then through a tube across to the secondat cooler, then to the engine.

[akdg87]

there isn't much room, i was able to make a 3.5" core work with a modified factory grill. But after about 700 HP the intercooler was too restrictive. So now i don't run a grill with a 4" core intercooler.

You could modify the core support to move everything back a few inches and gain some room. Air to air is preferred on a street vehicle, the air to water would work but the intercooler portion is usually odd shaped and hard to position somewhere out of the way.

Few pics in my build thread, i don't believe i have the latest iteration in there.

[CurtaChevy]

Thanks all, I'm going to see what can be done by moving the core support 👍

[dsraven]

i made a whole new core support out of square tube for the frame and 16 ga for the filler panels for my chassis swap. i needed to locate the rad ahead of the supporrt. easy enough done. easier if you have a square tubr bender.

[CurtaChevy]

Akdg87 - It would great to see the latest iteration - I had already had a look through your build, bloody brilliant.

Dsraven - have you any pictures?

Thanks for the input guys, very helpful

[dsraven]

I have pics on a thumb drive at home. I'm just not at home for a week or so. sorry man. mine is a 57 GMC Canadian version which uses a Chevy style rad support. that rad support is pretty basic. think about it as a spacer between 2 points with mounts at the bottom and a certain shape. then simply build what you need between those parameters. I used a cross bar further back to space the fenders apart as required, then some stands under the fenders to keep them at the correct level, then unbolted the rad support and built a new frame that had the same contours on the sides as the old support had, got that bolted into the hole on each side, then mocked up the rad and a/c where they needed to go, then made the filler piece between the side parts to fit and finally put some mounts under it. you can do it, or at least try it, and it if doesn't work out you haven't changed anything else and can install the original rad support. the only thing you lost is some time and a bit of steel that can be repurposed somewhere else anyway maybe.

[1project2many]

I built a Toyota turbo pickup and retained factory a/c plus added an intercooler. It was a *very* tight fit but it looked ok and worked well.

http://home.metrocast.net/~shannen/y...tercooler.html

[1project2many]

Duplicate Post

[CurtaChevy]

Thanks for the ideas guys - Keep 'em coming

[OKGMC4]

How I did it. Set the engine way back. Make brackets to mount intercooler that relocate the radiator. Truck handles better now too. More pics in my build thread around page 19 or 20.