Air->water-> Air intercooling, testing waters!

[Chewy]

ohhh, you alreaaady have a larger turbo in yours..Nice. Hopefully you used your overly large mitts to strangle your japanese seller down a bit on the price!

well, if you ever find some free time, I'm considering coming to you for some fabrication ideas I have. I'm here in Vic as well.

-Kelly.

[EnviroImports.com]

sure, what sort of things are you thinking?
once these racks are done and some of the other little jobs that are booked, Im making radiant under floor heater lines, we are going to bring in a bunch of solar hot water heaters this summer, so right now im putting 1x2 .090 wall tubing onto 5" wide 1/8th thick flat bar, welding the ends, welding on a aluminium bung to put in a ball valve, this is so far going to be 10ft long lengths, fill them with water, as much water out as possible with some glycol inside so any minerals in the water wont corode the alum over time , then its going to be plumbed into some abs or food grade hose, put onto a MICRO small hot water heater and set for about 100* with a 20gallon/min circulation pump, so this way I have radiant floor heating , I can just screw the panels to the ceiling of my basement, and it will heat up all the floors, this way I dont have to tear up the hardwood floors, lay any cement or have tile floors. and once the solar panels are on the roof, they will be tied into the circut so the hot water tank will only come on if the water gets below the temp the solar collector will heat up to. and depending on how well it all works I will do all my main floor via the basement and look at something similar for our 3rd floor suit. I will post picts of the set up as I go, right now i have all the alum, the fittings, bought the pump today, have the hot water heater in the shed, just need a few hours spare time to do the welding and put it up. Well thats the Theory any way lol
what do you want to fab up?
the BIG Trade show is on the 6th so im buying a milling machine for making the hinges easier for the extended doors, Not a machine worth more than my van, but still alot easier than doing this all by hand with other tools........

[Loc]

I'm late replying but interested as well Chewy!

-Loc

[Chewy]

Awesome. Hopefully will have all the parts within the next couple weeks for the proto.

And Noel, the work you're doing sounds amazing. Let me know if you ever need an employee! It looks like you're doing a good job working your way towards the go-to-guy for fabrication.. a milling machine should bring you more side business than you'd ever want. Over and above what you're already dealing with :D

[EnviroImports.com]

well maybe i should hold off on the milling machine then, Im allready swamped with welding work lol,
I made this today when I finished some other work, Its the first of my under floor heater segments, Its the 2x1 .090 Alum, I decided not to weld it to the flat bar, so i just welded tabs on so I could hold it up against the roof in the basement, Its 9Ft long, water will go in the one bung, go up the 9ft, over 270mill, will have ball valves on each end to fill with water and a bit of glycol in befor it gets mounted then the pump will be inline, circulating through the water heater and voalla, radiant heated floors, that will get later plumbed into a solar water heater on the roof. this one section will do my hall way, and was made to go between the joists... the aluminium will heat the floor and once a few more segments are done, my kitchen and living room will also be tied in....
what do you think?
Am I crazy, or just boored, either way, This will be the last year I EVER pay for any source of oil heat, Bio or cruid, my electricity will also be about 90% solar& wind by the end of the summer, so if Im not turning the hydro meter backwards, I will only be using a trace amount...

[Chewy]

That, my friend, is awesome. On all fronts. Get a patent on that design! Where's your shop? It'd be nice to swing by sometime for a chat, if you have the time that is....

what are you using for panels? and where did you source the wind power setups? Would like to set up my girlfriend's parents this summer with a dehumidification system that used wind power for the dehumidifier and the collected water would go into their well.

Sooooo cool.

Kelly.

[loki]

that's awesome I hope it works out as well or better than your planning. are you going to use anything to help create a thermal bond between the heater and the floor? air is really good at wasting heat the tries to travel thought it even for a tiny distance.

[jessef]

I did a solid front axel conversion on one delica well over a year ago, I sure wish he would post some picts of it, was Impressive work, but not somehting I would want to do again, or at least for such little money, these are fun vans, but sometimes a good challange to modify.

I can attest to that !

[EnviroImports.com]

on the rails, there are tabs welded on, and ive beveled the edges of the material befor welding so a deep weld would hold and I could flapper wheel off the raised welds on the underside, so it will sit Flush against the floor boards that are under the hardwood, so since aluminium is always trying to get rid of hot or cold temp, it will be a great conductor, so the hallway will be very warm on the floor, so that will be my thermal bond, once i have the system up and running, maybe tonight if im back from the gym intime, so once its running and I know there are no leaks and i take a few picts of it, I will put expanding foam insulation all over the segment to further insulate it , leaving of course the ball valves and maybe the last few inches of it exposed for further access.

I actually work out of my house , keeps the costs down and the family bond tight. let me know when you would like to get a coffee, I can ramble on for ever about some of these ideas, Im going to have a Vertical axes wind generator on the roof , multiple solar panels and with the new solar panel shingles that have come out, we are going to put those on the south side of the garage to test them.
Some times owning an import company has its perks, like free samples....

with the vertical axis generators, i dont have to worry about fins flying off from some seagull in a wind storm and taking out a neighbors prized tulips or something stupid like that. I will get wind at night and all winter in our Bleek sun times, and sun during the day in the summer, all 8 weeks of that......
I meet so many people that want off the grid, I say thats Pure Lunacy, I LOVE the grid, Im going to power the grid, Net Metering. I will use the power i produce for my self, with NO BATTERIES stored, and when i have extra like when im traveling and my wind generator is racking up money for me, I will be turning my meter backwards and even collect money , if I need more power than i have on hand, i use it from the grid, the control box handles it all. Cherish the grid, if you treat it right , it will be a happy day opeing your hydro bill and seeing a credit for $20 instead of a $400 bill for having your big screen tv.

I dont post where I live as I prefer to keep it internet based, but a few customers do stop by. being that its my home, I dont like (well the wife more than me) it when we are having breaky and a train of delicas fly into my driveway desperate for part and decided to drop by rather than call,
I had a guy just the other day who wanted a trailer hitch, but wanted to come over and "look" around befor he decides, SORRY. I dont need any more looky loos on my patio or having coffee at my pond at 8am befor im even out there lol

Im pretty aproachable, i will go out in the middle of the night to help someone stranded, we drive all the nursed to work in the winter storms, but there are limits, and I would love to have a coffee and talk about some projects, right now im working on a Stainless steel Bio diesel processor made from recycled beer kegs,Cut the top and bottoms, flip one upside down, and I have a cone bottom stainless steel cylinder, thats going to be COOL
This weekend im making another kite surfing buggy with a racing bucket seat buit in rather than the fabric hamock style, I dont seem happy unless im tinkering or building somehting. but then i get to many projects on the go at once........ oh well,

OH here, this is a pic of the hitch we made for Miles, Last weekend, Its Class 3, the spare tire stays where it is and is ideal for bike racks, and Small boats and such, the delica is just not strong enough for large & heavy trailers, so no hitch is ideal for those. but the Class 3 seems to be the best for options like racks, small boats, bike racks... stuff the delica is going to haul.

[Mephisto]

I'm interested in seeing the pics of the solid axle deli, I was going to do my pajero, but have now decided I should sell it and buy a 2.8 5speed. The axle is all built and waiting for a suitable pajero to come along. I'd be worried about flopping a delica, so top heavy, any serious wheeling is out of the question. What suspension set up did you go with?
I've done many intercoolers on many vehicles, I just don't know delicas that much, I'd like to check one out in depth. I am not a fan of top mount intercoolers, especially for something used for wheeling or other slow strenuous chores, so an air water kit would make sense. I do prefer the simplicity of an air to air system. I put a front mount on my pajero and my EGTs dropped immensely (was two years ago so I don't recall the exact amount). I did a three inch exhaust as well, which definitely helped. I went the simple route with a turbo upgrade, just get the compressor housing profiled to fit a 15g wheel and your turbo still bolts up. For my 2.8 I'll build a custom manifold and put a totally different turbo on, I think that is out of the range of most peoples abilities on here, but possible for some. Is that upgraded turbo in the L400 a different cartridge or does it still bolt up to the factory manifold or even an adapter plate?

[loki]

I'd be worried about flopping a delica, so top heavy, any serious wheeling is out of the question.

there are pics of people with their Deli's at or past 45° not too shabby imo, they may be tall but aren't very top heavy. I suppose what you call serious, these vans are pretty damn capable offroad, especially if modded to any degree. Remember often when gett bigger tires they get wider on both sides of the van but only go up half of the tire size as the measure is diameter and the radius determines the added height, so you go from 30"X9.5" to 31" by 10.5" like I did the van goes up .5" and the stance is 1" wider (with the same rims)

[bionic]

..I used a PWR cannister unit in my Turbo Diesel Doka for years with great success...I would never run the coolant bridged to the vehicles radiator...always a closed loop with it's own rad. You need to feed these smaller intercoolers as cold as possible for a good return. I used a Honda "Goldwing" motorcycle radiator with a Bosche electric coolant pump of the ignition switch. They are small at under 12" long and around 10" wide and 2" thick...most any large motorcycle/skidoo rad can work.
I was in the process of moving the intercooler to my Delica when I sold it.(for far more than I bought it for) I purchased a replacement A/C louvered grill cover from Glen at CC auto with plans to mount the "mini-rad" w/cover in place of the stock A/T cooler.(I have an aftermarket slim-line A/T cooler that fits nicely between the A/C fan on the Delica's rad.) This way you can run coolant lines down the drivers wheel well directly from the intercooler down to the rad in a straight line (relatively speaking) as the coolant lines are no larger than 5/8. This will yield the greatest effect with the least fabrication. For those "really" interested e-mail me for details. It may be simple but a few fundementals need to be addressed for the benefits to be seen. I would also see little point in intercooling my Delica if I planned on running stock boost pressures. I ran 14-16lbs in the Doka, and would run 12.5-14 in the Delica. I also added alcohol injection at the same time as the nozzles mounted easily to the intercooler.(moderate power gain...just cleaner injectors and slightly lower exhaust temps under sustained load)
A quick note- maybe slightly off topic...if you do add boost to your deli, modify the blow-off accordingly or you are not going to see the benefits of added compression.

[Delicaman]

Well, has anyone thought of using the Delica's AC and divert it to cool your intercooler? Bigger bang with all that cooool air. Just imaging refrigerated air in your inter-cooler... I have other projects like Propane injection to work on... Even Bigger bang in the Diesel engine...

Benn

[sasquatch-hunter]

So, what happen to the water to air intercooler project?

[Chewy]

I sold my delis. And then I still wanted to do it but got laid off. As it sits, I'm still interested in doing it and I have plans to once I'm back on my feet, but for now it'll have to wait.. I have had it sussed out for a while now(aside from fine tuning fuel delivery).