Bulletproof Aluminum Intercooler Tanks installed

Whitefarmtractor · May 31, 2013

I’ve been looking to keep things cool while tormenting Prius drivers, but didn’t have much confidence in the intercoolers I’ve seen, mainly with plastic tanks and fatigued mounting tabs. My truck regularly hits 45psi boost pressures, so I decided to source an intercooler that could handle higher pressures with ease. So, that’s when the stars aligned. A fellow Stroker (my brother) led me to a local AZ company that had a solution. This is when I received a new package. Turns out Bulletproof Diesel is coming out with a new fabricated aluminum intercooler tank option for 6.0s (and they fit on the 7.3 for the retro guys). This requires the user to dissect the plastic tanks from the stock heat exchanger, and weld on the new ones. This was actually a very straight forward process, given the design of the tanks allowed ease of fitment and installation. See Pictures below

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Simply cut along the tabs to remove the plastic tanks. Don’t cut too deeply, there’s the core under there. As you can see, I skimmed mine with the cutoff wheel, and had to weld up the thin spot to keep from having longevity issues.

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Let me know if you have any questions. It took about 6.5hrs start to finish, but I took my time to make sure everything looked nice. Sweet product, easy assembly, and definitely a requirement for high boost pressures

CN

96stroken and smokin · May 31, 2013

Nice I saw a thread over on the org. By any chance anyone know the time frame of the 6.0 aluminum ends I got a spair intercooler I would like to add these to and swap it for the one on the truck now.

Whitefarmtractor · May 31, 2013

Not sure of timeline, but I think the only difference is the Tube Dia on one side. You can specify the 3 or 3.5" tube when you talk with BPD

96stroken and smokin · May 31, 2013

If you don't mind me asking how much do they charge for the pices/kit.

mind if I smoke · May 31, 2013

Have you pressure tested it? How hard was it to weld up?

FrankTheTank · May 31, 2013

if u are good enough to weld this up. why not just cut the pieces yourself and buy a BELL Intercooler core or your choice and make one exactly the way u want.

96stroken and smokin · May 31, 2013

Frank that's a good ideal but some of us can't weld/ or can't weld aluminum. I can weld not the best but decent but can not weld aluminum

Tom S · May 31, 2013

Great photos.

Meniacal_Mark · May 31, 2013

Very cool, what's the overall cost of this setup?

weekendwarriorfsw32 · May 31, 2013

I wonder what the cost of this vs just getting a fully build one is.

FrankTheTank · Jun 3, 2013

96stroken and smokin said:
Frank that's a good ideal but some of us can't weld/ or can't weld aluminum. I can weld not the best but decent but can not weld aluminum

Neither can i. But if i could thats what i would do

strokin'_tatsch · Jun 4, 2013

96stroken and smokin said:
Frank that's a good ideal but some of us can't weld/ or can't weld aluminum. I can weld not the best but decent but can not weld aluminum

He's saying that if you are a good enough welder to weld those end tanks together and to the stock IC core, why not do the same thing just using a better core and building your own end tanks. Chances are that if you can weld aluminum that well, you can probably fab some end tanks. Most people here probably can't weld aluminum, so the solution the OP used is out of the question for those people anyways.

OldschoolPSD · Jun 4, 2013

That was my first thought. You can get an intercooler core a hell of a lot cheaper than you can get a stock intercooler.

I used to build intercoolers for a local VW shop when I first went into business welding and I want to say our cost to build a regular FMIC setup was around 70 bucks.

96stroken and smokin · Jun 4, 2013

Strokin' tatsch I see what he ment now. Didn't know you could buy the cores untill after I posted.

Whitefarmtractor · Jun 5, 2013

A firm price really hasn't been established. Their plans are to offer the kit for those that have blown their stock tanks, and possibly offer up a service for people to ship to them for installation. this was a test batch for marketing and fitment. It's my understanding that they are sitting on a qty of blown tanks already with repair intentions

And yes, we're all capable of making our own tanks, but if you value your time i'm sure its better to source the components from them than make templates, cut, sand, fit, etc...