Brian,

The setup that I am going to do for my personal car will be based on a specific, widely available OEM intercooler. New custom intercoolers cost too much in my opinion. If I were to make a batch of the same mounting parts that made my car run then the kit would be based on this same OEM intercooler. There would be no point in me buying up the supply of used intercoolers to send them with my kit. My kit would work with the specific off the shelf part and would be perfectly complete otherwise. This would give the end user the option of buying the intercooler new if they were sqeamish about using a used intercooler. The kit would be also cheaper if I did not have to source the used intercoolers and ship them. The kit would work for 123 or 126 617 engines. Instructions would be a large part of the "product". The $400 target would prolly put the total cost at around $600 since you would have to rework oil lines to relocate the oil cooler to a position in front of the A/C condenser. It's in the way...

As an aside, for a theory I had, I removed the engine driven cooling fan blade and the car is fine without it as long as A/C isn't used. I saw 95C after sitting through two traffic lights after an 80mph highway cruise but other than that, the coolant temp sticks to 80C without the fan mounted to the engine. I'm sure the tstat is getting to it's fully open point without the fan. It seems a waste to turn that fan all of the time. I'll probably get an electric fan if I feel I need some more cooling...The engine is smoother without it undoubtedly. I'm guessing that the intercooler will reduce the coolant temps even more...unless I'm using the power. All this in the name of science.

Jim
dieselgeek.com