Intercooler for 5LE Toyota

Q. I currently own a 2003 Toyota Hilux, with the 5LE motor and aftermarket turbo. I wish to fit an aftermarket intercooler, and want to know what would be the best for my model of HiLux. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room left in the front end, and I’m not too keen on fitting a top-mounted cooler. I’m wondering if there was anyone who had done aftermarket coolers fore this model before?

A. I am not aware of any company making a 5L-E aftermarket intercooler bolt on kit for an already installed aftermarket turbo system but certainly making a front mounted system would be the better option if you go down that path. You will most likely have to custom build one and if so make sure you utilise the most available area you can. This may require some shaving back of the grill to fit it. The core you should use would be a high quality ‘bar and plate’ core. Get on the web and search that as well as look up ‘poor quality cores. There are some real crappy cores available that are cheap and have a reduced efficiency due to the poor quality. Once you have this complete I’d advise fitting a boost gauge and setting the boost around 12-13PSI. Your engine is electronically controlled so I’d guess it has a chip on it since it was turbo charged. You will need to get it onto a dyno and set the air/fuel ratios at around 19:1 or 20:1 for that engine. Be careful if you go much richer (lower in number) as it is originally a non-turbo and ‘winding up’ more power may start to sacrifice the engine life. Even with all the safety devices such as intercoolers and larger exhausts always remember that it’s still just a non-turbo engine to start with so lean towards safety is my advice.