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frenchian · Sep 9th, 2019, 23:16

I’ve just done my V70s intercooler. After 17 years and almost 220k miles I think it’s earned it’s keep.
Looking at all the posts, YouTube’s etc I decided to go the “top route” as I felt more comfortable keeping the other rads supported using a trolley jack. The slam panel was the easy bit, jiggling the rad out was an absolute PITA. I found that by gently lowering the rad pack I could get enough room to persuade the right hand side up, but only after loosening the aircon drier bracket slightly as it was catching. It was very tight - the width of the intercooler at the inlet/outlet was just more than the room between the two headlight mountings (part of the bodywork). Once the right hand side was up the job became easy. Oddly I found that on refitting it was easier to drop the left side in first.
One point - I undid my sensor once everything had been loosened only to find that the head of the screw crumbled away leaving the sensor firmly attached to the intercooler. It therefore had to come out with the rad. Once removed I decided not to refit it until everything was in position to avoid damage. This was an error - with everything loose it’s possible to get a Torx bit directly onto the screw, once bolted up it’s almost impossible to do anything, I ended up redropping the entire rad pack just to tighten that one small screw....
This is a job well worth doing though - it took me something like 2 hours “hands on”, the difference to the car is enormous, no more thick black smoke when the turbo kicks in and the performance is significantly crisper. I’m waiting to see if the fuel consumption has improved too.

Sep 9th, 2019, 23:16	#38
frenchian New Member Last Online: Dec 4th, 2021 22:45 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: North Devon	Out of the top I’ve just done my V70s intercooler. After 17 years and almost 220k miles I think it’s earned it’s keep. Looking at all the posts, YouTube’s etc I decided to go the “top route” as I felt more comfortable keeping the other rads supported using a trolley jack. The slam panel was the easy bit, jiggling the rad out was an absolute PITA. I found that by gently lowering the rad pack I could get enough room to persuade the right hand side up, but only after loosening the aircon drier bracket slightly as it was catching. It was very tight - the width of the intercooler at the inlet/outlet was just more than the room between the two headlight mountings (part of the bodywork). Once the right hand side was up the job became easy. Oddly I found that on refitting it was easier to drop the left side in first. One point - I undid my sensor once everything had been loosened only to find that the head of the screw crumbled away leaving the sensor firmly attached to the intercooler. It therefore had to come out with the rad. Once removed I decided not to refit it until everything was in position to avoid damage. This was an error - with everything loose it’s possible to get a Torx bit directly onto the screw, once bolted up it’s almost impossible to do anything, I ended up redropping the entire rad pack just to tighten that one small screw.... This is a job well worth doing though - it took me something like 2 hours “hands on”, the difference to the car is enormous, no more thick black smoke when the turbo kicks in and the performance is significantly crisper. I’m waiting to see if the fuel consumption has improved too.