Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I can’t really find any pictures/descriptions of intercooler setups on the XJ.

For starters, I want to supercharge my 4 cylinder. I want to run an M62 out of a C or CLK 230 Kompressor, as those are really the only ones that will fit comfortably where my A/C compressor would be. I want to gut the whole AC system and hopefully mount an intercooler where the condenser would go.

My only issue is, what fits? Is there a year/make/model intercooler that fits comfortably in front of the radiator? If there is, please let me know.

And by the way, why don’t more people run intercoolers on their supercharged XJs? I see a lot of people who use either the M62 or the (M90?) supercharger without a 5th or 7th injector and no intercooler.

 

You are in uncharted territory for the most part. Get out your tape measure.

 

It would appear so. I don’t mind a challenge

Anyway, for the XJ, the condenser is 5/8ths thick, 15 3/8ths inch tall, 18 1/2 wide. That’s for the 2.5 condenser, the 4.0 one is much wider and not as tall.

So, either I will have to find an intercooler from a car that fits within those specs, or find a universal intercooler on eBay or something similar.

I did find an intercooler that is 11 inches tall and 17 inches wide, but it’s 2 and a half inches thick, which creates a space problem. But if I remember correctly, there seems to be some meat that I could remove to make something like that fit. But for the time being, I’m going to try and find an intercooler from maybe a VW 2.0 or a 2.5 Volvo. Those are typically pretty thin and carry roughly the same size inlets and outlets, which needs to be 2.5 inches for the Eaton M62.

 

It's highly unlikely you'll find an Air to Air CAC that will easily fit up front. I would look into a Air to Liquid (water and antifreeze) CAC. The CAC can be packaged with a shorter run under the hood, and the low temp radiator can more easily be mounted up front. Those radiators are smaller than a regular radiator by far. When doing Air to Liquid the water system is completely seperate from your regular cooling system. You can probably find used parts, but I would suggest new. I don't have time right now to look for possible candidates, but will try to look next week sometime. Good luck.