It's one of those questions that has arguments for both yes and no. From personal experience, everyone that I have ever met who has installed a full size intercooler has spoken very well of the upgrade, often remarking on how much better the Land Rover pulls through all the gears, particularly up hill. That said, I stormed past one such person last month with my standard setup 300tdi 110. On the other hand however, when you actually speak to the mechanics who install larger intercoolers and tweak the injection pump / turbo waste gate to suit the larger intercooler volume, they strongly suggest sticking to the standard size intercooler. For starters, you are massively reducing the air flow to the radiator, so expect to see higher operating temperatures regardless of the lower air intake temperature. Naturally, cramming more air and more fuel into your cylinders also massively increases your exhaust gas temperature which begins to have an effect on your injectors, the turbo and the engine internals in general. Having your turbo working harder is also another factor to take into account. If you are going to do it right, you'd really need to have it on a rolling road so that you can get everything set up just right, it's quite easy to effect the air / fuel balance which will override any potential improvements that the intercooler would make. As for fully synthetic engine oil, I can honestly say that I don't know of anyone who has ever tried it. The only thing that would be on my mind are the 'helpful' additives that supposedly clean your engine as you drive. They tend to do more harm than good really. Don't put anything less than 15/40 in it.
-Tom
. Just a thought, but would running a larger (not neccessarily a full size) intercooler on standard boost and fuel settings be pointless and a waste of money? Or would there still be a reasonable benefit? For example, one like in the link below:
