Opel Team Serbia

Charge Cooler - A cheaper way.

Charge coolers can be used on turbo cars. They cool the air coming out of the turbo and going into the engine like intercoolers, however charge coolers use a water system.

A heat exchanger is fitted between the turbo and the engine, the heat in the charge is transferred into a separate water system. The hot water is then cooled in a new radiator at the front of the car.

There is also a header tank and an electric pump to pump the water around.

The reduced temperature into the engine means that the engine can sustain full ignition more of the time rather than retarding which causes power loss. The air into the engine is also more dense.

They also help reduce those nasty moments when you have been sat in traffic and then you put your foot down and the car has lost 60bhp and goes like a snail.




The peaks are when the throttle is opened thus on boost.

There are two kits on the market which are suitable. A Courtenay system and a regal system.

Other universal systems are available however they are more expensive and don't fit as well for the cavalier/calibra.
Courtney system.

The Courtenay system is made by pace and is of high quality.
The Courtenay systems heat exchanger is fitted behind the distributor and requires you to cut one of your existing hoses to fit it in.
The Courtenay system has a nice alloy swirl pot (header tank) which mounts onto the 4x4 bracket.
The life of the Courtenay pump is not at long as it should be.

Price £505 including 5% VPCC discount, vat and p&p.


Regal system.

Regals heat exchanger is fitted below the turbo instead of the metal pipe that runs along the bottom. The regal system is now supplied with a swirl pot (header tank).

Price £481 + vat + p&p

Choosing between the kits basically comes down to the price and your liking of nice alloy bits.



Now onto the point of this How 2. How to get a good charge cooler system for under £400.

Making up your own kit.

You have to buy the heat exchanger , this is £280 from either Courtenay or regal.

Then you need an electric coolant pump,
A Volvo 480 electric coolant pump is excellent for the job. (from a breakers).
Cavalier/Calibra V6 may also have a similar pump.
(The Courtenay ones are £71 and Prima Racing £117)

You will also need a radiator to mount at the front of the car, behind the grill in the air flow.

Either a mini/metro oil cooler (off an automatic or turbo) with connections or basically any heater matrix (out of the heater in side any car) that will fit at the front.

Don’t forget you will need to mount this some how and you will have to make up some brackets.

The radiators that Regal/Courtenay supply are about 55cm x 9cm x 3.2cm however they don’t need to be this big. They are just the biggest you can fit in! You may wish to consider fitting two heater matrices in if they are cheap, you have room and time to mount them. Its is not a necessity though.

You will need a header tank. You can use a round Nova tank or whatever will fit.
If you fancy a nice alloy swirl pot the Courtenay one is around £65.

You then you need some 12mm pipe. 5 metres is supplied with the Courtenay kit which is generous. Courtenay/Regal maybe the place to get this.


The charge cooler should be plumbed in as follows :-

The cold pipe from the front radiator should go directly to the heat exchanger.
The other outlet from the heat exchanger should goto the top of the header tank/swirl pot.
The bottom outlet of the tank should goto the pump.
The pump needs to be under the tank and ideally close by.
The pump outlet (usually the side exit) should goto the front radiator.

The pump electrical connections should be connected up as follows :-

The earth wire should goto the chassis earth
The positive wire should be connected to an ignition feed.

The system should be filled with a water/antifreeze mix. Not too much and not too little.
If the pump does not pump the water through the first time you may have to suck it through.

I would recommend you fit heat shielding over the cc pipes (like on the PAS pipes) particularly where it passes near the engine fan or turbo.

If you spend a lot of time sat in traffic it is worth fitting a small fan in front of the cc rad. Something like a computer power supply fan. The air direction must blow into the engine bay. Connect up the fan wires across the engine fan. The cc fan Positive to the black and the negative to the brown/white.

( It may also be beneficial fitting a fan in front of the intercooler if you have room. )
However if this is a car with air con the cc fan Positive should be connected to the red/white wire on the front fan and the cc fan negative to the chassis.

Cars with Air Conditioning.

Neither the Courtenay or regal kit fit easily to cars with air con.

The main problem is the lack of space behind the front grill to fit the water radiator.

I have looked at a calibra with air con and there looked to be enough space behind the grill at the top to fit a rad that comes with the regal/Courtenay kit, however I haven’t tried.

On the cavalier there really isn’t any room. The usual method is to cut the lip right back on the bottom air intake and fit the new rad in front of the PAS / oil cooler.

However an alternative method is to fit the good old mini/metro oil cooler (off an automatic or turbo). This can be fitted behind the grill at the top on the passenger side. However you need to cut away the dummy fan mounting and drill out the spot welds that hold it on.
The top mount on the cooler should fit straight on using a Vauxhall rubber oil cooler mounting and then you need to make a bracket to go along the bottom.

Another problem is that there is no where to mount a header tank. Therefore you must use a swirl pot mounted to the 4x4 bracket. There is always the wheel arches though.

Which heat exchanger to use with air con ?

The Courtenay one will fit however it is far from ideal. An air con pipe needs to be bent slightly out the way. The knock sensor wire re routed. (Easy job).

You then need to protect the tank vent valve and the air con pipe to stop them rubbing holes in each other. The heat exchanger also rubs on the ignition module connector.

I therefore suggest that you use a regal kit. The air con pipe will need to be bent up slightly but that’s easy.


Which water radiator to use with air con ?

As I have said the mini one is best for the cavalier, however if you are going to buy a kit anyway then the Courtenay radiator has the annoying pipe coming out the front of it on one side which is not good if you are trying to fit it into a gap that isn’t there.

The regal radiator has the pipes coming out the bottom.
Just information.

So a recap on air con cars. Use a swirl pot, a regal heat exchanger and anything that will fit behind the grill.


When wiring up the pump on an air con car. Do not connect the pump earth wire to chassis. Instead connect it to the brown/yellow loop wire found in the fuse box in the engine bay. The wire is at the back or on the right however you look at it. There will also be a black ignition feed under it. Use some male spade connections.

If the engine coolant overheats the air con is switched off. Connecting up the pump wire to this brown/yellow wire means that the cc pump is shut off too giving maximum cooling to the engine coolant rad. This will not effect the normal operation of the charger cooler, only in emergency conditions.


This is not a definitive guide, just some useful suggestions and ideas.
I recommend before you order anything that you ring round for the latest prices and see what 2nd hand bits are available at your breakers.

If you go down the cheaper route the most difficult thing is mounting the rad behind the grill. Therefore I suggest you buy just the 2nd hand rad first and try and mount it before ordering anything else. If you fail you can then order a complete kit with little lost.


Twin Charger coolers

It is possible to fit 2 charger coolers, one behind the distributor and one at the front however the benefit vs. value for money is not particularly great. If you do though I suggest you use a big water radiator and the system is plumbed in as follows :-

The cold pipe from the front radiator should go directly to the heat exchanger by the distributor.
The other outlet from the distributor heat exchanger should goto the top of the header tank/swirl pot.
The bottom outlet of the tank should goto the pump.
The pump needs to be under the tank and ideally close by.
The pump outlet (usually the side exit) should goto the bottom heat exchanger.
The bottom heat exchanger to the water rad.

Regal can supply both types of heat exchangers.

Aahahahah a obrtaljka kao gradomer u rakiji gore dole

Te price "ovo je fizika", "zakon odrzanja mase i energije", "perpetuum mobile" i ostalo... bez tacnih cinjenica ti ne vrede nista.....

Cekaj bre malo....

Zasto se onda koristi voda za hladjenje motora??? Opet ima 4 prenosa toplote (cilindar->blok, blok->voda, voda->hladnjak, hladnjak->vazduh).... sto odma nisu uveli vazduh da hladi blok motora?

Ko kaze da nisu? Postoje motori i sa takvim tipom hladjenja.