Randy G.

The idea behind a intercooler is to cool the air charge going into the engine from the turbos. The turbos get hot and heat the air coming into the engine. A colder air charge is denser and burns better, therefore makes more power. If its packed full of snow and ice its doing and even better job of cooling the air charge.

kbass24emtp

Considering all intercoolers on the diesels are behind the front grill and stacked in front of the radiator, trans cooler, and every other kind of cooler, I think you should be okay. I can't believe Ford has no protection for it.

Baptyzmbyf1re

That picture of the intercooler made me nervous. Picked up a billet insert off ebay. Hopefully, it will last a while and not compromise cooling.

BCMIF150

Did you contact your insurance company? My agent says this type of damage would be covered under my comprehensive policy.

panthercity

iTrader: (1)

Actually, the heat comes from compressing the air, not the heat from the exhaust turbine side.

Pongdadong

I don't see how this was not covered under warranty. Bumper to Bumper means exactly that. It is FordMoCo's fault for not putting and type of guard there. I never had an issue with my three Evo, and there was no guards for the intercooler. I wonder is there will be any aftermarket Intercoolers coming out that are bigger than stock, weird to see such a tiny intercooler when the Evo is a 2.0L and the intercooler is way bigger. I wonder if AMS will be coming out with something in the near future?

BucketMan

No different than a rock smashing a windshield. Yeah it sucks, but can not be expected to be under warranty. You could file it under vehicle insurance, but due to the cost is most likely not worth it.

Regarding the smaller intercooler, thats what you get when you try and engineer parts for a new powerplant into an existing body style.

Jaws1

An IC guard is one of the first things that I bought for my truck. It already has about 50 chips on the black paint and it needs to be sprayed. I can't imagine how the IC would have looked w/o the guard.

acdii

Dont worry about air flow restriction with a grill guard in place. My opinion on experts is most are full of Sh**. The F350 I just traded had a Powerstroke Diesel. The intercooler was sammiched between the A/C condenser and the radiator. Cant get much more restrictive than that with a grill.

Glad I saw this thread, I just got an F150 EB and remember seeing the intercooler was unprotected, so searching for a cover now.

PearlWhiteLariat

You guys do know you can buy cheap wire mesh grills that do not restrict any air flow right? You can get em at autozone or pep boys for like $20. It may not be the nicest looking alternative but it works and there is no loss of performance. "how do you know? You don't have an Eco" well I had a 06 lancer evolution, dropped a bigger intercooler in and had to get a much more expensive front bumper for it. But most company's don't make there bumpers with the idea in mind that crap can get stuck or in your case make a big ol hole. So after all that money on a new freshly painted to match bumper an bigger intercooler, I did the next best thing and found a decent looking wire mesh grille, it worked really good, and there was no power loss, needless to say 2 months later I got bored of it and sold the car for 24k with just under 33k miles. yeah I know the kid got a good deal... Or should I say his daddy hahaha.