I'm working on a c13 acert in a 2005 peterbilt 357 we were putting a new water pump in and noticed the precooler had some red stuff in the air side of it that plugged it halfway so we air tested the water side and it was leaking can these be repaired or do you just have to replace them.also what is its purpose to cool the air before the intercooler or to help cool the water I've heard both can it be deleted if its just an emission deal cause i know you can delete the acert and go single turbo the truck has 435000 miles on it and hasn't been touched
howd did that go Im am goinn throu a problem similar to yours
We had to put on a new precooler never got a good explanation for its purpose
Extract from the Service Manual regarding the Air intake system. Air is drawn through the air cleaner and flows to the compressor side of the low pressure turbocharger. The low pressure turbocharger compresses the air in order to create boost. The compressed air is sent to the air inlet of the high pressure turbocharger. The high pressure turbocharger compresses the air in order to create higher boost pressures. After the compressed air exits from the high pressure turbocharger it passes to the precooler. The precooler is a heat exchanger. The precooler uses coolant to extract heat from the compressed air coming from the turbocharger. The air then flows through the Air-to-Air Aftercooler (ATAAC). The air will then enter the cylinder head. The water supply for the precooler is regulated. The water supply is shut off below 1200 RPM. Cooling the compressed air increases the density of the air charge and so increases combustion efficiency. So effectively what you have is 2-stage aftercooling. The first stage is air-to-coolant, the second stage is air-to-air. This is probably necessary because of the 2-stage turbocharging used by this particular engine model which must heat the air quite a lot.
Thanks Nige, this is one of the big reasons I love HEF, I get to learn things that are of interest to me for free. I may never have use for this nugget of information but still for some odd reason it makes me happier for knowing it. Cheers, Lanway