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This paper describes a new long life, heavy duty, air-to-air charge air cooler (CAC) which has particular application in heavy duty trucks, buses, off-highway vehicles and construction equipment. In this paper, it is proven through structural modeling and fatigue analysis on actual service histories that plastic flow and the resulting cumulative damage make it impossible for a typical brazed charge air cooler to meet minimum reliability requirements in at least some applications. Thermal expansion of the charge air cooler core, internal pressure, and external shock and vibration all contribute to a complex stress/strain response behavior in the area of the tube-to-header joint. Testing showed that the use of resilient tube-to-header joints, utilizing grommeted seals between the tubes and headers, eliminates the high stresses in this area and provides a theoretically infinite life.