Intercooler Quality.

[Silent Knight]

I was just wondering about Intercooler quality and what everyone has had experience with.

Would an Intercooler that seems to be cheap from Trademe be a feasable purchase? Anyone had any experience with Intercoolers from Trademe or even Racepro?

Example:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Car-parts/Performance/Turbos/auction-26928833.htm

Would it be better to spend more $$$ and get like an HKS/Greddy or something of like or are you only really paying for the name of the Intercooler and not the real quality?

Any advice or info on this would be great for when I start shopping for an Intercooler. I am prepared to pay for quality but I am intersted to know wether a Trademe quality Intercooler differs that much from say a HKS or something of like Intercooler?

Cheers

Hanré

[evil_si]

holy shit those are cheap, they look like decent ones as well.
i dont know how they can sell them that cheap

it all comes down to the core style,
the ones they call high flow usually have next to no internal heat dissipation fins, so will look all big and bling but achieve nothing.

easiest way to tell the 2 main types are
tube and fin, think vr4, factory toyota style cores
a plate and bar has a square front core,

be very careful of cheap trademe cores and cheap ones from performance shops have a look at the internal fin design.
hks, blitz etc you are paying for a name, some of the apexi ones how ever are pretty staunch.

the genuine hybrid intercoolers are good, but are rated at 500hp +, so not good on your average under 2 litre,
i was recently asked to fit one to a gt starlet, and i refused outright, gave my reasons, technical ones first, then the lamen terms like i fit this to your car, you go and race a stock standard one and youll get whipped up because its too big..
he went and had it fitted any way. then complained to the shop that his car wasnt as responsive and felt slower. hahhahahahhahaha

i have a couple of good contacts for cores at the moment, but an average plate and bar core is $500 + end tanks

hanre if you want to have a look at a couple gimme a bell and ill show ya.

[Bazda]

depends how hardout u want to make ur car i suppose....
I used to run a vr4 cooler, upgraded to the one u posted the link of and I gained 1psi more boost. Car felt better once the turbo kicked in and the lag was slightly more but made that up in high revs.
I also run 18psi through mine seems to do the trick and was very cheap to purcahse

[Silent Knight]

Hey Simon will definately be keen to come and have a look at some the coolers you've got to offer at some point

Will give you a bell or pm or something after I've moved into the new house this weekend.

Bazda will they support up to 500rwhp and more if required? How responsive are they?

[Dell'Orto]

FWIW, the Racepro cooler cores look identical to the Hybrid ones you see for sale, the end tanks are about the only visual difference.

[Bazda]

Hey Simon will definately be keen to come and have a look at some the coolers you've got to offer at some point

Will give you a bell or pm or something after I've moved into the new house this weekend.

Bazda will they support up to 500rwhp and more if required? How responsive are they?

think the 600*300*76 ones will support like 500hp+, 500wrhp is heaps!! I wouldnt go for one of these ones if ur getting that kinda hp, I would go for a custom made one then.

the response in my car is pretty crappy anyway so I cant really say...