choosing intercooler

[normality78]

i've been having dillema on choosing Intercooler now.

Currently using JDM 4g63 VR4 intercooler whic is not very big. Im using IHI RHB52 now and boosting 1bar. I felt my current IC is not sufficient enaugh and looking into upgrade. Current pumping 160whp.

my dillema is between getting some local made intercooler or evo7-8 stock intercooler. The only set back to me for having Evo7-8 Ic is due to its size which i felt its kinda too big. As for local intercooler, no doubt it does bring down the temp but im more worried for the flow.


this is my current Ic pic. 590 x 230 x 67



i'll try to find some pic for local made ic

[sergei]

i've been having dillema on choosing Intercooler now.

Currently using JDM 4g63 VR4 intercooler whic is not very big. Im using IHI RHB52 now and boosting 1bar. I felt my current IC is not sufficient enaugh and looking into upgrade. Current pumping 160whp.

If anything for 160whp the VR4 intercooler is bit big. Don't forget they are designed for 250-300Hp cars.

[flygt4]

dont use second hand intercoolers , a vr4i/c will be ~15years old now.how many fins are rusty and/or bent?

get an evo1--3 sized one off trademe, brand new. heaps of headroom, cheap and pretty efficient.
i changed from an old rooted evo3 i/c to a new trademe jobbie and gained 40kw atw, although i did replace the turbo with a same spec new item too.

[SUBARUCONVERT]

the vr4 IC is plenty for your job, and flygt4 are u saying that u got 40kw from replacing your IC, i say u could remove ur ic and not lose 40kw

[flygt4]

nope i'm saying i did 2 things, i replaced the turbo with the exact same item but brand new, and replaced the intercooler with a brand new one of the same dimensions, with larger inlet/outlets and showed a 40kw gain. same dyno, same tune, same psi

i think its fair to say that the intercooler would have been responsible for a good amount of that gain, as the turbo wasnt noticably damaged when dyno'd previous , it failed pretty quickly when the bearings got roasted after a boost leak at the track.

heres a pic of my old i/c


as stated, it was pretty $&#$%, and was responsible for a lot of loss in power. there are easy gains to be made by using a brand new intercooler over an old rusty/bent one.

[SUBARUCONVERT]

i say u could use a stright pipe in place of your current IC and not lose 40kw, ive added IC's and fitted many IC kits and found gains of around 15kw on cars that already had IC's and about 25kw on cars without factory IC's. Obviously the amount of gain from an IC depends on how much power u make in the first place. Unless your old IC was full of crap and blocked down to a few tubes i just dont see u getting that amount of gain without a change in the tune

[z0ton]

i say u could use a stright pipe in place of your current IC and not lose 40kw, ive added IC's and fitted many IC kits and found gains of around 15kw on cars that already had IC's and about 25kw on cars without factory IC's. Obviously the amount of gain from an IC depends on how much power u make in the first place. Unless your old IC was full of crap and blocked down to a few tubes i just dont see u getting that amount of gain without a change in the tune

He clearly stated that he got a new turbo too...Which would of been some of the 40kw gain...

[matt dunn]

We had one of the aftermarket evo type intercoolers off trade me on the Focus and also have one on the enduro levin.

The flow a reasonable amount, but we dont think they actually cool bugger all and they severly restrict the airflow to and thru the radiator.

We are now fitting a much much lighter type to the focus,
and I have a standard evo 6.5 one to go onto my car,
as our current theroy is the lighter the weight of the cooler the more cooling it will do.

Will have to wait till track or dyno time to prove it though.
Should be able to quite well as the focus logs all the airtemp/flow data etc in the motec.

[flygt4]

if you log any usefull data about the quality of intercooling through the ecu on the focus matt, do let the people know

[normality78]

We had one of the aftermarket evo type intercoolers off trade me on the Focus and also have one on the enduro levin.

The flow a reasonable amount, but we dont think they actually cool bugger all and they severly restrict the airflow to and thru the radiator.

We are now fitting a much much lighter type to the focus,
and I have a standard evo 6.5 one to go onto my car,
as our current theroy is the lighter the weight of the cooler the more cooling it will do.

that is the thing bother me alot. There is aplenty of evo type aftermarket intercooler selling arounf with very affordable price but how cool are they and how good is the flow is very subjective.

as i do not have any gauges or equipment to measure, i can only seek for inout information.

im not sure how it happen but i swear it does. Few months back i do have a friend who owned an Eterna Twinturbo and boosted at 1.3bar. He just fitted an Evo7 IC and do a few short test run (max boost) and whn he stoped, i went to touch the IC, its not even warm.

[mjrstar]

i have a friend with a vr4 cooler on his mirage, he made 220kw atw. the i/c will not be holding you back at this stage.

[matt dunn]

if you log any usefull data about the quality of intercooling through the ecu on the focus matt, do let the people know

Focus will be at the track in a couple of weeks for a track day so wil get some data.

Was at the Puke 6HR on saturday and there was a 2JZGTE altezza there running the same intercooler we had in the focus.
The car had been having overheating problems and runs the same intercooler as the focus and our enduro levin run.

They removed the intercooler and put a straight piece of pipe in it's place and the engine temp dropped 23 degree's.

About a year ago we put the same type in the enduro levin and it's has had overheating problems ever since, but as they changed lots of things
at the same time we were not sure of the cause, but it too now appears to be intercooler related.

It seems that the intercoolers are to wide in the tubes and too narrow in the fins and prevent air from going through it to get to the radiator.

More info and data on the intercooler efficency to come after a race day with the focus.

Matt

[avinesh]

just a bit off topic, can the front mount intercoolers show a bigger gain on the motorway then lets say on the dyno.....

[l1ttle_d3vil]

^^^pretty sure they have a massive fan to blow air thru the intercooler on the dyno...

[gmacrae]

The generic china made intercoolers on trademe are very good bang for buck, there are plenty of people making real impressive HP numbers on the good ol 600x300x76mm i/c. Id imagine one of the 450x300x76mm ones would do the trick nicely for you. You just have to make sure there is ducting/shielding in place to make sure as much air as possible makes its way from the front air dam to the radiator.

Gene

[Jet_boy01]

George reckoned it was because the radiator was really shitty that they were overheating matt? They should probably put the blitz front mount back on it came with, they only replaced it because it had a few bent fins haha.

[matt dunn]

George reckoned it was because the radiator was really shitty that they were overheating matt? They should probably put the blitz front mount back on it came with, they only replaced it because it had a few bent fins haha.

Yeah probably a bit of that too on both cars,
but the Intercooler is definatly part of the problem too.

[dash]

rusty intercooler fins ? ...lol

is your ic outlet pipe cool to the touch ?
Did you measure pressure drop accross it ? What else is there ?

Intercooler does a significant part of its cooling by conduction. I'd think the heavier unit would have an advantage (heat sink), especially for the typical street car short blasts.

ducting can make a difference