Does the brand of turbo intercooler matter

[jakelandry]

Im planning on turboing my car sooner or later and im in the process of molding my (dare i say) body kit on my car. I wont be able to add an intercooler after i mold my front bumper on without ripping it off and remolding it so will an ebay fmic do the same job as any other intercooler? Keep in mind when i boost im not going crazy with it.

 

[4g63turbo84]

intercoolers are almost the same i have a friend that is making 600HP on a ebay intercooler, but i wouldn't mold the front bumper, you can do the rest of the car but i would leave the front alone you never know what is going to happen, for the most part that is the one part of your car that will bottom out and a fiberglass bumper will crack or just come off and if you mold it in it will cost more to have it fixed.....

one more thing i'm going to be doing a body kit soon but i;m doing is i'm going to use a body kit on the sides and the rear and i'm going to but a 2gb front with a ebay lip so i can keep the flex in the front bumper, some thing for you to think about.....

 

[jrohner]

I love my cheapo ebay/ssac intercooler. It's huge but still fits great, and even at over 30psi on the 16g in the summer, it's only warm 1/3 to 1/2 way across.

 

[BigBeans]

It depends how serious the turbo system is.

It doesn't make much sense to choke a $1500+ turbo with a ebay fmic, but it also doesn't make much sense to spend $900 on a big name core for a 16G.

 

[Teflon]

Not really. I am running 27psi on a 16g using a VR FMIC. Unless Greddy puts little people in their intercoolers waving fans then they are pretty much the same.

 

[dsm-onster]

Look in the inside of various intercoolers. All look the same on the outside wrt fin shape. Some have more density if fin count. But on thinside is what counts. All my ebay intercoolers do not have lovours on the INTERNAL fins nor are staggered/offset INTERNALLY. Chinabay makes money off of objects APPEARING the same, whether or not they truel are. But the question is: For your goal, does this matter? In your case a larger ebay IC probably will do as good as a medium sized high dollar fmic. So what's the point in running something so expensive. And you can top it off with water/meth injection.

 

[jakelandry]

Well i plan to run a 16g and i wont be running much boost so an ebay ic seems to be the way to go. As for my front bumper cracking and whatnot i have a eurothane kit so it flexes. All i have to do is support the top where it mounts to the fender with fiberglass and angle iron on the inside and mold the outside and itll be fine. And as for having to take it off, ive been debating this for a while and i work at a body shop so i have the ability to rip it off and re mold it anytime i need so in my situation its no big deal. Thanks for the info everybody and thanks for not taunting me for having a kit.