Intercooler choices and pros/cons

[slodsm]

I have spent the last few days researching front mounts since it is my next major purchase for my car. Current mods are in my profile but a little about the engine and tranny. Car has aroung 134k on the body but the bottom end and head were rebuilt within the last 10k. Head is studded, tranny is in great shape. Car is mechanically sound so that part is covered. I am pretty much complete with my fuel mods, all parts are bought at least, not all installed due to being deployed with the marines right now so I buy the parts and have them sent home.

I am looking at three different ones. I am going to order one of them in about a week. The SBR has a bigger core but I am not sure if it is too big for B16G territory which may be where I am for a while. Anyone have any experiance with these three front mounts?

The RNR up top in the advertiser section.

http://www.slowboyracing.com/Intercoolers/SBR/SBR_FMIC_kit.html

http://www.extremepsi.com/x/customer/product.php?productid=16748&cat=306&page=1

Over the summer of this year, I plan on purchasing a larger turbo but I want everything else in place first. Hopes and dreams are high 11 second car on race gas but still daily driveable. Maybe an FP green model. Right now, I am just looking for an intercooler to support it with and not be so big the car overheats at idle if feasable. Thanks in advance.

 

[DrBrown]

Im unfamilliar with how much you know on intercoolers but I can giuve you a general idea on what IC will support what HP rating. The core design is totally seperate from the end tank designs.

First off the core should be 3" thick or bigger with bar and plate runners, not tubular (bar/fin) style runners. The square design on the bars means it will get more surface contact when air flows through it. So it will cool the intake temps quite a bit better than a stock style side mount. So a 3-4" thick core with a bar/plate core is ideal

Next thing you want to look at is how large are the inlets on the endtanks and how smooth is the transition from the inlet into the larger reservoir inside the end tank. If its like the ones you just linked above you have have a hair more viscous drag and it wont flow as smoothly and you could get 1-2 psi of pressure loss from the endtanks. Look at the starions, the cores are very nice but the crappy end tank design totally kills its efficiency. Check out this website as they have some VERY nice bar/fin intercoolers for DSMs and I have heard nothing but good things about them! True they are bar and fin but the one thing about this style is they reduce the intake temps a lot, even more than the bar and plate cores. But they are more restrictive to flow so you have to run 1-2 psi more to make up for it. Still they are cheaper and work great for 300-500 whp as long as the cores are bigger than 2.75".

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/intercoolers.htm

Hope that helps somewhat! - Dan