Intercooler Upgrade

[MANWHORE]

Paul, what makes you think the stock sidemount doesn't flow?

It has a full duct around it. There's not much blocking it behind.

How does your fmic flow? doy ou have a duct around it?

Applying the air takes the easiest path, wouldn't air flow around your cooler?

Also, it's blocked by the radiator and aircon radiator behind it.

PS: those who said that installing a new cooler does not increase power are wrong.

The stock cooler is simply a restriction to power. It is a bottleneck. it doens't flow enough. granted, cooling is also a problem.

Both of these problems are improved when fitting an r34 cooler.

[dezz]

Paul, what makes you think the stock sidemount doesn't flow?

It has a full duct around it. There's not much blocking it behind.

How does your fmic flow? doy ou have a duct around it?

Applying the air takes the easiest path, wouldn't air flow around your cooler?

Also, it's blocked by the radiator and aircon radiator behind it.

PS: those who said that installing a new cooler does not increase power are wrong.

The stock cooler is simply a restriction to power. It is a bottleneck. it doens't flow enough. granted, cooling is also a problem.

Both of these problems are improved when fitting an r34 cooler.

you just said in the same post, that its not restricted at all, and then that its a bottleneck, and is restrictive....

[xRHETTx]

No Dezz you've misunderstood his post.

Any intercooler is a restriction to flow of air from the turbo to the engine, thats part of how they work. Say your engine is running at 10PSI boost, and you standard R33 intercooler restricts the flow by 3PSI. This means your turbo is actually producing 13PSI to get 10PSI at the engine.

By installing the R34 cooler, as it is bigger, its restriction is reduced, say to 2PSI. This means the engine is receiving 11PSI when the turbo is running at 13PSI. And therefore making more power.

The other way an intercooler is a restriction to airflow is to the ambient air that flows past it. The Stock SMIC, although they have a small frontall area for the air to flow through, have good ducting that forces the air the flow through the cooler fins, rather than around it.

Many aftermarket FMIC have crap ducting, so air flows around it rather than through it. In addition, the air then must flow through the radiator aswell at an increased temperature.

For your info replacing an R32/R33 cooler with an R34 or ARC SMIC will not be counted as an intake mod, as the dimension (roughly) and the mounting location hasn't been changed from standard.

This is what i plan to do with my R32, as i'm looking for only 180-200kw in the foreseeable future, and dont wish to have to get a new front bar and cut holes etc, and for ease of installation.

Cheers,

Rhett

[Munna1]

well said xRHETTx

[Cyprus]

After reading xRHETTx 's post it got me thinking..

the factory positioning of a smic is actually more logical and effective than the popular modification of the aftermarket location of a fmic.

so a nice upgrade is to exchange my r33 smic with an r34 smic..

but personally i'd like to safely run my stock turbo at a constant boost setting of 12psi

is it safe to do so with this r34 smic? or do i need to search the market for yet another higher quality smic of the same dimensions to fit that same side mount location

[Munna1]

Many have run 12psi with no problems but some have had failures on less boost than this. Its debatable but 10psi is about the safest max, you will only gain marginal power going from 10psi to 12psi anyway 5-10rwkw, as the turbo is nearing the end of its efficency.

cheers

Edited August 4, 2006 by Munna1

[Beer Baron]

yep for stealth, and mild power (say under 200rwkw) ARC SMIC is the go.

[rev210]

..

Edited November 6, 2006 by rev210

[LTHLRB]

how thick is a Standard GTR intercooler, i have one on my car at the moment, doesnt seem too thick.. Would i be better off upgrading to a Blitz LM intercooler kit?