Is Bigger Reallly Better?

[jrocket]

Err I am talking about intercoolers what did you think i mean.

Well i am thinking of going to a FMIC but i dont really want a huge massive thing. I am hoping to get a thin type of cooler prob round 50mm thick if i can find it. ie something like 600x300x50. The reason being is that i dont really want to hack at my front bumper to get one in as its a fairly unique bumper i think. Well i havent seen any other skylines around with the same type plus its a factory option plastic type.

I had a look in there and i recon a thiner type might be the go. It would how ever have to be on a slight lean forward (top leaning towards fron of car) to fit nicely.

So well prob getting bit off track but i dont feel that i need the normal 76mm thick types cos i dont intend on going nuts with the power. only few things in mind such as safc, dump, k&n air filter, boost controller (prob 10psi max).

I already got cat back 3" and modded ecu.

[fEkuaR]

bigger is deffinately not better. The perfect intercooler is matched to the car considering the size of the turbo and the power the car is making. A big intercooler will only cause lag... Its similiar to having a 800hp turbo on a car making 300rwhp. All you have achieved is unneccessay lag and undrivability. Similiar to that effect with intercoolers. There is no point in having a intercooler designed to flow and cool for a 1000hp engine when you are only going to run 200rwkw. It will just creates lag.

I put went back to my arc sidemount after driving my car with a just jap cooler because i was unhappy with the difference in responce. It was to big for my application.

[RBwhatever]

bigger is deffinately not better. The perfect intercooler is matched to the car considering the size of the turbo and the power the car is making. A big intercooler will only cause lag... Its similiar to having a 800hp turbo on a car making 300rwhp. All you have achieved is unneccessay lag and undrivability. Similiar to that effect with intercoolers. There is no point in having a intercooler designed to flow and cool for a 1000hp engine when you are only going to run 200rwkw. It will just creates lag.

I put went back to my arc sidemount after driving my car with a just jap cooler because i was unhappy with the difference in responce. It was to big for my application.

Interesting.... I went from a r34 smic to just jap fmic and my response improved 10 fold (exaggeration). Weird.

[fEkuaR]

Interesting.... I went from a r34 smic to just jap fmic and my response improved 10 fold (exaggeration). Weird.

Not having a go but that isnt really possible i feel that the improvement you were thinking you felt was in your head. Unless ofcourse the intercooler was a retriction to the power you were making.

Look at it like this, with the sidemount the volume that has to be filled before making boost is very small. The standard return pipes and the intercooler itself. Then compare that to all the piping and the 600x300 intercooler that needs to be filled before you will achieve boost after installing a front mount intercooler. Low down response will deffinately suffer as a result. It may not be a huge decrease in response but there will deffinately be a decrease.

[RBwhatever]

Not having a go but that isnt really possible i feel that the improvement you were thinking you felt was in your head. Unless ofcourse the intercooler was a retriction to the power you were making.

Look at it like this, with the sidemount the volume that has to be filled before making boost is very small. The standard return pipes and the intercooler itself. Then compare that to all the piping and the 600x300 intercooler that needs to be filled before you will achieve boost after installing a front mount intercooler. Low down response will deffinately suffer as a result. It may not be a huge decrease in response but there will deffinately be a decrease.

Either way, I'm happy the way it turned out. For me it was a change for the better.

[sinistaGTR]

lol no way response can improve your making your fmic size 10 times your normal one and putting more piping in. what it will do is allow you to run higher boost and get colder air to your engine.

[dead32]

it would make his car run better if the smic was to small causing it to not work efficiently, then going fmic it was actualy doing the job, hence it improved.

[predator]

you're probably actually better with a smaller surface area, yet fatter..

I've got a 450x300x75 on mine, one of the reasons is I just didn't feel the need for a massive one unless I was chasing 300rwkw+ and I wanted as much response as possible .. does the trick fine

[fEkuaR]

it would make his car run better if the smic was to small causing it to not work efficiently, then going fmic it was actualy doing the job, hence it improved.

Which is why i said unless the sidemount was a restriction. For this to be the case seeming he was using a r34 sidemount he would have had to be in the facinity of 200+rwkw. But before this intercooler would become a restriction you would be experiencing detonation and heatsoak once you tried to push it past its capabilities. So i think it would be unlikely that it was causing an issue regarding response on his car.

[Birnie]

Just cut your front bar.

You won't care after 2 weeks of having the cooler in.

Just make sure you shape the cut well to fit the cooler.

I cut my front plastic bar with a hacksaw blade removed.

Chalked the approx line i wanted and cut roughly, then smoothed the edges with a half moon file.

Came out sweet ! Look in my signature

[jrocket]

Yeah i might trim a bit but this bumer i have is meant to be a series 3 bumper that was a factory option. Looks similar to 400r bumper but i think it looks nicer. Might try find a pic of it and post it up. If i shave the aircon fan it should be no dramas getting a 50mm or so thick cooler in. I am also going to get a cooler type that has the outlets on the same side as i want to hook it back into the factory piping and save hasstles of cutting holes in metal work and getting owned my popo.

I was under the impression that a thicker cooler was not alway better since the time the air reaches the back of the cooler its significantly warmer and leaving little cooling capacity for the radiator and aircon radiator.

Since i am not after rediculas power increases i think i will just go with what fits nicely with minimal fuss.

Thanks for the input.

[mad082]

a fmic may be bigger, but if the smic is restrictive, the air speed will be higher on the fmic, which negates any lag