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Plazmaman Intercooler Kits

J_Red33

By J_Red33,
in Engines & Forced Induction

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J_Red33 Experienced

J_Red33

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hello there peoples,

This has been a lot longer coming than I would have liked, but I'm just about ready to invest in a frontmount for my Series II R33 GTS-T. Of course if I just wanted a cheap Chinese kit I would have had one ages ago, but that's not my style.

I'm after the best quality, best performing & best looking intercooler kit I can buy & so far that has lead me to the Plazmaman Kits. While I really like the quality & the appearance of these kits, I am yet to find any opinions on how well they perform. Doing a search on here surprisingly turned up very little apart from the fact they are meant to fit really well.

The pipework is clearly a good design so I have no issues as far as the layout of it is concerned. I have considered going for the larger kit, which has a much bigger 680x340 (as opposed to a 600x300) core, but have reservations as to if this is practical for a street car as far as ground clearance is concerned. I do have long term ambitions of making the car quite a bit more powerful (at least 300 RWKW), but the larger core may be overkill anyway.

I have looked at the Blitz ARE & ARC kits that have been recommended in other threads & while they're probably up to the job the Plazaman Kits have the edge presentation wise. They make some pretty bold claims on their website, so I would just really like to know that they live up to the hype.

All opinions welcome, cheers

Jared

Edited by J_Red33
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siddr20 Grand Master

siddr20

Posted
Posted (edited)

Honestly a cheap kit will do the same job as a jap brand or plazaman kit.

The only difference is the quality in there pipe works and silicon clamps.

If you dont want a cheap kit, then get your self a nice ARC, HKS or Blitz kit.

No experiences with plazaman kits, but i think the price is way to high.

I know plenty of people with cheap kits with excess of 260kw and it handles fine.

Edited by siddr20
PSI Parts Veteran

PSI Parts

Posted
Posted

I disagree that a cheap kit is the same as a Jap brand or plazmaman kit.

I recently purchased a Plazmaman piping kit for our Project car and was very happy with their seamless aluminium mandrel bent pipes.

At the end of the day its about cooling efficiency with no pressure drop and some do it better than others. Not to mention removing as many restrictions from the system as possible.

The reason you pay more money is not just the label, but the R&D that goes into different set-ups.

For reference I use a GReddy core and Plazmaman piping. I have no affiliations with either company, only personal preference.

wolverine Grand Master

wolverine

Posted
Posted

the internal design of the cores years ago was quite different between the cheap cores and the higher quality cores.

at this point whether the cheap cores have decent internal fin designs??

practically speaking the cheap cores seem to deliver great results at the price.

in terms of whether they work the same there is enough evidence (hidden in the forum somewhere) that the name brand japanese and plazmaman kits show less static pressure drop and have some better quality piping options particularly the plazmaman "gibson" style cross over replacement pipe. the internal design of the plazmaman cores are supposed to be pretty good and should provide excellent heat dissipation much like the more expensive japanese cores. the trust V spec has an inferior internal design compared to their R spec cores for example.

R34NRG Grand Master

R34NRG

Posted
Posted (edited)
Honestly a cheap kit will do the same job as a jap brand or plazaman kit.

people who say this are usally are in the lower bracket of power bands, once u start pushing the limits of a factory/aftermarket turbo....ull see the problems.

which is fine because a cheap cooler kit will proberly give them more then wat they want. but if ur moving to the next step i highly HIGHLY recommend a properly researched/contructed kit. eg BLITZ/HKS/ARC

i bought one of of the Just Jap Cooling pro kits for about 300bux wen it was on special, i thought awsome a new cooler for 300bux.

i really regret it now as the quality is just lame, planing to eventually get a HKS or a ARC cooler.

you get wat u pay for, as they say.

i probelry woudlnt bother as much with plazmaman, they are proberly great but i think they are proberly a bit $$$ compared to something like a Blitz/HKS/ARC cooler which are at the top of its class. id stick with those since they are 100% bolt ons.

just curious what are your goals with the car?

Edited by R34NRG
SDEWY5 Community Regular

SDEWY5

Posted
Posted

^^^^Thats probably why it was on special...

Mates WRX HVDFLU pulls consistent 450kw on a hybrid cooler...n i dont think thats in the lower bracket of the power bands...

personally got a just jap cooler on mine, works fine no problems, never had a cooler hose blow off...so i dunno, only reason id go for a Jap cooler was for names sake ie: HKS sounds better than Just Jap cooler ya kno?

J_Red33 Experienced

J_Red33

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

As stated previously my long term goal is at least 300 RWKW.

As far as the cheap kits go I won't touch one. Anything that requires excess chopping (which it seems most cheap kits in my research need) & has questionable quality of fitment, appearance & performance is just not going to cut it. Kits like Blitz, HKS, ARC & ARE are others I am considering, but nothing less end of story. I like my quality & I'm willing to pay for it. Call that arrogant if you will, but my ride is pretty clean so I want to keep it that way.

The main reasons I like the Plazmaman are the pipework design & presentation. So I'm really just questioning if they have the performance to match. If I can get that confirmed I will be getting one.

Edited by J_Red33
rev210 Grand Master

rev210

Posted
Posted

An example of changing from 'good' china core to ARE of the same size to get an extra 90rwhp, same car same dyno.

The end tanks on the china cores are basic to crap in design and quality.

Better than stock? yes. Support high power? yes Do a better job than ARC/ARE/Blitz? NO.

wolverine Grand Master

wolverine

Posted
Posted (edited)
So I'm really just questioning if they have the performance to match. If I can get that confirmed I will be getting one.

JP@UAS 300zx (Boosted Zed) might be the confirmation you are looking for. big hp car.

Edited by wolverine
juggernaut1 Proficient

juggernaut1

Posted
Posted

Just installing a tube and fine ARE cooler at the moment. Chose ARE mainly because of the end tank designs which are said distribute more evenly through the cooler. I also had mine spec'd with a venturi plate on the intake side. This also helps airflow into the cooler tubes as tube and fin cores have raised tubes by design.

dangerman4 Mentor

dangerman4

Posted
Posted

Hey Jared

i run a top of the range ASE kit. (Auto Sport Engineering) behind castle plaza.

maybe call in there and have a look at the kits for yourself and see what you think.

im making around the 350kw mark with a exposed pod and it works very well.

ping below 20 even when its 40 degrees.

J_Red33 Experienced

J_Red33

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Hey Jared,

Are you going for the complete kit with the plenum, piping and front mount? :D

I am considering this kit, but don't have enough peso's for that one yet. Also unsure about getting the full kit due to the height of the core (340mm as opposed to the regular 300mm most cross-flow frontmounts use).

If it hangs too low I won't get it up the driveway. We had to ad some plates at the bottom of the drive because my front bar was missing by only a couple of mm just crawling (stock ride height & front bar).

Also I could purchase the plenum in the future once I've done several other performance mods.

JP@UAS 300zx (Boosted Zed) might be the confirmation you are looking for. big hp car.

Thanks for the info. I'll look into this further

Hey Jared

i run a top of the range ASE kit. (Auto Sport Engineering) behind castle plaza.

maybe call in there and have a look at the kits for yourself and see what you think.

im making around the 350kw mark with a exposed pod and it works very well.

ping below 20 even when its 40 degrees.

Yeah I know your car makes big power, didn't quite get to the dyno day in time to see yours in action dammit!

I guess it's just a matter of how far ASE would be willing to go as well. Was already looking to them for a custom catch tank, but thought their design for the frontmount wasn't anything special, only looked online though.

Wouldn't mind having a squizz under the bonnet of yours actually. I know you don't live far from me :laugh:

Will check them out.

Appreciate all the responses so far.

Cheers

W0rp3D Grand Master

W0rp3D

Posted
Posted
^^^^Thats probably why it was on special...

Mates WRX HVDFLU pulls consistent 450kw on a hybrid cooler...n i dont think thats in the lower bracket of the power bands...

personally got a just jap cooler on mine, works fine no problems, never had a cooler hose blow off...so i dunno, only reason id go for a Jap cooler was for names sake ie: HKS sounds better than Just Jap cooler ya kno?

but it does blow cooler piping off.

I had a hks on mine, caught a speed hump and ripped the bottom out of it, had a cheapie sitting around from years ago that i bought for an rx7 project and never used so i put that on, the old hks use to easly hit .50 bar and when hitting boost hard use to go to .63, now with the new no name cooler on it only just gets to .45 without booting it hard and when driven hard only makes .55.

from this experience i my self KNOW that the no name brands are not as good as the name brands, and in this scenario im only running stock boost since the turbo is shagged, how much more will it cost me when the boost is turned up.

J_Red33 Experienced

J_Red33

Posted
  • Author
Posted
do the plazmaman piping kits come with BOV recirc pipe? also do they come with the BOV adapter welded on?

They do require an aftermarket BOV, but it can easily be made plumb back. I'm sure if you told them you wanted it plumb back they could make the required pipe you need as the vehicles they show their kits on have plumback BOV's fitted with hard pipes.

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