which cooler.....

[improvin]

can someone give me some tips on intercoolers........i'm new to this so i don't know what to get. I just want something that mainly won't lag.....i want to keep responsivness....

[jezzrrr]

any decent intercooler upgrade will deacrease lag because it improves air flow (by deacreasing resistance) I like the Trust chillers but there are heaps of other good ones, depends on what car you have ? What mods you have/are going to have and what use you are going to putthe car to.

[Sydneykid]

Standard R32/33 GTR intercoolers are hard to beat up to ~300 rwkw , do a search there are plenty of threads on intercoolers.

[2BNVS]

i got a hybrid cooler 600x300x76 with 2.5" piping, from a group by off here, for 1100 that was really worth it, it might not be hks or any top jap brands but hey it works like no different to me and really improved the cars air flow etc... for the money well worth it IMO...

cheers...ben.

[improvin]

thanks heaps guys...so many options, what about piping what size should it be???

my car is stock...it has a 3" catback exhaust, boosted to 10psi, pod and just a boost gauge........nothing special.....starting to it......so i'm guessing a 33 gtr cooler would be alright yeah????

[Cubes]

any decent intercooler upgrade will deacrease lag because it improves air flow (by deacreasing resistance) I like the Trust chillers but there are heaps of other good ones, depends on what car you have ? What mods you have/are going to have and what use you are going to putthe car to.

I don't agree with any decent intercooler will decrease lag.

Slightly more lag will be present with an upgrade over a stock IC as there is more volume to fill before pressurising. It takes time to fill a larger area.

However, I can see more power being made with the upgrade FMIC as with the stock IC it impedes airflow hence the turbo has to work harder to get the same air flow to the plenum or PSI to the plenum if you like.

With a higher flowing FMIC the turbo may only be pushing 13psi to get 12psi at the plenum, this results in lower air temps.

The stocker may offer such a restriction at x airflow that it requires the turbo to push 17psi to see 12psi at the plenum.

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If you are comparing one FMIC to another FMIC I can see a good one decreasing lag as the good one may have better designed internals, better matched piping size.

There is also an argument that a bar and plate FMIC creates more lag than a tube and fin FMIC as the bar and plate has more internal surface area hence creating more turbulence and air flow restriction.

To a certian extent this is true BUT if you are simply looking at lag a 580hp bar and plate will be smaller therefore have less volume compared to a tube and fin FMIC that can support 580hp.

So the way I see it there is probably a bee's dick difference between the extra resistance the bar and plate creates compared to the less restriction but longer time it takes to fill the larger tube and fin FMIC.

Stick with the stock 2.5" piping.

As Gary (SK) once posted 2.5" will flow up to around 600hp before becoming a restriction to airflow. It was some where around 600hp.

My FMIC is a bar and plate close to 100mm thick, it apparently supports 580hp with a 1.5psi pressure drop. Will be interesting to see if it lives up to those figures, i'm only looking to push 500hp, maybe 550hp occasionally through it. I think 550hp is pushing the stock rods to close to their limit.

I havn't seen R32's that are stockish bit of boost etc... pick up much power with a FMIC but for some reason the R33's even with stock boost pick up a decent gain in power.

[Sydneykid]

Hi guys, here is an example of 4 intercooler setups and pipework we have actually used;

1. R33 GTST Standard Intercooler and standard R32 GTST pipework

150 rwkw = 27 lbs of air per min @ 13 litres of i/c & pipework

2. Supra Intercooler and matching 63mm pipework

180 rwkw = 30 lbs of air per min @ 15 litres of i/c & pipework

3. Standard GTR GTR and 63/75mm pipework

250 rwkw = 40 lbs of air per min @ 21 litres of i/c & pipework

4. Greddy 600 X 300 X 115 and 80 mm pipework

400 rwkw = 60 lbs of air per min @ 28 litres of i/c & pipework

If you look at the numbers you can see that the rate of air flow and the volume of I/C and pipework have a fixed relationship (27 = 13 , 30 = 15 , 40 = 21 , 60 = 28). This is not an accident, I designed it that way. The reason is I wanted to keep the throttle response as close what it was when the car had 150 rwkw, because I though that was very nice response.

The theory I followed was, the more power the engine produces the more air it needs. Thus if I keep the increase in the volume of air inside the inlet system in the same proportion as the power increase, then the throttle response should stay the same. This is based on the engine using the air in the same time frame.

So when people say they fitted a FMIC and have not noticed any less throttle response, my response would be, that is what I would expect. As long as they went from 150 rwkw to 180 rwkw. On the other hand, if there was no power increase then it would be simply physically impossible for there to be no decrease in throttle response.

The problem of poor throttle response arrises when you have a 220 rwkw engine with a 28 litre inlet system. This is something I see way to often.

Hope that adds to this interesting thread.