Intercooler questions?

[JET]

The main part of the turbulators is not the fin inside the core like is show in Brandon's pic, but the little tabs that should be inside there. The Ebay core I had only had small holes stamped in the fins, which was basically useless. Like was said earlier, I could see right through it. The Garrett core I have has small panels bent out into the airflow from the fins, to actually cause some turbulance. The core I had was a TurboXS, so avoid that.

[Halon]

Chris,

No one said anything about ebay intercoolers in this thread, until your post, in which you brought up ebay intercoolers and stated that you'd not recommend them past 250hp. I'm sorry but I just don't see the educated insight in that statement. I don't doubt you've seen ones from ebay perform poorly before, we all have. But you can't let those couple speak for all of them. Also right there is where you basically grouped all ebay cores together, saying not to use cheap ebay cores past 250hp. But exactly like you said, EBAY is not a brand, but a store, so stating you wouldn't recommend ebay cores past 250hp is not a fair statement because there are many different kinds sold on there, both good and bad. I definitely do agree, that a lot of them on there are crap. Some trash core with advertised "internal fins" that don't do a damn thing, they are a line of single fins placed directly behind each other, and you could stare right through the end tank and out the other, and probably read a license plate from 50 feet away still. But there are also decent cores. I understand a lot of them are not the best designs, but not all of them. That is all I am trying to say.

Swanny about my friends car. It's a 2003. I can't tell you the specific mods as I don't know the mods exactly. But it has all the typical bolt ons, like exhaust, fmic and piping, intake. He also has HKS 280 cams. That's the main jist of it. The car was dynoed at Turbo Trix, and tuned by them, not sure what tuning method he currently has.

Here is the 3rd guy I knew, another local Yuma guy, who was the first of the 3 of us to do this. http://forums.evolutionm.net/showthread.php?t=57404 Again he has a picture that shows the inside of the end tank, but it's too dark to see the inside very well. Tomorrow after work, I'll try to get a good picture of mine.

I am just speaking from my experience, and the experience my two friends have had with the intercoolers we purchased for cheap off ebay. Maybe some day when I slap on a GT42R, I will find that this core no longer is enough for me. And when that day comes, I will speak of my experience again. But as of now, I purchased a cores that has many turbulators which are scattered to disrupt the air to aid in cooling by both slowing down the flow, and scattering the air so more of it actually makes contact with the surface. So far so good.

This is Brandon signing off. G'nite Twin Cities.

[Shane@DBPerformance]

Cher's Evo made around 350awhp at Turbotrix on pump gas and around 285awhp here on the DD. Mid 300s at Turbotrix is well within the capabilities of even the stock intercooler, throwing a bigger intercooler on an Evo making around that power might not make much if any difference in power. I am not saying his eBay intercooler is bad though.

I ran that 12"x24"x4.5" Garrett core on my GSX. It works fairly well, it's cooling abilities are great, I would see a rise of about 10-15 degrees over ambient temps at 30psi during a 4th gear run the dyno. The downfalls of it are that it's very heavy and gets a bit restrictive at high boost levels.

[niterydr]

My advice is no good, please delete.

[Halon]

Just as I said I would, I'm reporting back with more Ebay intercooler findings.

My core just failed me.

I somehow blew a hole or a crack in it somewhere near the drivers side endtank. I can not see where. All I feel is a huge amount of air coming out of it. I'm think that since I didn't really like how I had to route the piping in the first place, I will scrap the whole damn thing and just buy a kit with a better piping route.

It seemed to cool just fine, but I guess the weak link on mine was the material or a weld or something.

Now I need to find a kit out there, that is compatible with a 91 that still has A/C

[A//// Guy]

Brand name IC's bust welds too, probably cracked a weld. That sucks though!

[Pushit2.0]

Most of the sheet metal endtanks that crack were just not welded properly, you can make the welds look good but have any penetration and when the endtank bows out, bam, SRT fmic's do this all the time. I have seen people with 30 years of welding under there belt not weld an ic properly and have it crack, but what do I know.

~John

[JET]

I would just get it rewelded, Brandon.

[Super Bleeder!!]

I would buy a Kinetic kit.

[Halon]

I have thought of just getting it rewelded, but I don't like how I had to route my piping with this side to side outlet fmic. My driver side pipe is real goofy and occasionally scrapes. I'm just gunna take it all out, use that old piping for the fmic piping on the colt, and just get a short routed fmic kit for the talon.

So if anyone has a kit, let me know.

[Halon]

Here is where it's leaking. Right on the inside, up against the end tank, in that very last row of fins, I feel a crap ton of air.