Intercooler Discussion

[(V)erciless]

Anyone have the rating for the HKS I/C. Think I heard somewhere it was like 70% efficiency.

[84z31]

no.

i was checking out ebay for a customer from kwuit this morning. the intercoolers on there are really cheap in price. i couldn't find any bad comments about products these guys are selling.

its really hard to tell how good they are unless you have testing equipment. pressure test whatever you buy and make sure it doesn't leak. the ones i was looking at said they were good up to 50 psi. :shock: and they where about $299 for a 21x11x3. and they had 3" inlet and outlet. they were pretty nice.

[RobP3ZXT]

tube and fin, less flow, more heat exchange
bar and plate, more flow, less exchange

but when it comes down to it



from this far away, you cant tell, they're all beautiful, baby.

[SATAN]

84z31 wrote: no.

i was checking out ebay for a customer from kwuit this morning. the intercoolers on there are really cheap in price. i couldn't find any bad comments about products these guys are selling.

its really hard to tell how good they are unless you have testing equipment. pressure test whatever you buy and make sure it doesn't leak. the ones i was looking at said they were good up to 50 psi. :shock: and they where about $299 for a 21x11x3. and they had 3" inlet and outlet. they were pretty nice.

That is still pretty pricey. Check this one out

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Universa ... 4417QQrdZ1

[milo]

StreetFighter wrote: I think as far as bang-for-the-buck, chinese intercoolers are a better buy. I'm sure the 221 core is a very nice unit, but most people here are budget oriented (that's why we have Z31s and not supras) and I have yet to see a problem with a chinese intercooler.

also, IMO the larger ebay intercoolers look much better in the front end than the spearco. It's nice to have the entire mouth filled by intercooler.

B.S.........SPEARCO 221 FTW............boetch. :lol:

[OK85ZX]

This thread went on far too long... Yes it's a valid point, and has been a valid point for the past 20 years... It's not anything new. People use Spearco, not because it has the best cooling properties out of any intercooler on the market, but because it has a balance of cooling and flow that is unmatched by most in the market. If you don't have a good balance between both properties, then the intercooler is not doing a good job. It won't be an advantage to have the intercooler with the best cooling that you can find, when it has a huge pressure drop rating, with an excess amount of lag.

[NIVO]

I think one like this with a vertical radiator set up would work best
Short intercooler runs, keeping the piping in the engine bay and not going through the frame etc....


We can have a custom size made for Z31's only

currently only offered in a core of 24w x 12h x 3d or 29" wide with end tanks.

I think im going this route being that we have tested several cores from ebay and they actually work better then the NPR, Supra, Starion cores.

I already put in the inquiry for a 24w x 12h x 4" thick core. Lead time is 6 weeks and custom intercooler spec'd out for the z31 is $350. so if anyone has their front end apart, they can take some measurements of the area between the frame

[OK85ZX]

That IC looks like it would have aweful flow... 3 sudden 90* turns just inside the IC...

[NIVO]

OK85ZX wrote: That IC looks like it would have aweful flow... 3 sudden 90* turns just inside the IC...

actually they are not bad at all. I've used them on some DSM's, and an old buddy used one in his 280Z. Only experienced .95psi drop at 20 psi of boost pressure. Meaning the turbo was pushing 21psi and the motor ingested 20psi. not bad at all. Temp measured with a k thermocouple were 282ºF for the turbo outlet, after the FMIC like the one shown it was 106ºF.

The SRT-4 is designed with the inlet and outlets going in just like (straight ahead not side to side) that and those FMIC's in a 4" core only have about 1psi pressure drop on large turbo cars on 20psi. Oh the cost? $800 for the SRT-4 core that flows like that. Remember you don't want "0" pressure drop.