Intercooler brand
Agree I wouldn’t bother with the ebay junk unless its a super budget build as they have been shown to be highly restrictive as boost goes up.
Treadstone is a solid entry level intercooler and havent had any issues with them when properly sized. They have been tested to only have a 1-2psi drop at some pretty high boost levels.
Bell is certainly good and usually more reasonably priced but Garrett is certainly a step up. Believe a Bell has to be something like 20% larger to compare to a Garrett core. A ton of the import world uses Garrett cores at very high boost levels with great results.
Treadstone is a solid entry level intercooler and havent had any issues with them when properly sized. They have been tested to only have a 1-2psi drop at some pretty high boost levels.
Bell is certainly good and usually more reasonably priced but Garrett is certainly a step up. Believe a Bell has to be something like 20% larger to compare to a Garrett core. A ton of the import world uses Garrett cores at very high boost levels with great results.
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From: Norn Iron
Garrett are best...and most of their cores are pretty keenly priced.
Bell some say are good. CSF seem to offer nice stuff too at sensible prices.
Treadstone maybe below those.
China....well, they're everything else.
Bell some say are good. CSF seem to offer nice stuff too at sensible prices.
Treadstone maybe below those.
China....well, they're everything else.
With the possible exceptions of being undersized or leaking, has anybody here actually had a "bad" intercooler? Heat exchanger technology is not exactly some new fangled proprietary technology.
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Where in Ohio are you located?
The 4 inch ebay intercoolers do fine up to a point (thats a REALLY high point in some cases).
Treadstone stuff is just nicer.
I usually don't go to some of the more expensive cores until 1200+ HP.
The 4 inch ebay intercoolers do fine up to a point (thats a REALLY high point in some cases).
Treadstone stuff is just nicer.
I usually don't go to some of the more expensive cores until 1200+ HP.
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I have seen 1000rwhp shoved through a ebay 4 inch intercooler. Im sure the vehicle would have picked up power with a better core. Just depends on your power goals.
I personally would go treadstone minimium becuase the teadstones i have used come with a divider so you use the whole core not just the bottom half for cooling.
I personally would go treadstone minimium becuase the teadstones i have used come with a divider so you use the whole core not just the bottom half for cooling.
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Teching In
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From: OHIO
I've learned along the way to buy parts I can grow into , not grow out of . I've wasted money. Buying parts that can't support future mods or future horse power upgrades.
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Take everything in moderation. Just because you want something to grow into doesn't mean you need to instantly jump to a $1000 intercooler.
If you can get a cheap 4" intercooler for $160 and sell it for $120 when you're done, then you've spent $40 bucks getting your project running that much sooner.
If I would have originally built either of my LS cars the way I wanted to the first time, I wouldn't have been able to spend the last 5 years putting thousands of miles on them and enjoying every bit of it.
I have seen 1000rwhp shoved through a ebay 4 inch intercooler. Im sure the vehicle would have picked up power with a better core. Just depends on your power goals.
I personally would go treadstone minimium becuase the teadstones i have used come with a divider so you use the whole core not just the bottom half for cooling.
I personally would go treadstone minimium becuase the teadstones i have used come with a divider so you use the whole core not just the bottom half for cooling.
I'd be curious about a back to back test of a typical turbo say an S480 at 25PSI with no intercooler, across an ebay core,Treadstone, Bell, and Garrett core with no other changes logging boost levels pre/post IC, IAT's pre/post IC, etc... Granted I don't think anyone cares as they all seem to sell well in their respective markets.
You're a couple of hours from me then.
Take everything in moderation. Just because you want something to grow into doesn't mean you need to instantly jump to a $1000 intercooler.
If you can get a cheap 4" intercooler for $160 and sell it for $120 when you're done, then you've spent $40 bucks getting your project running that much sooner.
If I would have originally built either of my LS cars the way I wanted to the first time, I wouldn't have been able to spend the last 5 years putting thousands of miles on them and enjoying every bit of it.
Take everything in moderation. Just because you want something to grow into doesn't mean you need to instantly jump to a $1000 intercooler.
If you can get a cheap 4" intercooler for $160 and sell it for $120 when you're done, then you've spent $40 bucks getting your project running that much sooner.
If I would have originally built either of my LS cars the way I wanted to the first time, I wouldn't have been able to spend the last 5 years putting thousands of miles on them and enjoying every bit of it.
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I'd be curious about a back to back test of a typical turbo say an S480 at 25PSI with no intercooler, across an ebay core,Treadstone, Bell, and Garrett core with no other changes logging boost levels pre/post IC, IAT's pre/post IC, etc... Granted I don't think anyone cares as they all seem to sell well in their respective markets.
Pre/post temps might not correlate to pre/post pressure, or power.
What if you test 2 intercoolers and the one with better temperature drop makes less power but at less PSI,
do you increase boost to try and match the boost curve of the one with less temp drop, more pressure drop, but higher final boost pressure and power?
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Teching In
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From: OHIO
So I just spoke to my garrett dealer , he told me a garrett cooler might drop 1/2 to 1 pound of boost through the cooler and a eBay cooler might lose upwards of 10 pounds of boost ! Looks like I'm ordering a garrett .
on a side note ... It's nice not having kids or a wife .
on a side note ... It's nice not having kids or a wife .
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Teching In
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From: OHIO
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From: Norn Iron
I would even class my own extruded core design as fairly bad. It probably flows very well, but cooling abilities would be pretty ****.
If only Garrett would get their ******* act together and make the core size I want...and actually have it for sale, instead of listing it everywhere and it not being available !
But it's a little naive on the technology or whatever way you want to call it. A simple tube with a few fins could be classed as an intercooler...and not a new design either. But actual implementation of that "heat exchanger technology" would be ****. But it is a heat exchanger.
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So if I push 8-10lbs of boost with my blower and use my eBay intercooler with spraying methanol I’m still going to loose a bunch of boost? 10lbs of boost lost seems pretty high but haven’t had enough experience with a intercooler and I’m not a tuner.
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So I just spoke to my garrett dealer , he told me a garrett cooler might drop 1/2 to 1 pound of boost through the cooler and a eBay cooler might lose upwards of 10 pounds of boost ! Looks like I'm ordering a garrett .
on a side note ... It's nice not having kids or a wife .
on a side note ... It's nice not having kids or a wife .
Ever seen those ebay 3.5" twin intercoolers? They're a pretty small vertical core to begin with, 7" tall, 24" wide core. Whats worse if they are basically split in half since they are a twin core.
That means each core is 7" x 12" x 3.5". A buddy and I both managed to make 900 wheel in the last few months on them.
He was pushing his 6.0 a LOT harder than I was pushing my stock 4.8:
he was running 243 heads, Pro-Flo intake, 10.8:1 compression, 24 PSI, to my 706 heads, stock truck intake, 9.4:1, 21 PSI,
so he was likely blowing a lot of power through his cheap converter. Meaning at least 600 HP through each of those TINY cores and he trapped 160 before blowing it up.
Pressure drop? Didn't measure, didn't matter. Made the power and then some. WORST case, there is some pressure drop, and the turbos are just working as if they were making more boost. Will anyone ever know? Nope.
Not saying you should cheap out on an intercooler. I'm just saying during your build, don't buy things based on data that might not be relevant to you.