intercooler questions.. again

No one is saying that your wrong mafix, I agree with you 100%. ATA intercoolers are excellent, simple, light, efficient. BUT, that would be a PROPERLY selected intercooler, not just the biggest,thickest, cheapest.

I like the stock st165 system but have switched to the more efficient RC set up.
Saying that, older turbo guys tend to have they're favorites, I like water injection.
Its cheap, WAY more effective than and inter cooler, and when done properly can produce more power potiental than an intercooler al

how much hp/mods is in question here

 

i would say $90 shipped is a fair price. it looks to be in good condition and a decent size.

 

what type of material are you going to use? mild steel? alum?

 

well from what ive seen i guess that using mild steel would be the cheapest. when i was doing my exhaust i went to my local "quick stop" exhaust shop and they hooked me up with a 5ft piece of 3" dia. pipe for about $8. my uncle sends them alot of business so thats why they hooked me up. just call around to your local exhaust shops, im sure 2.25 or whatever size pipe wont be that much. i know you prob dont want to use "crush bends" and mandrel bends arent exactly cheap. if you use pie cuts for the bends it would be a cheaper way to maintain the dia through the bends but it wont look as pretty, not to mention its alot of welding.

 

Having gone though 4 stages with my 165 and its intercooler, I will post the following feedback.

Stock WTA, stock turbo and uprated 10 psi boost: No real lag, fast spool up, drop off in performance in heavy traffic. power est 210bhp never RR
Stock WTA, Hybrid Turbo and 14psi boost: tiny amount of lag due to me being slightly outside of the best operating window for my turbo. Drop off in performance due to latent heat in heavy traffic, but not real problems of the ope road, if anything the more efficient Hybrid turbo reducing the heat generated. Power 252.6bhp
Uprated WTA radiator, hybrid turbo and 14psi boost: same lag, less latent heat build up, but I suffered at the first sprint event, with long periods of idle then flat out acceleration and ECU not liking temps and holding car back. Power 256.5bhp on same RR
FMIC, hybrid turbo, straight intake and what I thought was 14psi: Car has more lag, not a massive amount, but it is noticeable, no drop off in performance and pulls well in all conditions, even from period of idle and heat build up. Power was 252.7bhp, but this was with a boost leak, making car run rich and only giving me.11 psi.

In conclusion for me, If I was not competing in sprints with the long periods of idle and heat build up, before 100% flat out driving, I would have kept my uprated WTA because, it was cheap, the bigger rad cost me £30 only. It drove really well under most conditions and it was easy to fit.

However the FMIC has produced better power even with a boost leak, but it was a PITA to fit, and really now requires me to up the boost of the turbo and sort the fueling to get the best from it.

Its all horses for courses, I would recommend to anyone keeping the stock turbo and running 1 bar to keep the WTA set up and increase the size of the charge cooler rad. If you are looking at uprating the turbo, then give thought to going to either a bigger top box with uprated charge cooler, I have seen 165s use both the 205 and 185RC top boxes, or a FMIC.

The design of our cars front bumper makes it hard to fit a FMIC if you want to go really big, but as discussed above I don't think big = best with FMIC. Also consider how you are going to force air into it, blanking off the side of the FMIC increases its efficiency, as you only give the air one place to go, running it with open sides means that some air will go round the sides of the unit, reducing its impact on cooling.

Hope this helps, all my 2 cents!

 

ssautochrome sucks! please no one buy from them. my friend bought a turbo header from them and the turbo flange was mounted backwards. He had to cut and weld it the right way. After a couple months of use it cracked all over and fell apart. I know an intercooler takes alot less stress than a header, but none the less that experiance has soiled there rep in my mind. beware of xs power too, same ssht diferent name.