Jump to content
The mkiv Supra Owners Club

Diffrence between a £200 ebay intercooler and a £1400 HKS intercooler?


Clancy2k
 Share

Recommended Posts

I've been looking to get an aftermarket intercooler for my RZ TT BPU. I have seen on ebay you can get intercooler kits for less than £200.. and then i see HKS selling them for £1400?! so. i'm supposed to pay £1200 more for a brand name? I bet both intercoolers are made with the same type of metal etc.. why should i pay soo much for a brand name?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You get what you pay for :)

 

The branded IC's are FAR higher quality, with properly designed end tanks. Importantly they also have IC pipes with correctly flanged ends, that fit around the stock airbox and also contain the required kit to adapt the PAS cooler lines and the expansion bottle.

 

While £1400 does seem to me to be over the top even for a branded item, they are in a different leauge to the XS power (and similar) IC kits.

 

The cheap Chinese IC's are okay for basic BPU and small single setups but some kits need a bit of work to be useful. Make sure before buying that the IC pipes have flanged ends and that they fit over the airbox (if you have one - and you should). You'll also need to fabricate or adjust your PAS lines and purchase & relocate a smaller expansion bottle.

 

£200 seems a bit low even for the cheap copies, do you have a link to the item? The XS kits are usually around the £350-450 mark.

 

Personally I'd just stick with the side mount unless it's knackered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What about this SRD one? http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?230453-SRD-Front-Mount-Intercooler-Kit

 

Only £400 and surely it's much better quality than an Ebay one.

 

Or if you want an SMIC to fit in the stock position, what about this Whifbitz one? http://whifbitzperformancetuning.co.uk/toyota-supra-supra-intercoolers-garage-whifbitz-p-2018.html

Edited by Josh (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

here's the ebay intercooler: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180667870567&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:VRI

 

Yeah Josh, that does look like a nice ic kit, and probably better manufacturing quality than the ebay kit, i shal save than on favourites for later.

 

Don't bother with that one mate, plenty of people have had trouble with them due to the pipe issue I mentioned. Also funny to look at the photo as they have it connected up all wrong :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So what youre saying is that LeeP is copying the chinese copies :D

 

lol, no, just using the same cores. Lets face it, if Lee wanted to sell them with the same high end cores the Japanese ones use the price would be 2-3 times higher. He's selling what the market wants ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just fitted the srd kit, comes absolutely complete, you can't keep your stock airbox without modification which is a shame. It can be done though.

 

On the way to and from japfest with ambient temps of 15degrees I had post turbo temps of 65-70degrees and a throttle body temp of 20-25degrees. At £399+post I'd have to ask how much lower the temps would be at £1000 more. I do feel that there is a bit of snobbery about fmics. All the pipes are flanged etc. Even if a 'branded' fmic lowered the temps to ambient(is that possible?) that would be 5-10degrees less than the srd one. So with my terrible maths that works out to be between £100-200 per degree drop

 

I do however think that you get what you pay for to an extent. There are undoubtedly terrible kits available but a 75mm core with all the pipework flanged, alloy expansion bottle, power steering cooler relocation kit and all fittings for this price is outstanding

 

How much more efficient would a greddy, hks etc kit really be in a real world test. I have searched and can't find anyone else that has really tried to backup the claims that they are three and a half times more efficient.

 

I'm not asking for a flaming but I'm confused by the claims on here that branded is always best.

 

On a sidenote the ait sensor nearest the intake is in the throttle body so is likely to suffer a little from heat soak, so the results are likely to be better than I have stated

Edited by Robzki (see edit history)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not asking for a flaming but I'm confused by the claims on here that branded is always best.

 

I think you've misunderstood some of the replies if that is how you view this thread :) There's no doubt the likes of HKS and Trust are higher quality, I've had Trust (Greddy) and an XS power kit (similar to the SRD one) and the difference is visible in every component. The main difference is in the core, the Greddy had 30% more rows than the generic core with each row beveled rather than flat.

 

As mentioned above, at BPU levels I don't beleive there would be any difference in terms of noticable effciency, the difference in the remains components is the key - i.e. that the pipes are flanged so don't blow off every other week, they contain the needed relocation parts, etc..

 

If going for big power and effciency then yes, you will need a high end IC. These cheap kits won't cut it, but then again that isn't what they're designed for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah very possibly, like I say You do get what you pay for but only to a point. A well designed ducted 'cheap' kit will generally be better than a poorly designed unducted 'branded' one. At bpu or small single I really can't see an issue with fitting an SRD or a whifbitz 3" kit. If I was aiming for a medium or large single then I'd want a 4" 5" or 6" core anyway.

 

I would love to see some real testing on fmics to substantiate the claims. I know there are 'good' and 'bad' design of end tank. but its not rocket science. Its a very simple system.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One other oint worth mentioning is ducting.

 

If you fit an FMIC is must be ducted, otherwise the airflow will be forced around it rather than through it. THis is the beauty of the stock SMIC as it's completely enclosed.

 

With stock front bumper and some aftermarket ones like the do luck it's less of an issue, but with other like the Bomex, Failside, etc they have to be ducted otherwise your expensive (oe cheap ;) ) IC isn't going to help do it's job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If I was aiming for a medium or large single then I'd want a 4" 5" or 6" core anyway.

 

I would love to see some real testing on fmics to substantiate the claims. I know there are 'good' and 'bad' design of end tank. but its not rocket science. Its a very simple system.

 

If you were going for a medium or large turbo you'd be looking for a high effciency IC with good end tank design, core width's of 4inch or above are only needed for turbos which generate a very high level of flow, the core quality is massively more important that the width of it :)

 

What data are you looking for exactly? There's quite a lot around if you really want to read up on it, have a look at the many white papers published (google). It's not light reading though!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you've misunderstood some of the replies if that is how you view this thread :) There's no doubt the likes of HKS and Trust are higher quality, I've had Trust (Greddy) and an XS power kit (similar to the SRD one) and the difference is visible in every component. The main difference is in the core, the Greddy had 30% more rows than the generic core with each row beveled rather than flat.

 

As mentioned above, at BPU levels I don't beleive there would be any difference in terms of noticable effciency, the difference in the remains components is the key - i.e. that the pipes are flanged so don't blow off every other week, they contain the needed relocation parts, etc..

 

If going for big power and effciency then yes, you will need a high end IC. These cheap kits won't cut it, but then again that isn't what they're designed for.

 

:) I do agree darryl, I just probably said it in too strong a way. I wouldn't buy a cheap ebay fmic just because I'm a bit of a snob. I was more saying that there are good mid range kits around. That with the temps I saw last week I'm sure are hard to beat. Every kit out there has someone that will be happy with it. I'm chuffed to bits with the SRD one, 'everything' included with flanged pipes. If I bought a cheap ebay one I'd still have to spend a fair bit on the expansion bottle and steering cooler as extras. The only thing that lets the srd one down is the fact that as supplied you can't keep the stock airbox. It would only take a pipe with a couple of 45deg bends to enable you to keep the stock filter. But if this had to be fabricated then the price would have to go up.

 

 

Cheers

 

rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. You might also be interested in our Guidelines, Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.