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


Clancy2k
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use the search button :D

 

Didn't think of that :)

 

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!

 

 

LOL, I took in as much data as I could without frying my noddle before I stumped for a 'mid range' intercooler. I'm definitely not arguing that there aren't some good and bad designs. bar and plate vs tube and fin etc. I'm sticking at bpu for a long time. If my plans change I will upgrade according to my needs, at the moment I can use my £400 intercooler for a couple of years and if/when I go single I can sell this one and won't have lost a lot of money. I'll only need a new core as the ic pipework, expansion tank and power steering cooler can be reused. If on the other hand I now had a £1000 intercooler it would make me cry to not really be getting any real benefit from it considering the price difference

 

These are just my opinions, I'm getting a healthy temp drop and thats all I can ask from an intercooler. Some people want to spend £1000+ on an intercooler at bpu, thats great each to their own. Others want to spend £200.

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The Whifbitz intercooler for £360 looks like a good choice actualy.. as i'm not planning to go any further than BPU as i'm using the car everyday

 

So why bother with a front mount at all? Save yourself hassle and cash, stock side mount is good enough for BPU

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Didn't think of that :)

 

 

 

 

LOL, I took in as much data as I could without frying my noddle before I stumped for a 'mid range' intercooler. I'm definitely not arguing that there aren't some good and bad designs. bar and plate vs tube and fin etc. I'm sticking at bpu for a long time. If my plans change I will upgrade according to my needs, at the moment I can use my £400 intercooler for a couple of years and if/when I go single I can sell this one and won't have lost a lot of money. I'll only need a new core as the ic pipework, expansion tank and power steering cooler can be reused. If on the other hand I now had a £1000 intercooler it would make me cry to not really be getting any real benefit from it considering the price difference

 

These are just my opinions, I'm getting a healthy temp drop and thats all I can ask from an intercooler. Some people want to spend £1000+ on an intercooler at bpu, thats great each to their own. Others want to spend £200.

 

My FMIC is not ducted and TB temps are around 28 degrees on full dyno pulls at 1.4 bar !!! I also know a guy who sells his cheap 'ebay' cores to a few of the HKS drag racers, one of which runs 9 sec 1/4 miles, far more important imo is the piping and hose, nothing worse than boost pipes popping off left right and centre, which is why we custom make all ours to normally join at the turbo, TB and IC only. I would definatly go for a PW or SRD one over a rip off like HKS etc, the end tanks on most Ebay ones look the same as a branded one, thats the idea, to copy an expensive one, from what I have read about IC design all the big brand ones like HKS Greedy etc have crap end tanks anyway, I think I would rather spend £400 on an IC and £1K on other mods, i'll bet the diff would be =/- 10hp and £1k will buy a lot more than 10hp !!!!!

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So why bother with a front mount at all? Save yourself hassle and cash, stock side mount is good enough for BPU

 

I would have, But toyota being toyota only designed mine to last 17 years, tsk. :)

 

There isn't really a budget smic other than cw or whifbitz(I think) but they were still more than an Srd fmic. And I don't like to admit it but I like the look of a fmic :) I couldn't really find the info to really substantiate the claims that the smic is 'much' better than the fmic. Its a personal opinion thing for me, I know that they both have their good points.

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far more important imo is the piping and hose, nothing worse than boost pipes popping off left right and centre. I would definatly go for a PW or SRD one over a rip off like HKS etc, I think I would rather spend £400 on an IC and £1K on other mods, i'll bet the diff would be =/- 10hp and £1k will buy a lot more than 10hp !!!!!

 

Now thats what I was tring to say :)

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Ets is what I will be upgrading to I'n the future

The SRD 4" core is an ETS one - I've bought one from SRD for my car, does seem very complete, but it is very heavy. Heavier than a Greddy 4 Row.

 

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

I'm guessing the branded ones will really come into their own at the higher boost/flow when the cooling efficiency is key.

 

So why bother with a front mount at all? Save yourself hassle and cash, stock side mount is good enough for BPU

I had a SMIC for BPU and it was perfect. Pulled hard, looked stock. Win win

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I'm guessing the branded ones will really come into their own at the higher boost/flow when the cooling efficiency is key.

 

 

 

The IC in my 10 sec silver car was a relatively cheap sourced core, nothing special, that ran 2.5 bar, its the placebo effect, oh the more it costs the better it must be !!!!!

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I had a SMIC for BPU and it was perfect. Pulled hard, looked stock. Win win

 

But thats exactly what I'm saying because it 'was perfect and pulled hard' isn't really a good test of efficiency. Its the reason I put 2 ait sensors in, I wanted to see the temps pre and post intercooler to see what the intercooler was doing in the real world. I am in no way knocking the smic as if mine wasn't 'bad' I wouldn't have changed it. People spend £1000 on a core and then say 'it is better because it pulled really well and the cheap ones can't be as good because they're, well, 'cheap' I would love to have access to different cores and test them on the same car on the same day at the same ambient temperature. I'm not saying there won't be a difference but in my mind the it will be negligible for the cost difference.

 

I would rather go for a cheaper core and then add water/meth injection

All fmic's are equal its just some are more equal than others.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Ive got a 5" ETS intercooler, I got it from SRD, brilliant IC imo and very good value, lowered my intake temps a good 10 degree over my old Blitz LM.

 

Very good quality these IMO. I fitted a 4" one to johnnys car and there extremely well mate. Bloody heavy too. It's way heavier than my greddy 4 row. The IC pipework that cones with is very strong and a high grade of alloy. I'd recommend 1 of these to anyone.

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