I got to thinking about my intercooler (20x12x3 core china racing), and did some homework.

At the track recently, 95F ambient, 122F staging lane, 168F end of burnout, 225F end of track.

So between the burnout and the 1/4 mile run, we're seeing a temp increase of 103 degrees (63 degree increase down the 1/4 itself, pretty typical for an ebay intercooler so I've read). I then got to thinking, I see a lot of setups with people spending thousands on bigger turbos, intake manifolds, etc..and they still run cheap intercoolers, saturate the heck out of the IAT sensor with meth and then claim the intercooler works and makes good power (so would a straight piece of pipe).

I did some research on air to air intercoolers and there was one overwhelming answer for a core that actually works: Garrett. These are the only cores I've seen with evidence that they can actually lower IATs over the course of a run, if not hold them to a very minimal increase.

Problem for me is complete lack of space up front for an IC, so I'm stuck mounting down between the frame rails. I shot ChiseledPerformance an email and empowered them to build me a custom IC using a Garrett 4.5" thick core. I won't disclose how much the cost is as most would probably say I'm crazy for spending that much on an IC, however consider this. I've seen the number thrown around, 1% power gain for every 10 degrees F decreased. Let's theoretically say the Garrett core will cut the temp rise in half to 50 degrees from 100. That's a 5% increase in power. At the 750 hp level, that's worth 38 hp. There's a good chance that the Garrett IC will do significantly better than that. That's not the whole story either, the Garrett IC may also actually be less restrictive than the China cooler giving an increase in boost and power from that.

And before anyone says it, I know there are many people on this forum going much faster than me with china intercoolers. There are also the larger 24x12x4" cores. Yes, my current core is undersized but I haven't seen good IAT results posted with the big chinese core either. But when you take everything into account, putting in a quality intercooler just makes sense to me. Thoughts?

 

Did uounread Fooses thread? I believe he had good results with a different intercooler.

 

I actually like a wet intercooler. My IAT's were 104 at the line and 167 going through the traps. I have what is considered a small intercooler too. The nice thing about a wet intercooler is that it can be mounted anywhere. I actually have mine below and behind the cooling fans.

 

And you guys have the nerve to call Maggie's waffle makers.....


Your running E49.98734, go to E85 it doesn't care about IATS.

 

My chiseled was 1050 shipped

For low power it's hard to beat a treadstone

 

Get a core that has less than 2psi of pressure drop and spray meth to cool it down, youll pick up a ton of power. Youre right a lot of guys saturate the sensor, however that doesnt mean the meth isnt working. With my cxracing intercooler, temps rose maybe 20 degrees at the end of an 1/8th with meth at 25psi.

 

Your iat sensors was at the back of the holley intake right?

 

Yea, I moved it there to be as far away from the meth as possible to get an accurate temperature. I did have it in the intake tube about a foot after the nozzles and it did get soaked and showed an inaccurately low temperature, but like I said just because the sensor isnt operating correctly doesnt mean the meth isnt doing its job. Hell on my blower when it was wicking meth through the line the blower got so cold there was condensation dripping off of it and the throttle body. Meth works.

 

 

Yea the meth saturated Sensor doesn't really make a ton of sense to me. Meth will be less sensitive to temp increases than regular fuel, so are you even concerned at that point?

The temp increases are really detrimental when you have to pull timing. Beyond that as long as you are able to get a complete burn and not detonate with the same timing at higher IAT I dont think it has all that drastic of an effect. The real problem is IAT increase prior to the blower or turbo. In a blower it has a greater effect as the speed is constant and the air it grabs per rpm is constant. With a turbo spool time will be reduced, but if it needs to spin 3% faster to hit the sameanifold PSI so be it. What is more detrimental is things that make the air less effient to the engine, like Humidity.

Now back to your intercooler question. I don't know lol. But Id want a good one for the fuel system I have.