The quality of the fabrication looks very good, but the design is fair at best. His welding looks nice but the endtanks would be much better if they weren't so boxy and sharp edged and if the pipes were centered. Because of the extremely small cross-sectional area of the tubes it would be best suited for high boost pressure and low volume flow rates. From the pic and the ones on his website it looks like the flow area is about 1.5"x1/4"x8 tubes = about 3 square inches, which is only about 2/3 of the flow area of the inlet and outlet pipes. Ideally you want the flow area of the IC core to be at least 2-3 times the flow area of the charge piping. You want much lower flow velocity in the IC core because of the turbulence entering and leaving the tubes and because of the huge surface area in the tubes from the cooling fins. For everyone commenting on presure drop, it is EXTREMELY flow rate dependent. You can't talk about a pressure drop without saying AT WHAT FLOW RATE. What you can say is that it is a function of the square of the flow rate, so that double the flow rate will have four times the pressure drop.


It sounds to me like the only problem he has with them is that they are a poor design for anything but low flow rates. How well it fits the bumper is a completely different issue from how well it works. Form vs. function.


Civiclx, while it is true that a longer IC will cool the air more than a shorter one IF THEY ARE THE SAME HEIGHT, it will definitely NOT cool better if twice as long means half as high. It is a common misconception that a taller IC would not cool as efficiently. boosted jetta is correct that a taller IC would be more efficient and here's why. Consider 2 ICs, both 6" high x 30" long x 2" thick with tubes spaced every inch. One has tubes horizontally, i.e. 6 tubes that are 30" long, and the other has tubes vertically, i.e. 30 tubes that are 6" long. Some people will say that they are about equal or that the long one will cool the air more. WRONG! The air stays in both the 30" tubes and the 6" tubes FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME. Why? Because in the long tubes it is going 5 times farther but also 5 times FASTER. The difference is that the IC with the long tubes will both lose more pressure AND heat up the air more from the friction that caused the pressure drop. For the same IC core volume, the core with the longest end caps will always win.


Much props for the power you are making because it is impressive and it is more than my D15A3 will ever be able to make, but where did you "hear" that you had minimal pressure drop? Do you have empirical evidence or did your IC tell you? I'm not trying to be an *** but it is possible that you had a large pressure drop and you just overcame it with more boost. Of course what this means is that you might have gained 15-20hp just by adding a larger more efficient IC. Have you dynoed your car with the new IC to see how much of a difference that one change would make? I and many others would be very interested to know.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by boosted jetta &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i've heard the pressure drop is more lik 1.5psi, which is a lot for an intercooler</TD></TR></TABLE>

there we have it, the infamous "ive heard"

Ignorant.

Rob

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tjbizzo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
Much props for the power you are making because it is impressive and it is more than my D15A3 will ever be able to make, but where did you "hear" that you had minimal pressure drop? Do you have empirical evidence or did your IC tell you? I'm not trying to be an *** but it is possible that you had a large pressure drop and you just overcame it with more boost. Of course what this means is that you might have gained 15-20hp just by adding a larger more efficient IC. Have you dynoed your car with the new IC to see how much of a difference that one change would make? I and many others would be very interested to know.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

I didnt hear I had minimal pressure drop. I can see it with my gauges and can see that I am losing around .5-1psi of pressure, which seems to be around normal for any IC. I have not dynoed with the new IC but I am confident, as you said, I will probably be able to pull 350whp (+20whp) with a newer IC same boost level.

The one I use is different from the ones he makes now. Mine was a prototype when he first started making them. The endtanks are different and the size is slightly different (taller) but for the money you really can't beat this intercooler. For high boost/HP applications I would say get something better and more efficient, but for the price it is a great Intercooler.

 

I was just curious how you knew how much the drop was. Did you have an accurate gauge before and after the IC? I wouldn't trust my gauge to be more accurate than within about 0.5 psi.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DC2R714 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have not dynoed with the new IC but I am confident, as you said, I will probably be able to pull 350whp (+20whp) with a newer IC same boost level.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This was my point, that if you had an IC that had the same core volume but with more rows and shorter rows, it would be a pretty cheap way (basically free if it is the same cost as the long thin IC) to gain 15-20hp and a little reliability. For the money I would probably use a Ford probe or MKIII Supra IC since they are at least as efficient as the long thin one and only about 1/4 the cost used on ebay (less if you are patient), but they don't look as blingin.