fastazzf22

Is a cheap intercooler ok for high hp?

Whats the difference between the two? Other than price?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...53534
or
http://www.exoticperformancepl...m=655

Thanks

turbodano

Good question.

I know from testing the ebay intercoolers we have seen the end tank design is not worth a Sh_t. We had a car on the dyno and the intake air temps were never what we considered to be good at all. We had a heat gun taking reading of the core and you could clearly see only part of the intercooler was flowing air. The upper part was 40 degrees cooler than the bottom.

I would spend a little extra and get a cooler that is nice from a shop that will tell you specs and show you plenty of test data.

I don't think either cooler here is worth much.

yakuza

As every experienced buyer knows, with ebay its a either a hit or a miss. For that amount of money it might be worth shopping a liitle more and finding a better reputable brand or make and just paying the little extra on price.

I must admit though with my 1st FMIC I bought off ebay for my Rx7, dyno proven 16whp gain at stock boost. 2 years of abuse and front damage after spining on round abouts I now got it replaced with a Greddy FMIC but still awaiting dyno.

For my Honda I gone for Mishimoto G-line intercooler, still need to finish the build and see how everything works out. Cost me only $140 with free shipping since I ordered too many stuff from the supplier (www.rms-usa.com).

chimmike

My rule of thumb is " Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?"

cheap parts are just that, cheap parts. cheap intercoolers have no flow design that goes into them. They just fab end tanks and weld 'em on, with no consideration for fluid dynamics or quality of parts.

If you want an intercooler jsut to have one, do whatever you want. Otherwise, I'd say save up for a precision or spearco or garrett intercooler.

nowtype

There is a reason no one posts comparisons of Ebay intercoolers vs a name brand.

1) There are at least 10 different Ebay intercoolers available. All sold for a different price and of different quality.

2) There are at least 10 different name brand intercoolers available. All sold for a different price and of different quality.

End result is, I'm sure there are ebay intercoolers that perform as well or better than other name brand intercoolers. And I'm sure the same can be said the visa versa. I did some research in the past if anyone had compared the Precision intercooler line vs the SSAC intercooler as they are VERY similar. I never found a direct comparison but I did find a number of articles with favorable data for the SSAC intercooler which again, looks almost exactly the same as a Precision unit.

So in the end, there is no real answer. If you want my opinion based on very little, if I'm buying an intercooler tomorrow, I'm buying a unit from SSAC.