Originally Posted by ARE Intercooling

Plate tube & fin cores are the physically weakest core in that we have allot more of them come through our workshop for repairs than any of the other three, & too reinforce that, they usually have a larger leak for the damage &/or the leak be further away from damaged area. The core has three components too each tube. Two stamped side plates with fine folded fins fused internally. I believe the plates are "stretched" too far to form the tank on each end, thinning the alloy to where it will crack with minor stress. They are clamped together (looking like a piano accordian) & furnace brazed. Bar/Plate & fin cores are the second weakest, even though they are also the heaviest with a couple of the thickest components. However this is the reason for their weakness. The thin plate side walls have to fuse onto the thick plate sides to form a "tube", with both of them having to fuse onto the very thick bars to form the "header plate" for the tank to be welded to. It is hard for these three differing thickness to be held at the right temperature for the cladding to melt, ?? & fuse the surfaces together. This is where we see most of the leaks in these cores, even from new in one brand. The charge cooling fins are fused to the thin plate walls, meaning there are 5 components too each tube, a reason that these cores tend to develop a series of weeps along the "header" seam.

Folded tube & Extruded tube seem to be of similar strength although with two tube sides, fine fused internal fins & two header plate joints, folded tube should be weaker with 5 components. However, I have seen both types of cores come in for repairs quite beat up & out of shape, without leaking. Eventually the hot/cold & pressure/vacuum cycles will open up cracks. The Extruded tube core is possibly the strongest core as it only has three components in it's construction, a tube & two header plates. It is also the most consistent performing unit as the internal charge air cooling ribs are one piece with the tube walls whereas the above three cores have tubes with fins fused too them & if the specifications vary in production for any reason ( & it does occasionally), then an area of fins can exist where they are not in full contact with the tube wall, bottling up the heat in that area. The same also happens with external ambient finning, although this is common to all four cores & can be found with a simple visual/physical check.

Originally Posted by dubbleugly01

the most important thing you can learn from this thread is buy an intercooler from a reputable manufacturer, who knows what he is doing. Whether it's bar/plate or tube/fin, just make sure you use a reputable company and you will be far ahead of knock-off you can buy off ebay on the cheap.

Originally Posted by Shiroi Kitsune

I think you have the pricing backwards in your comparison. Tube and fun is typically more expensive than bar and plate.

For example...

Tube and Fin:
HKS $1700
Greddy $1400
etc

Bar and Plate:
AMS $700
ETS $500
etc