I'm not saying that particular core is good. I don't know if they pressure test them. Nor do I know the FPI. I can say that fin design is perfectly fine. Almost all of our cores. Both air/air and air/oil use this design and we have no problems with them. Remember, What might adequate for a 300hp car might not be adequate for a 500hp car.

Also.. that particular ebay intercooler doesn't fit (properly) with the stock intercooler hoses. The inlet and outlet are not at the right angle. I installed one for a guy and had to cut them off and weld mandrel bent 45s to each side to get it to fit the properly.
The people that say it fit's are the ppl that either replaced their pipes or couplers or are running around with a ghetto setup w/ stressed out stock couplers, from being on a bind.

 

i have the XSP IC on my car with stock couplers and no major problems, i did had to straighten out the couplers a little but only by 5-10 degree as you can see in the picture. the ICPs aren't stock but they are design to use with stock IC, so they line up the same as stock. https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...156092&page=15

 

that core is nothing like an XSPower or yonaka brand taiwanese OBX sh!tbox core:



Look closely at the taiwanese/china cores, they have holes in the fins, for LESS surface area... complete crap... not only does it transfer less heat but it now adds turbulence increasing pressure drop..

the reason we prefer tube and fin is that there is a guaranteed known heat transfer coefficient. If you have a tube that is "squeezed" around the fins (or even glued as i have seen in some cores), some parts of the fins are contacting the tube transferring heat, other parts are just warming up and becuase they dont make firm contact with the trest of the core do not transfer. In the case of a bonding agent/glue this means that the glue can not transfer as efficiently as aluminum. Additionally, the amount of air flow moving through the core is a huge determining factor

in my opinion, if i can use a 3" thick core, ill go extruded tube allll day over anything else. For the high horsepower applications (ie over 3" thick) its gotta be bar and plate as there are no good extruded tube cores i have seen

 

i'm confused, EVO8emUp said it WAS an XSPower IC. are you mistaken XSPower with XSEngineering or Power XS?

 

it's the end results that matters though, regardless of braising or pressing etc if the core actually drops temps and flows that's what matters.

 

that one is not evo specific... i wonder why the two columns

 

not anything like garrett... you have to know what to look for to see the difference in a picture... it's pretty obvious in real life. look for the zig zaginess