Nisei or ETS Intercooler...?
With the ETS 3.5" you can still retain the crash beam, also Lucas of English Racing dyno'd at 430awhp using the 3.5" ETS fmic with all supporting mods on the stock 8 turbo. He also ran an 11.2@122 all this is using E85.
If you are going to stick with the stock turbo, then I see no reason paying the extra money for the Nisei intercooler. ETS intercoolers, although new to the evo market, have already proven themselves to be great intercoolers. For the price/performance comparison, I would for sure go with ETS. The Nisei intercooler is huge and reaallly heavy. By no means am I knocking Nisei, because they make really nice products, but in your case, ETS 
If you are going to stick with the stock turbo, then I see no reason paying the extra money for the Nisei intercooler. ETS intercoolers, although new to the evo market, have already proven themselves to be great intercoolers. For the price/performance comparison, I would for sure go with ETS. The Nisei intercooler is huge and reaallly heavy. By no means am I knocking Nisei, because they make really nice products, but in your case, ETS
If you are going to stick with the stock turbo, then I see no reason paying the extra money for the Nisei intercooler. ETS intercoolers, although new to the evo market, have already proven themselves to be great intercoolers. For the price/performance comparison, I would for sure go with ETS. The Nisei intercooler is huge and reaallly heavy. By no means am I knocking Nisei, because they make really nice products, but in your case, ETS
If you are going to stick with the stock turbo, then I see no reason paying the extra money for the Nisei intercooler. ETS intercoolers, although new to the evo market, have already proven themselves to be great intercoolers. For the price/performance comparison, I would for sure go with ETS. The Nisei intercooler is huge and reaallly heavy. By no means am I knocking Nisei, because they make really nice products, but in your case, ETS 
Don't say no one has ever had an issue with spool on Nisei intercooler with stock turbo. That's Bs!!!!!!
Posted by "fromWRXtoEvo" from Tucson AZ.
I tried the street Nisei IC version before and it wasn't my cup of tea. I must admit that the customer service from Nisei was excellent, the engineer that builds them and put them together spare a lot of time with me over the phone explaining me the entire proces etc etc.
I was also offered to be one of the first customers to try the racing core, in fact they told me to send them the old one and pay the difference for the racing core.
I did take my car to the track before and after and I also took my car to the dyno before and after. I even tuned the car again after the installation of the Nisei IC.
Despite all the great quality that this IC displays it hurt my spool up significantly. The dyno showed a slower spool up, Als laptop also showed slower spool up and I noticed slower spool up.
I have basicly all the mods you can bolt on before you jump into a turbokit. I never ran faster at the track. I ran 12.2s over and over at the Nopi event just the same as I did on stock IC.
The spool up issue bothered me soo much that I removed the Nisei IC a few days after i bought it and I compared to the stock IC . The moment that I put the stock IC it was like night to day,the first thing I got was the peak boost peaking to 31psi instantly.
It was my choice to keep the stock IC on because the spool up was 10 times better with the stock core. Dyno numbers showed a increment of 3-8 whp with the addition of Nisei IC, DC sport header,methanol and retune.
I still want to give Nisei guys a second and last try. I am very conservative since I am still runing stock turbo however if I can make an arrangement with Nisei guys to pay them in full for a race core IC and if I am not satisfy I would send it back to them. More to come on that until then please keep us posted on dynos or track times.
I have the big question about that intercooler, if the street series was laggy on my car with 2.5: inlet/outlet, how laggy would the race version be with the 3" inlet/outlet and bigger core. Real testing will tell
Carlos
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Posted by "fromWRXtoEvo" from Tucson AZ.
I tried the street Nisei IC version before and it wasn't my cup of tea. I must admit that the customer service from Nisei was excellent, the engineer that builds them and put them together spare a lot of time with me over the phone explaining me the entire proces etc etc.
I was also offered to be one of the first customers to try the racing core, in fact they told me to send them the old one and pay the difference for the racing core.
I did take my car to the track before and after and I also took my car to the dyno before and after. I even tuned the car again after the installation of the Nisei IC.
Despite all the great quality that this IC displays it hurt my spool up significantly. The dyno showed a slower spool up, Als laptop also showed slower spool up and I noticed slower spool up.
I have basicly all the mods you can bolt on before you jump into a turbokit. I never ran faster at the track. I ran 12.2s over and over at the Nopi event just the same as I did on stock IC.
The spool up issue bothered me soo much that I removed the Nisei IC a few days after i bought it and I compared to the stock IC . The moment that I put the stock IC it was like night to day,the first thing I got was the peak boost peaking to 31psi instantly.
It was my choice to keep the stock IC on because the spool up was 10 times better with the stock core. Dyno numbers showed a increment of 3-8 whp with the addition of Nisei IC, DC sport header,methanol and retune.
I still want to give Nisei guys a second and last try. I am very conservative since I am still runing stock turbo however if I can make an arrangement with Nisei guys to pay them in full for a race core IC and if I am not satisfy I would send it back to them. More to come on that until then please keep us posted on dynos or track times.
I have the big question about that intercooler, if the street series was laggy on my car with 2.5: inlet/outlet, how laggy would the race version be with the 3" inlet/outlet and bigger core. Real testing will tell
Carlos
__________________
Same Dilemma...decided ETS
I've just recently been contemplating upgrading the the IC and all Piping.
After talking with Nisei and ETS I decided on the ETS 3" ....granted I haven't purchased yet but that should come here shortly.
Although I too had a few people tell me that the stock IC is truly best with the stock turbo....and the gains with an upgrade with none if not loss.
IS this really true?....or maybe better asked how does ETS feel about the 3" IC on the stock turbo with a tune?
IX Lives
After talking with Nisei and ETS I decided on the ETS 3"
....granted I haven't purchased yet but that should come here shortly.Although I too had a few people tell me that the stock IC is truly best with the stock turbo....and the gains with an upgrade with none if not loss.
IS this really true?....or maybe better asked how does ETS feel about the 3" IC on the stock turbo with a tune?
IX Lives
ok so ETS is sounding better and better....what do you guys think 3" or 3.5" ? i really would like to buy the entire set up from ETS.....I im going to try my hardest to talk Tom into making me a UICP that fits both stock batt. and stock airbox....
With the Nisei that is 3.7" you still run the stock crash beam too.
Because it won't stop there.
Posted by "fromWRXtoEvo" from Tucson AZ.
I tried the street
It was my choice to keep the stock IC on because the spool up was 10 times better with the stock core. Dyno numbers showed a increment of 3-8 whp with the addition of Nisei IC, DC sport header,methanol and retune.
Carlos
__________________
I tried the street
It was my choice to keep the stock IC on because the spool up was 10 times better with the stock core. Dyno numbers showed a increment of 3-8 whp with the addition of Nisei IC, DC sport header,methanol and retune.
Carlos
__________________
if you only saw gains of 3-8whp with a IC , new MANIFOLD , Meth , and a retune. Your car must be retarded. Or your tuner must be on crack. Cuz that is the worst gain for those mods i have ever heard of.
I have similar mods as you, but I chose the HKS Type R FMIC since i'm gonna be upgrading my turbo. I'd personally choose something like the ETS 3.5", AMS, or a FMIC w/ a garrett core. Good luck!