on my ix i have a TBE, no cat,housing, tune and E85 all on the stock intercooler.

about to upgrade to a used AMS intercooler. what performace gains will i notice if any at all?

my buddy who helped me tune the car informed me that the gains will be minimal but the chances of knock are going to be waaaayyyy down and he said my top end should improve alot since the stock ix intercooler is choking my car right now.
anyone care to share what they noticed right away when they upgraded their intercooler from the stock one?

 

Your able to run more boost w less knock, that's potential power increase. It wont heat soak so u will make consistent power time and time again as u produce more heat from the Turbo. You will probably initially see that u will make the same power but now ur at lower boost levels, so it allows u to crank the boost up while producing more safe power.

 

The stock intercooler is good up to around 440WHP so if you arent pushing over that the gains wont be huge but the knock will be lower if you even have any and you really shouldnt in the first place.

All intercoolers will eventually heat soak...

 

like the above poster said, unless your planning on going bigger turbo, you will not notice huge gains right away bc the stocker is a very solid unit. that being said it will lower your air temps which is good for all of the above. if you are getting an AMS used at a good price it might be worth it.

again tho, stock turbo, unless the deal is to good, money could be used else for more performance. Piping is something to consider since that is the major choking point for the stock units, will increase lag slightly but give you some decent gains.

 

mmmm....so if i kept the stock intercooler but instead go hardpiping all the way,that will net me a few more ponies as well?
i thought the hard piping was mainly to keep the boost from dropping off.?

have there been any threads that discuss the before and after doing the hard pipe on an evo?

 

The way i look at it if you can get a good deal on the fmic why not get it. if your going to try to make big power later its one less thing you were need to worry about. but also the hard pipes will help pick up a few hp and help your car run better for now

 

An upgrade like that cools the air better, causing more air equaling more power. Might not be a lot but will see more.

 

do it, im getting the AMS intercooler too

 

The intercooler is one of the best investments, esp if you are going to upgrade later. Upgraded LICP is must if you don't have that already.

 

I went from the stocker at 400 whp on the stock 8 turbo (10.5 hotside) to the 3.5" Turbo XS and I really didnt notice a big difference on just a single pull, but on back to back or on a pull past 4th gear is where you will really notice the difference. My car used to pull very hard through 3rd and then you could tell it was losing steam in 4th due to heat soak. After the new IC it pulls very hard no matter how long I am on it. Its worth the investment

 

You will notice more of a difference when you do back to back runs, less heatsoak like said before...

 

Do you need to get a tune if you upgrade your intercooler, pipping and BOV?

 

it's safe to drive but for better gains you can tune it.i know it's expensive so try to collect more performance parts like cams,fuel pump etc and then tune it.gl

 

Thank you.

 

I'd be careful with "used" AMS intercoolers. Unless they have the new cast end tanks, a majority of them are the crappy ebay copy that people resell as "AMS".