I've been planning a new build and wondered if a bigger intercooler would be an advantage or there are tradeoffs for a bigger intercooler like loss of spool.

I have the smaller Buschur now. I think it's around 3.5 inch. I don't run the front crash bar and don't mind trimming a little though so could run a big intercooler.

What do you think?

 

Power goals?

 

Nothing really set on power goals. Car is being setup to be able to handle extended abuse so probably will run a larger turbo than I would really like at low boost to keep EGT down.

At 600 whp running hard for 10 minutes or so would the larger intercooler core help keep IAT down? Just an example.

 

I'm honestly so confused about how my car will be setup now after reading so many conflicting things but I'm going ahead and looking into things that would definitely benefit me to go ahead and sell my old and buy new.

I was originally going to run a 2.2 and probably a Red or Black but then kept reading people say to stay reliable when pushing the car for longer than a couple minutes at a time you have to run a larger turbo at lower boost so now I'm all mixed up on that. A Red or Black running at 25 psi or somewhere they are really efficient would be fine to push at track days but just have less power than a larger turbo running low boost right?

 

A 3.5" intercooler with a red or black at 25psi will be just fine. I would go with a red. On a 2.2, with E85 it'll make eel over 450whp, which is a lot of power for a track car.

 

Cool. I think I will probably continue with that plan. I'll drive around back roads in higher boost but when I'm going to push it for very long without cool down I'll just turn it down. I was thinking there probably wouldn't be an advantage to upgrading to over 3.5 in the mid 500 horsepower range but wasn't sure.

 

Depends on the level of competition My buddy Tony's 715whp Evo is pretty epic on track.

 

I always read the 400 whp or whatever is plenty on track comments but so much time can be gained or lost on straights on road courses. It seems to me that a 600 whp Evo setup very similarly to a 450 whp Evo would corner around the same speeds but one would destroy the other on every straight stretch of any real distance.

 

Depends on car setup and how much money you want to spend. Better have big tireS, brakes, and aero if you want that to be useful.

 

Money is a big thing. An MHI FP turbo is a much cheaper setup and at that power level crazy aero, big brakes, and slicks aren't as necessary to really push the setup.

 

Google UMS Tuning Evo was helping build the new splitter for it yesterday. Leaves for GTA Road Atlanta tomorrow morning

 

The reason folks say that is to realistically to build a 600whp track car and keep the engine together for 20mins session isn't cheap. Then if you do manage to keep it together you have have to make the investments here:

To really have the advantage. The 600whp car might be faster on the straights but if you have'nt upgraded the brakes or the aero and you have to back off real early at the end of the straight you don't have as much a real world advantage as you do on paper. Plus no one wants to be like the guy on here who used to brag about how he'd take his 600whp car to the track and then the video surfaced of him getting passed by a bunch of sub 350whp cars simply because it wasn't setup to properly use that power.

 

Umm...link?

 

I second that statement. I did a track day once and started chit chatting with a guy who had a stock appearing Pontiac G8. After a quick intro he proceeded to pop his trunk and started bragging about the 2 NOS bottles in there. This was his first track day mind you. His plan was to use the spray on the back and front straights. Well he did just that but he did manage to irritate a few guys who were more seasoned than him with less powerful cars. Reason being is that his car was useless around corners, where the quicker cars maneuvered around him, but once on the straight he would overtake them and then proceed to walk around the next corner. After his first and only session, he left due to his overheated brakes.

Moral of the story: if you plan on 600hp, make sure your grip and brake levels are up to snuff.

 

As others said it is expensive to build a road racing car.

Engine oil heats. You need to keep it under control.

Transmission fluida heat. Keep an eye on those too.

Brakes are a must. Suspension too.

Above 500hp and beyond 1.3 lateral g's a surge tank will be needed. A -6AN feed line is a good idea to avoid fuel heating. Above 500hp things start to get crazy expensive.

Above 1.1 lateral g's you will see the oil pressure drop on right turns. Time for a bigger sump or dry sump - still want 600hp?

The reason there are so many crazy powerful Evos is because they are made for street or strip. The challenges they face are different.

Also don't expect a 500hp Evo to be much faster than a stock one. Without soft tires and some aero there is no way to take advantage of the power. Most probably a stock evo on slicks will be faster than a 500hp one on performance tires, for example.