If you're comparing bar and plate cores, you're looking at some being six and some being a half dozen. Ams and Perrin had cast end tanks, which were better at distributing and collecting the charge air. Tube and fin is a better, lighter design and typically costs more because of it. If you're going with one of the usual suspects, just pick the one that gives you the best deal.

 

I would not run more turbo on the stock intercooler.

 

PWR intercooler the best!

 

ETS, Treadstone or any other company that uses a Garrett core.

 

I have a Blitz. The thing is light as a feather and the build quality is immaculate. The thing looks amazing; the end tanks are works of art.
I haven't run more than 460whp through it ,though I do HPDE on 100° weather and it's worked great. I highly recommend it.

 

I wouldn't run anything other than a stock turbo on the stock intercooler. Even then ,I'd be careful with the psi.

 

The highest on stock IX I've seen on E85 is 430whp. And that was on a IX with full bolt-ons tuned on a cool day. I think his turbo is maxed out considering he has 400 now with high heat. OP is better off upgrading turbo and intercooler at same time. I just can't see much more power with intercooler upgrade. But it helps his engine run safer.
I don't know if he has big enough fuel upgrades, so he may be looking at a long list of upgrades.
(hopefully, his current upgrades are at least 1000cc with wally 255).

 

Get the one that you like that's within your budget. They're all good name brands and probably similar in reliability and power capabilities.

I went with AMS for their cast end tanks to minimize pressure drop. Bottom line is they are all better than your stock and you will be happy with any of those.

 

Subjective or you have actual data that it works well in 100* weather?

 

DP. Forum hiccup

 

<br /><br />Subjective. Most of us regular peeps can only use what we see. <br />😁<br />No signs of reduction in performance due to anything IAT related. No reduction at all, actually. <br />​​​​​​Water temp, oil, temp and pressure... Nothing budged. That's by design, though. I have a decent list of temp-reducing and reliability-enhancing mods.

 

Would be interesting to see actual data to move your opinion to fact.

 

I have and have always ran ETS intercoolers on my evo and they have done an amazing job. Although if I where to pick another company's fmic it would be hands down it would be JM Fab.

 

OP, I was in the same boat leading up to the Black Friday sales in Nov 2017. I had an issue with my car and the after market lip I installed, I punctured the FMIC which was stock. I decided to look for aftermarket and then realized that going aftermarket had it's pros and cons. Most aftermarket units are Bar and Plate and they weigh a ton. I was set in my ways not to add weight and started reading on the forums etc and found the OEM FIMC is TUBE and Fin and light weight. Not sure your plans and others have pointed out this info but our EVOs are already nose heavy and this is why my research turned up BLITZ SE FMIC or Greddy R spec model. I started shopping as mentioned and saw great savings with the Blitz SE unit from FRSport. I think Blitz makes the lightest FMIC for the EVO 8/9 but Greddy R spec is a close alternative. All other brands seem to be almost double the weight due to Bar and Plate design. After making my decision to go for the Blitz unit I ordered it from FRSport and their site showed 2 units in stock, living close to them I figured the unit would arrive within a couple of days. This was just the opposite, I waited 5-6 months to get my Blitz SE. The fact is FRSport website was not displaying current inventory. So an email was sent to me stating the unit would need to be shipped from Japan. Be sure to reach out to them and "Don't hold your breath..." Since this whole ordeal was going on I decided to look around for a used OEM unit and see if a clean one would pop up. After 4 months of looking, a guy posted a very clean one up on Offerup for $60 and I jumped on it. After getting the Blitz SE I've opened the box to inspect it and weigh it. I wanted to see how light it was, It weighed under 12lbs on the scale I used. The funny thing here in the end is I've not installed the Blitz on my car and it's sitting in the original box all wrapped up. I've been toying with doing the small battery and upper pipes to my evo and also do the speed density swap as well. I will most likely put the replacement FMIC OEM one I found on the car in the mean time until I source the parts for the tune.