Are All Intercoolers Created Equal?
Newbie
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 36
Likes: 0
From: San Jose, CA
Thanks to everyone for the details of ETS intercoolers. I really like their intercooler kits (all the bits needed in one handy kit!). Very nice, indeed. I am, however, kind of curious as to why there has been nary a peep about the WORKS intercooler (not that they have a complete kit, mind you). Any comments? Just asking. WORKS has a line of products and I'm surprised they are not mentioned in the discussion here.
Thanks.
Thanks.
wrong thread.
Do they like it because of the price, or do they like it because they find traces of rat poop inside the intercooler, and another customer found a welding tungsten inside of the intercooler.
The above wasn't an EVO X intercooler but it was for another car, I found a few threads that popped up when I was searching this "depo racing". Very low quality stuff from overseas, will never make its way onto my car.
Newbie
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 95
Likes: 0
From: Toronto
All the answers here have been great in recommendation of the ETS, but what about the comparison to other makes including the Stock, AMS, Buschur, Mishimoto, AGP, Perrin, UR, CBRD, etc. May take some time to put together, but I'm sure most of these companies have dyno sheets on gains from stock. If there already is a chart or comparison, I'd love to see it but I can't find one in the search...
I have the tried and True AMS Street FMIC. Fits perfect, retains the factory crash bar, and one side gets warm the other side is ALWAYS cold. Pressure drop is less then one pound, .8 I believe for the AMS unit (Which is a Garrett core) and the stock unit drops 2.5 pounds so there you go.
Buschur did a big test on these, obviously a dyno doesn't have sufficient air flow but it did show how fast (or slowly) a unit heat soaked. The AMS Street core and the Buschur core did very well, the ebay unit shot up over 80 degrees on one pull.
Wow. I'm either going with AMS or ETS but I'm leaning towards ETS because of the price difference.
Here is the Buschur Test BTW...
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...cts-truth.html
Here you go, we finally did it. I hope everyone is happy now. I know I am.
My car is on the dyno making huge power, 640 whp with the new HTA35R on it. We have our Race FMIC on it which I say is the best FMIC you can buy with your hard earned money. The tempurature today is 62 degrees F in our dyno room.
I made a bunch of pulls this morning and the car was making within 1-3 hp on the last few of 640/511 torque.
When I got done I decided to leave the car on the dyno and put on the Ebay intercooler that is a copy in appearance to the AMS FMIC.
My car is running C16. I am using NO air temp correction for fueling other than when the air is BELOW 50 degrees F. So if the air temp goes UP the fuel stays the same. I am using no timing compensation for anything either. What I am telling you all is the map is the map, it is running what I told it to and not making adjustments.
The last pull I made with our Race FMIC was 643 whp and 511 ft lbs of torque. I MADE NO CHANGES. I left the dyno, had Ted bolt on the new intercooler and came back when he was done.
Here is the important data:
Air temp after the intercooler at the start of the pull, 62.60 degrees.
Air temp after the intercooler at the end of the pull, 69.80 degrees.
Increase in air temp 7.2 degrees.
Peak boost was 40.3 psi.
We then bolted on the Ebay special that is an AMS attempted copy. Absolutely NO changes were made to anything other than bolting on the I/C.
Car made 633 whp and 505 ft lbs of torque. So not a bad loss at this HP level.
Here is the BAD part.
Air temp after the intercooler at the start of the pull, 62.60 degrees.
Air temp after the intercooler at the end of the pull, 122 degrees!! That is an increase in air temp of 59.4 degrees in a single gear pull!
Peak boost went up which I find strange as it hit 42.1.
The knock count went up considerably with these higher air temps. To run the car safely I would need to pull atleast a few degrees of timing.
**So in summary the intercooler with 2 more psi boost made 10 less whp than our Race FMIC at that is at big HP levels. The problem is the intercooler is NOT EFFICIENT AT REMOVING HEAT. Which is what it is there for. I am betting the stock FMIC is not much worse than this. An increase of 59.4 degrees is absolutely HUGE in a single gear pull. On a summer day or road race/autocross situation this intercooler would absolutely SUCK.
Bottom line is, you get what you pay for and buying one of these I do not think is a good investment of your money.
My car is on the dyno making huge power, 640 whp with the new HTA35R on it. We have our Race FMIC on it which I say is the best FMIC you can buy with your hard earned money. The tempurature today is 62 degrees F in our dyno room.
I made a bunch of pulls this morning and the car was making within 1-3 hp on the last few of 640/511 torque.
When I got done I decided to leave the car on the dyno and put on the Ebay intercooler that is a copy in appearance to the AMS FMIC.
My car is running C16. I am using NO air temp correction for fueling other than when the air is BELOW 50 degrees F. So if the air temp goes UP the fuel stays the same. I am using no timing compensation for anything either. What I am telling you all is the map is the map, it is running what I told it to and not making adjustments.
The last pull I made with our Race FMIC was 643 whp and 511 ft lbs of torque. I MADE NO CHANGES. I left the dyno, had Ted bolt on the new intercooler and came back when he was done.
Here is the important data:
Air temp after the intercooler at the start of the pull, 62.60 degrees.
Air temp after the intercooler at the end of the pull, 69.80 degrees.
Increase in air temp 7.2 degrees.
Peak boost was 40.3 psi.
We then bolted on the Ebay special that is an AMS attempted copy. Absolutely NO changes were made to anything other than bolting on the I/C.
Car made 633 whp and 505 ft lbs of torque. So not a bad loss at this HP level.
Here is the BAD part.
Air temp after the intercooler at the start of the pull, 62.60 degrees.
Air temp after the intercooler at the end of the pull, 122 degrees!! That is an increase in air temp of 59.4 degrees in a single gear pull!
Peak boost went up which I find strange as it hit 42.1.
The knock count went up considerably with these higher air temps. To run the car safely I would need to pull atleast a few degrees of timing.
**So in summary the intercooler with 2 more psi boost made 10 less whp than our Race FMIC at that is at big HP levels. The problem is the intercooler is NOT EFFICIENT AT REMOVING HEAT. Which is what it is there for. I am betting the stock FMIC is not much worse than this. An increase of 59.4 degrees is absolutely HUGE in a single gear pull. On a summer day or road race/autocross situation this intercooler would absolutely SUCK.
Bottom line is, you get what you pay for and buying one of these I do not think is a good investment of your money.
Last edited by High_PSI; Oct 25, 2011 at 02:28 PM.
Newbie
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
From: Newark
ETS is cheaper, AMS is pimp. My car only has AMS in terms of piping and FMIC and exhaust, everything fit so well. ETS is fine.
Here is the Buschur Test BTW...
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...cts-truth.html
Here is the Buschur Test BTW...
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...cts-truth.html
i had similar result with a greddy 3row and ebay intercooler.
notice a big increase in temp with the ebay core.
i think it pretty much sums it up that, if you are making tons of power and boosting 20+ psi... buy a good intercooler, if your boosting little ebay wouldnt hurt