Intercooler HP Capability Approximation
 

Can someone help me guess the maximum HP this intercooler can handle w/ a T25? I don't have any measurements, so approximations are all I'm expecting. My power goals are no more than 200hp. Thanks.

Using foot in picture as reference size
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Attachment 214703

Um, hopefully not a lot with those tabs blocking the radiator.

Also, a friend of mine took three stock DSM intercoolers and welded them together to make a decent front mount. :-)

Anyway, it looks comparable to a stock mazdaspeed, maybe a BIT bigger. I think that I've heard with them they are great for hitting the gas and getting one hit, but they heat soak in like three hard gear pulls.

you honestly think a piece of metal is going to prevent airflow from going under or over it?


it should be perfectly acceptable for 200rwhp. whats the size of the core? 11x11x3?

I agree - 200hp ok. Yeah, what's it measure?

It will likely stop, or at least slow down, all air in the known universe. Babies will die in their cribs from suffocation.

Well, I just don't like it, is all, and if I had an easy way to cut it off and replace it with a smaller vertical bar, I would. But it seems a good IC

Well, I never considered heatsoak to an intercooler.

Will this intercooler really heatsoak after 3 WOT runs?

i took temps off my intercooler after a 15min session on the track on a 90° day.
surface temp was about 10° over ambient.

This was FM's testing. They showed in back to back runs how the intake temps were way up and the HP was way down with the OEM intake and IC. Sure, they can heat soak. At low speed, or with bad routing, of course it will.

Think about this: The alum is at ambiant temperature. You put in hot air, the air inside only knows the temp of the metal it's touching, not what's on the other side. So the air cools by heating the metal.

TOTALLY SEPERATE PROBLEM: The hot metal tries to shed temp to the nearby air. That air could be hot, not flowing, not having enough surfrace area, etc etc. And if the end tanks are most of the surface area the gasses see, then the heat will go into those, and they will stay hot since they don't get cooled by the passing air.

It can happen. Will it be an issue for you? Maybe, maybe not. Track days will be more of an issue than a single dyno pull. Pay attention to ducting and you should be fine. A well designed IC won't heat soak, it will cool at the same rate you dump heat into it. But for one gear, I bet you could tape over both sides of the IC and get the same numbers, maybe in second.

When I had a liscence plate in front of my IC for a week, I got knock all the time, in the second or third gear I pulled through, or in top gear on long pulls.

Have a look here if you know your core size you can at least get a rough idea of its hp capabilities. All very much depends on other factors such as driving style and ambient temps etc.

I have the same IC. Got it from FM for $100. Bell says with my gt2554 and MS I can run 10psi with it - no problem. That will be close to 200hp I think. Right now I'm running 8psi and get NO knock.

Have you ever experienced heat soak from track use or multiple WOT runs?

Intercoolers don't really heat soak.

Pigs Fly.

There, it's in print, it must be true.

Now I'm confused.

Also true.


Perhaps the better way to say it is you generally don't have to worry about heat soak. But if you're building a dyno queen or anything that will be run hard in bursts or continuously, you want to concentrate on airflow ir you coule get heatsoak issues.

The only cars I've known to have intercooler heatsoak issues have topmount ICs. (Scoobies, Minis, etc.)