monster intercooler?
 

So after lots of searching on here and on google i have failed.

What is the largest intercooler core you guys have managed to fit size wise so far on a NA miata?


I see fab9 has a core rated to 550hp and i took note of the sizes (30"x9.25"x3.25" with end tanks) but i would like something a bit larger if possible. This will be my fall back plan worst to worst.

Other companys all seem to be in the 350hp range rating wise.

Most of my searches have only led to small ebay cores, or just small cores in general neither i am interested in running. I just need sizes as i will most likely end up buying one of the many options through treadstone or someone else with a good rep for a solid intercooler.

Understand that a larger intercooler isn't always a better one. The quality of an intercooler, with regards to the design and density of the fins, can make major differences.

The Fab9 550hp IC is HUGE for a miata, i dont know that you could physically fit much more. (On a different platforms I have made substantially more on smaller IC's) The Fab9 is really just a Vibrant IC with mounting tabs welded on, you should be able to find more information from the Honda/Mitsu crowd.

Im aware that bigger isnt always better im just looking for dimensions that will somewhat fit so i have somewhere to work from. Like i said most likely i will be purchasing a treadstone core. This is for a 68mm turbo 2jz miata so i will be making use of the core i am not just trying to shove a giant core under for scene points lol. What brand core were you using that were smaller that worked well for a bit more power?

What is a 700hp miata good for besides scene points? A 2JZ one at that.

To have fun? To go to the track? To enjoy building? Idk....no need to get off topic though.

These aren't tall cars, the nose narrows quite a bit to the front, the only thing I can imagine to gain a bit more space and depth is a V-mount or 7-mount setup.


maybe look into a water/air intercooler?

When I tuned G's 330whp miata with the treadstone core his IAT's barely even moved
I'm sure it can easily support 500-600. Likely way more before it really chokes.

Those are the biggest that fit without hacking off the front and going tubular

What exact core was it?



This is a couple inches taller then fab 9s that fits but is of similar thickness and width so it makes me wonder if this would work with some cutting.
TR12C Intercooler 760HP- TREADSTONE PERFORMANCE

On my NB I got a 20x12x3 core bar/plate intercooler to fit, though I had to modify the sheet metal on the car a bit to clear the intercooler pipes where they exit the end tanks. With a GT3271 at 28 PSI, air temps were 40 over ambient after running through the gears.

I run a new version of the same one now with 28 PSI on a SC, and air temps are about 60*F over ambient after a 0-95mph pull including a burnout and launch control before the start.

40 and 60 over seem like alot....on my sti we were seeing 2x degree jumps and i wasnt very happy and neither was my tuner.

But i like that you fit a 12 inch tall one gives me alot of hope for fitting the larger threadstone core. I think ill just purchase that worst to worst ill take it off and put it on my sti maybe it will fit better under my bumper then my current one.

Without the crash bar I had a stock evo 8 IC in mine, I forget the dimensions but it covers up almost the entirety of the radiator

I was running 28 PSI in both cases, 40 with a turbo, 60 with a supercharger.

That's fucking horrible

Supercharger makes all the heat. Not much I can do about that. Still I run E85 so it doesn't really matter, I don't have to pull any timing or anything.

Isn't the Fab 9 one just a Vibrant? I'm using the same size Vibrant seems to work well for me don't have problems with high intake air temps even running 18-19psi a little over 400 hp running laps on the track. barely over ambient. Coolant temps still tend to start climb a little at about 20 minutes of solid flogging but not intake.

are these the same? I thought mounting mine was pretty simple. I welded on a couple threaded bosses on the top and hung it from the core support off existing holes. fits perfectly sealed to the stock plastic bumper air guide almost like it was intentionally designed to fit that way.
Summit Vibrant
Vibrant Performance Air-to-Air Intercoolers 12810 - Free Shipping on Orders Over $99 at Summit Racing

Fab 9
Fab9 Intercooler Stage 1

Fab9 welds tabs onto Vibrant ICs.

Sealing the IC to the mouth is just about the worst thing you can do for airflow. Most intercooler setups I see do it this way, and it's 100% wrong. BTDT. Radiator needs fresh air, and the only way to do that is to make the IC shorter (and fatter to maintain flow rate), then use a core design with turbulators (i.e. not Vibrant or anything from eBay) to improve efficiency and maintain low IATs with the smaller core. The painful realization is that nobody makes an intercooler that's correctly dimensioned for this application, yet. Ours will be.

What everyone is accomplishing by this is a pressure differential, to have ANY airflow you need a pressure differential. If you allow higher pressure air around the intercooler you will have little/no airflow through the intercooler.

I mostly agree with Sav. But Alternative, you are right about the pressure diff of course. But I've tested probably 20 different setups, and sealing the intercooler to the mouth DOES give me the best AITs, but the car would overheat under any real load (barely was ok at cruise on the highway...)

While my AITs are not ideal, I run all the boost with a SC that's just not as efficient as a turbo. But I have clean air going right to my radiator. My intercooler sits up high, so I have clean air that goes under it and around it on both sides. All shrouding seals the bumper inlet to the radiator. And I have the most powerful 12" fans SPAL sells. Car runs thermostat under all conditions. A/C condenser in the trunk so it's not obstructing airflow and adding heat to the front heat exchangers.

Only pic I have of front end, but you can kind of see there is plenty of open area for air to go straight to the radiator.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1451242238

If the condenser is in the trunk, where does the rear mounted turbo go?

I don't know what your talking about...

My intercooler basically sits sealed to the bottom joggle in the factory mouth piece duct. there is about a 3" gap between the intercooler and the factory chassis crash bar for air to flow up and over the top of it into the area sealed to the radiator. I run one fan and an oil cooler sitting slanted between the bottom of the radiator and the steering rack is fed air from hose ducts run from holes in the lip spoiler. It may not be a perfect setup but it seems to be effective.

You need ambient air flow through the intercooler which requires a pressure differential it wont work for shit if you just stick it in a plenum area without forcing flow through it.

What they're accomplishing is zero radiator airflow and the most efficient way to overheat an internal combustion engine ever devised by man.

Yep. I tried this, I've never had a car overheat so fast.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1451261335

This setup let my 350whp track car run 20min sessions at <215*F in 105*F heat. IATs were ~30*F above ambient. There are two sealed chambers behind the IC, one ducted to the top of the rad (fed by the upper mouth duct) and one ducted to the bottom of the rad (fed by the lower mouth duct). I suspect I could have dropped IATs a bit more by venting the IC under the radiator.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1451261335

The gap is critical. I'm starting to see IC setups that are sealed to the crash bar, and once you do that, nothing will prevent overheating.

You understimate the ability of 100mph worth of airflow blowing directly onto the face of a heat exchanger to create a pressure differential without too much regard to what's sitting behind/above/around that heat exchanger.

having a fair bit of experience 'fixing' track car cooling systems for people, I wholeheartedly agree with Sav.

agreed for the most part.
the 1st bolded part is simply not true, since many of us have found 1 specific brand from ebay that actually has properly placed and spaced turbulators.
the 2nd bolded part is a very bold statement, I can't wait to see if it holds true (because I can think of at least 2 sizes currently available that are, IMHO)

this one was quite large.

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...ine=1451306758

His AIT's would never break ambient on a 1/4 mile track.


why do you care about such a large core? building a drift car?

he's building a highway pullz bro car

2jz and nas

putting together a 2jz miata, can't use measuring tape.

I want a good starting spot so i can purchase a core and cut things to make it fit.

In classic turbo miata fashion a simple question had a couple helpful answers..and then went down hill from there :fawk:. Back to googling to find info vs asking for helpful advice from people with experience on that subject.

In all fairness, there's probably 10 good post in this thread already. Maybe only 2 or 3 answer the exact question you asked, but still it's a 9/10 compared to what it could have been here. Better still, most of those extra post that were useful were people who go fast with real world experience posting their experience, not BS.

I agree there was some helpful post, enough that it helped me decide which core i am going to purchase and try out.

Yours were included in the helpful post of course. I am going to buy a treadstone of similar size to yours.

Selecting a core size has several considerations.
Cooling air to the rad.
length of tubes
thickness of core
end tank shapes
internal flow area

Tube length: 12" is about 80% efficient, 22" approaches 92/93%, 25" is excess dead weight.
Thickness: The thicker it gets the lower the efficiency. The back half of the core gets nothing but hot air. Suggest 3.5 to 4.0 is about optimum.

Tank shapes are very important for low flow losses. Streamline, streamline, streamline..

Internal flow area controls (in major part) the flow loss. Look at Bellintercoolers.com for some guide lines.

Longer tubes have more drag, keep in mind

In my experience, keep the core thickness under 4.0, tubes over 18" and flow area to match BIC suggestions.

Almost everything else become dead weight

Consider that an 18" tube can offer about 90+ thermal efficiency, then what would a core do that is twice as long? maybe 6% better, twice the cost, more drag and heavy.

Keep it within reason. There are many good cores available, but not all are created equal. Quite hard to easily distinguish. Density of turbulators is one tip. The more the better.

Corky