I'm torn between fabbing my own intercooler using one of the Ebay kits, or buying the BEGI intercooler kits.

Any guidance here?

The cost difference is significant, and I'm not sure about what value I'm getting for the extra money.

Thanks for your comments.
Jim

 

I love being cheap. I also hate fabricating cheap things...

 

I hate fabricating cheap things too.... except when the money saved can pay about 3/4 of a months rent.

 

You are getting their trial and error experience, plus some labor. If you have the tools, time and aptitude to fab then fab it. I'ts not that hard. If you lack one or more of the three, buy it.

Personally, I can afford to buy stuff, but I rather do it myself for the personal satisfaction so I fabbed every bit of my kit that I could.

 

Even if I had the extra money falling out of my *** I would not pay for the kit...i honestly cannot justify it.

It took me a couple of days and a hack saw to get mine done right. The only thing you may consider buying is the begi (or other) throttle body inlet tube...doing the rest yourself is both very possible, significantly cheaper and rewarding.

 

Thanks... I think I'm on the build it myself plan.

 

Cost me 250 with intercooler to get my IC done. Procedure was simple. Buy intercooler, mount intercooler, take measurements of everything you need, order pipe, measure again, drop pipe off for welding, done.

 

defiantly do it yourself. I am fabricating my own set up. I used metal strips from Home depot to mount mine and it looks like it working out really well and looks pretty nice too. If you have access to a welder you can make it looks really nice.

 

if you want it to look professional, and not a home depot slap together I would at least buy the intercooler from begi. There mounts bolt right up to the baby teeth location and the thing is very resistant.

Mine had a sign damage part of the bottom of the intercooler, other than a bend in it the thing didnt move and probably saved the radiator.

I have seen many slap together kits, and havent been impressed. If you are broke and just want a fast car by all means ebay is the place to go, but if you are proud of your car buy the real thing.

As far as reliability goes they probably will both work fine, but unless you do a good job at mounting the intercooler you are going to put alot of stress on your hose fittings.

 

I didn't have AC or PS, so there was no reason to buy a production IC because the pipe routing was too damned simple, and fabricating a bracket involved some threaded rod, nuts, and a drill-bit. For somebody who has PS/AC, it makes sense from the point of view of professional/clean/easy.