Intercooler choices?
 

I'm considering peicing together a turbo kit with the intention of not getting items with the Greddy kit that I will just swap out anyways - i.e. the intake tube from the turbo to the throttle body will go once I put in an intercooler, and the rising rate FPR which I will swap for a AFPR.
So, I want to just buy an intercooler and piping right off the bat.
My first question is, when you get the intercooler piping, do the included pipes go all the way from the throttle body to the turbo outlet or do they still have to hook up to a pipe tha comes with the Greddy kti anywhere? I ask because if I jsut go out and buy the wastegate/turbo/DP/intercooler+ piping I want to make sure I'm not missing any piping.

And second... what intercoolers are good choices? I was looking at the kits that are sold here:
http://www.15psi.com/IC%20kits.htm
There are kits that make a Starion, Saab, or RX-7 intercooler work. Are these all common choices? Is one better than the others? The starion looks far larger - is that extra size needed or do the rx7 / saab ones work just as well? The kits use 2" piping but the kit for the Saab intercooler uses 2.5" - is there a performance gain to using 2.5" piping?
Are there other places to get piping from to make certain intercoolers work?
I see alot of people using JimB pipes - what are those??

Thanks in advance for any input/info!
-Ryan

Jim B pipes are hard to come by these days, he no longer actively makes these kits. You'll have to wait quite some time to get them. People have complained that they're not that great fit wise, and location because they go underneath the radiator, but you won't find anything as cheap unless you're good with fabricating/cutting pipes yourself. If you are, you could buy a kit from ebay and make it yourself, or goto home depot.

Most places that sell IC only sell the IC itself, no piping.

Is the 15psi website the JimB one?
And if so, do we have any other options for intercoolers?
-Ryan

Yes 15psi = Jim B.

Other options are begi or flyin miata, but they're REALLY REALLY expensive. I think you're better off waiting for someone to sell their kit or goto a custom pipe shop to have them fabricated.

miata.net has a JimB RX-7 IC kit for like 250? and a Used Begi one for 275.

Does the RX7 intercooler provide proper cooling for a psi setup? It looks small... I want to get an intercooler at 6 psi but I will eventually be aiming for 10psi so all the parts I buy need to be capable of doing the right job for that amount of boost.
-Ryan

New Greddy Intercooler Kit Available Shortly
 

There will be another intercooler kit available very shortly. Brgracer was kind enough to lend me his car so I could mockup a kit for the Greddy turbo system. Hopefully he'll be able test it out and give me some feedback soon. I plan on starting a thread early next week about this new kit, but until then here are some pictures of what we've been working on.

A couple more pictures...

Boy that kit looks great - I especially like the smoothly bent 110* or so pipe coming off the turbo outlet that replaced Greddy's peice. Can't wait to hear more about it - keep up the good work!
-Ryan

Gary at TrackdogRacing.com has a Greddy intercooler kit now out. Here's the kit. I am only running 7 PSI right now. I don't have the time to work on it and upgrade to the level I want right now, I will be in Iraq next month.

Here's some pics. I love the intercooler, Gary has an unequaled level of perfection.

Attachment 217432

Attachment 217433

Chris

Thats a beautiful intercooler setup there, but a bit out of my price range - 1,100 dollars is alot.
-Ryan

amazing IC kit but 1200 bucks = OUCH a ghetto rigged used JimB for 275 IMO is a better bang for your buck then a 1200 buck kit. If you had a custom turbo set-up id say go for it but the TD04 is a smaller turbo where a simple starion or rx-7 IC should do just fine till the like 14+psi range

you know whats better than jimBs? Learning to weld and build your own an even better bang for the buck.

If your not gonna do it yourself might as well buy a pretty setup like Track Dog.

Learning to weld seems so elusive....
lol
I've got a friend with a welder but neither he or I know how to do it right
-Ryan

Looking REAL good. Like the way you took it around the sides of the radiator:bigtu: Any idea yet on pricing?

Thanks:D I plan on selling this kit around 600 dollars. I'll have five kits ready to go in about a week. I plan on making a few features optional such as powercoating or paint, flared ends and 2 available intercooler sizes. I'll have more infomation for you guys early next week.:bigtu:

Where are you located... if you're reasonably close I can teach you in a weekend. The hard part about learning to weld is having the right welder. Unfortunately I don't think there is a single one under $500 (new) or $275 (used) that I could recommend to beginners. I've been welding for years and I have "issues" with many of the cheapy ones.

THen you halfway there. What problems are you having? Welding is deceptively easy, the only reason its hard is because of lack of experience, tehres no secrets about it (unless the welder is weird)

Lots of room with no power steering or A/C. Would this pipe routing work with either?

These pictures were taken early in the development process. The car I used to mockup this kit did not have PS or AC. We actually ended up clocking his turbo to clean up his engine bay and run shorter piping. I'm not sure if I’ll offer this option yet. I later moved the piping off the turbo compressor just past the cooling fan motor to accommodate PS and AC. Hopefully next weekend I can install this kit on a miata with PS and AC to test the fitment.