Pwr Coolers

[MMM]

you guys are paying 1k for intercoolers? wtf?... i dunno how you can justify that lol, they have these tiny 399$ ones in supercheap, mines 2x bigger, its a china cooler and cost 130$, welds look better on it as well.

you guys should already know theres no difference flow wise with intercooler weather they were made in china or made by a "well known" company.

and no, they are not made in aus.

i agree nothing wrong with the china ones.. they've been proven to be good

[Butler]

yeah they are good upto a point. however when you start making bulk power, do you really want to risk high intake temps/ristriction just for the sake of being a tight wad with a hand full of dosh. Yes china coolers are good for a budget/mild upgrade, but as most of us most likely want to go further than that, invest wisely in a nice cooler.

PS. That PWR cooler looks mint! Awesome quality

[Mr. Keets]

Stage two of my plan to waste money on a car will see me put a 2.8L Kit in an N1 block etc so for me it's a reasonably easy choice. Horses for courses

I'm not going to get into a pi$$ing contest with anyone on quality but I will say this once; you simply cant compare the fabrication of an HKS cooler to a "China" cooler or even a PWR cooler.

[stÖrmy]

butler they are not good "upto a point" they will be exactly the same as your brand name ones.

i dunno who';s been feeding you bullshit about brand name intercoolers being better mate but its wrong.

theres already pleanty of proof around the forums that china coolers can handle the same if not BETTER then brand name ones.

what you gotta remmember is that theres no moving parts in it, so even if you spent 10 trillion dollars on designing an intercooler its not going to be any better then my 130$ one.

Anyway, believe what you want to believe mate, but your just wasting your money.

edit : most of your brand names ones are made in china or taiwan anyway

Edited December 31, 2006 by stÖrmy

[Mr. Keets]

"...edit : most of your brand names ones are made in china or taiwan anyway "

Spot on a fair bit of the HKS cattledog is manufactured in Taiwan and boxed up in JP so it can be sold as "manufactured in Japan"

[stÖrmy]

indeed, i know alot of other brands that do the same. i just dont want to say this as there might be a few people who will get offended hehe.

but yeah, these power coolers are so over priced, i almost cried as i watched a person pay 399$ for one of the intercooler sat supercheap, i didnt want to say anything as i might get busted for preventing a sale or something lol.

[Butler]

butler they are not good "upto a point" they will be exactly the same as your brand name ones.

i dunno who';s been feeding you bullshit about brand name intercoolers being better mate but its wrong.

theres already pleanty of proof around the forums that china coolers can handle the same if not BETTER then brand name ones.

what you gotta remmember is that theres no moving parts in it, so even if you spent 10 trillion dollars on designing an intercooler its not going to be any better then my 130$ one.

Anyway, believe what you want to believe mate, but your just wasting your money.

edit : most of your brand names ones are made in china or taiwan anyway

So are you telling me that just because air filters, intercoolers, exhausts, plenums dont have moving parts mean that they cant be improved and that one design is the right one? Mate have you ever heard of the apexi gt-spec intercooler? when it was released a few years back it was a hit becuase it had a unique core design that gave better cooling/flow properties.

Look im not gettin into a piss fight here over your supercheap intercooler. If thats what you want go for it. Its upto each person, do they want to buy china, or name brand?

[bankids]

Tell you one thing, Chinese manufacturers WILL NOT DESIGN their own intercooler coz the market in China is so small. So all the china coolers are using some branded design.

It is too commone to see a factory making stuff for brand names and then make extra with their own names..

for the same thing you just paid for the marketing cost.

but be aware of the COPY COPY. some small factories just purchase some china copies and copy them again. that'll be crap.

[MMM]

So are you telling me that just because air filters, intercoolers, exhausts, plenums dont have moving parts mean that they cant be improved and that one design is the right one? Mate have you ever heard of the apexi gt-spec intercooler? when it was released a few years back it was a hit becuase it had a unique core design that gave better cooling/flow properties.

Look im not gettin into a piss fight here over your supercheap intercooler. If thats what you want go for it. Its upto each person, do they want to buy china, or name brand?

dude a copy intercooler is exactly that! a copy of an original in some cases it could be made better than the original.. when u burn a cd the quality is no different to the original u copied it from!

but yes if someone was goign all out on there cars talking 10 grand + id probably get the higher priced one

its like shopping in david jones and buying shoes from spendless to match!

doesnt mean the qualitys any worse, just it mite look crap with the rest of ur gear

[stÖrmy]

So are you telling me that just because air filters, intercoolers, exhausts, plenums dont have moving parts mean that they cant be improved and that one design is the right one?

dude what the hell, thats got nothing to do with i said, i never said they cant be improved. about the only way you could improve an intercooler coolerwise is making it bigger anyway.

if you learnt anything about how they actually cool you will know that there isnt much else that can be done to improve them.

this is why i didnt want to post anything, it seems your getting cut by my comments "piss fight" we arent fighting im just stating facts i dont care if you go buy a 1500$ intercooler, just dont go posting around saying its better then the 130$ intercooler as your just lying to people and some sucker might believe and go waste some money.

and no i didnt buy mine from supercheap, they dont have mine at supercheap. i got mine from j-shop. anyways in the end i guess its "each to there own", if people want to buy a intercooler for 1 to 1.5k because its got "HKS" painted on the front then go for it, wank factor is a big thing these days, ( not for me, but for 90% of people out there it is ).

and its just like bankids said, the china coolers are "copies" of all the big brand names anyway, not independant designs.

[gun-r32]

if people want to buy a intercooler for 1 to 1.5k because its got "HKS" painted on the front then go for it, wank factor is a big thing these days

That's ridiculous. If it has HKS on it, then it means the product has proven design, research, testing etc. Id be pretty confident in saying most people would buy them for those reasons, not becasue of "wank factor".

[RX3 + R32]

i run a PWR fmic on my rx3 , they are f**ken good!

some of you dreamers have no idea, the china crap is no where near the performance & quaility of decent products - it matters when you get serious with a car.

i run PWR products in my car ,

my good mate bought the so called "from the same factory in china as PWR" products - radiator & intercooler for his RX2 ,

the products are on two different levels definately not the same.

the "copy" products look like a 4 year old learnt how to put them together instead of playing with lego.

build a reasonaly quick car - into the 9's or 10's & you'll soon work a few things out.

gun-r32 congrats on your purchase i am sure you'll never look back.

cheers.

[Ant97GTR]

about the only way you could improve an intercooler coolerwise is making it bigger anyway.

if you learnt anything about how they actually cool you will know that there isnt much else that can be done to improve them.

Hahaha those are quite possibly the funniest comments I have read...

I agree that the china products are getting better and better quality wise however as someone else has said they are just copies. I'd have no problems using one on a low power car but would stick with a reputable brand for hi-po applications.

[bankids]

i run a PWR fmic on my rx3 , they are f**ken good!

some of you dreamers have no idea, the china crap is no where near the performance & quaility of decent products - it matters when you get serious with a car.

i run PWR products in my car ,

my good mate bought the so called "from the same factory in china as PWR" products - radiator & intercooler for his RX2 ,

the products are on two different levels definately not the same.

the "copy" products look like a 4 year old learnt how to put them together instead of playing with lego.

build a reasonaly quick car - into the 9's or 10's & you'll soon work a few things out.

gun-r32 congrats on your purchase i am sure you'll never look back.

cheers.

I agree with you, but i do know where PWR put their order. So please don't call chinese craps coz ur PWR is also made in China...

all the difference is the quality control. the branded stuff made in the same factory but they only pick the best quality ones. just like intel's cpu is from one product line but after the test they'll be rated to different speed and sell for different price

[Ant97GTR]

all the difference is the quality control. the branded stuff made in the same factory but they only pick the best quality ones. just like intel's cpu is from one product line but after the test they'll be rated to different speed and sell for different price

Exactly. The reason why PWR make sure they get quality items is because they have a brand name to lose if something goes wrong whereas a no-name copy does not.

[gun32gtr]

made buy australians fir australians..and anyone else

[gun-r32]

Gunr32 have you got any pics after its been installed?

Cheers

perfect fit dude

[rev210]

I think the intercooler choice is a very significant area of performance and worth taking some care in selection.

The right size and design of intercooler is similar in concept to the efficiency island on a turbo's compressor map.

Whether you go china or brand you need to consider that 'one size fits all' selection is not going to hit any bullseye except by absolute fluke, this almost never happens. You can do the right thing with either brand or china to a point. The china core will just not get as close to the bullseye, and as with all things cheap you have a compromise.

First issue I have with a generic china intercooler is that they are hand made/welded. I can't say that every welds a bad one but, as my car has one of these intercoolers on it (I bought it like that) I can say compared to my GTR's ARE custom made incooler they are crap.

Next is the end tank design .. it doesn't have one. It's got a vague slope down to the furthest core in ,I am sure, no particular angle.So it's probably unevenly feeding air through every core so that maybe half of them aren't really doing too much or too well. It's rather nice to have some design here in the same way as head porting can't be really trusted to a 4 year old with a die grinder with basic instructions to 'remove the bumps in the way'.

Now you do get some china cores with cast end tanks. Funny thing is some seem to copy the casting of the GTR tube and fin calsonic end tanks but, bolt them to a usually much thicker bar and plate intercooler thinking nothing about how that might alter the rather well designed air path. They are more conserned about whether it's going to fit in a stock position.

You might also think a 'core is a core' , well to a point some of them are. I am sure I can find a fairly basic bar and plate core from a China Co that is identical to a brand one (although ARC seem to have an exclusive design at the moment). The issue here is quality control, do they pressure test each core? Nope. Do they inspect the welds? hell no. The cores themselves are a copy too and the little things that make a difference like the core air entry points aren't the most brilliant part of the copy. As a copy goes.. they suck.

I don't have much time for the endless dribble about how "my car makes 200rwkw with a china core so they must be as good as your brand unit that makes the same peak power....". The reason is a peak power figure means pretty much nothing except perhaps to a dyno queen. Due to the efficiency islands intercoolers have it is quite easy to have one person with an intercooler too big for the job being significantly down on average power and response over someone who has made efforts to get the right size and design. The bottom line is that the car is slower without the effort and thought.

end of rant.

[SLIPPERY]

mmmm sexy

look a lot better than the stocko gtr cooler

[bankids]

YEahh looks nice, just think if they put the logo a bit lower would be better looking?