Intercooler Questions

[cannabiscorpse]

Hey guys, Just have some newb questions about intercoolers for my r33 gtst. The only mods it has so far are turbo back exhaust, and a manual boost controller set at 10psi. I have already got the shitty flat spots in my ecu, so i am taking it to a tuner in to have the ecu remapped. I am wondering whether it is of much benifit to install a front mount intercooler before i get it tuned? (At the moment the car has an r34 smic.) After i get it tuned i plan to leave the mods at that for a while, so i am just trying to work out whether it is worth forking out the extra for the intercooler, or just take it straight for a tune. The tuner told me it is good for 10-15kw increase with fmic, but at the same time i hear of slower throttle reponse using some fmic. If i can get some advice from personal experience, and also some pointer towards decent fmic it will be appreciated.

Cheers.

Edited January 24, 2011 by cannabiscorpse

[89CAL]

I didnt really notice any throttle issues when I first got my front mount.

I think the best reason to upgrade to a front mount is for security to keep the air nice and cool. But in saying that I think the R34 side mount is pretty decent for your setup though

[paulr33]

you will gain 0rwkw fitting a larger intercooler and you will experience a little more throttle lag

when i say throttle lag, i mean lag from the time you open the throttle body to the time the engine pressurizes all the extra pipework and larger core

usually when you fit a larger intercooler you add more boost and tune it at the same time, so you dont notice the loss of extra throttle lag

i fitted a fmic to my GTST and changed nothing else and noticed an ever so slight difference

but that all changes once you increase boost and tune it properly

[cannabiscorpse]

Thanks for the info guys. Im still pretty undecided at the moment whether to upgrade before the tune or not though.

[paulr33]

do it before the tune, thats way its sorted and one less thing to be delayed or have issues with

the difference in throttle response on a before and after are ever so slight (without any other changes)

[ARTZ]

dont bother..

My theory here is that intercoolers are great if your car is going to be reving its titties off constantly, your turbo will heat up trying to fit more air through it than it can handle in turn making your intake charge hot.

Now im assuming this is a street car not a race car, if put my arm out the window now driving along its a bout 25 outside the sir feels cool to touch, my car is sitting on about 3000rpm, maybe it will get up to 5 tops so my turbo is barely heating up so cooling the air isnt going to prove much and an intercooler is only going to be good for hektik points which doesnt actually make your car faster.

Now, are you getting a remap or retune,,a remap will cost about 500 and completely remap your ecu, a retune will cost about 100 and just fix some key points

if you are actually getting a remap spend about 800 on one of hypergears hiflows and you will notice a huge difference in power and be able to crank your boost up considrrably. In doing this you will have alot more power so you wont have the need to thrash its tits off to get anywhere .. Then monitor your intake tempss to see if they are too hot, chances are in everday driving they will be fine. If they are not then get an intercooler .

If you are just getting a retune...dont bother. My car was making 185kw with a stock cooler and never had any problems with intake temps...

If you are going to be racing the car constantly then get one..

[cannabiscorpse]

Yeah the car is a full street car and 95% of the time gets an easy run. I do plan on doing a couple of track days in the future though. I was going to have the ecu remapped at a price of $550 but if my flat spots could be removed through a simple retune i would do that for the moment, then get a remap after i fit a hiflow turbo and fmic.

[ARTZ]

Sounds like a good plan