what is the biggest intercooler fitted to a VR4?

[Davezj]

these are the sizes i have a choice of:-

800x300x100
not heard of anyone fitting this but obviously bigger is better.

600x300x100
bit of a squeeze behind crash bar will take a bit of fettling

600x300x76
normal size fitted so it tucks behind crash bar without any mods to crash bar.relativly straight forwand fittment.



you all know which one i want to fit, can you see any reason why i couldn't fit the 800x300x100 intercooler. price is not an issue as there is only about £10 difference between all of them.
can you fit an inter cooler that is too big?

[Nick Mann]

My understanding is that you can have an intercooler that is too big. The internal volume increases, which then takes time to build pressure on spool. I am no expert, and haven't looked in to it, but I would whole heartedly suggest checking the philosophy of bigger is better.

[MarkSanne]

Is your "too" big a question of size or capacity?!

Size obviously: no
Capacity: there probably will be a downside when an intercooler is (much!) bigger than the common sized ones: I'd think the pressure build-up would take a bit longer hence cooled air delivered to the engine takes slightly longer and thus performance might have a bit of lag. And since our turbo's have only so much (little) puff, there will be much air fed into the intercooler system which would partly remain 'unused' in the system when power was desired.

Those are my 2 cents. That said: for 800mm size I wouldn't expect too much of a difference in real world. The good side of a larger IC is the probable gain in cooling effect. And... (a big bonus for me personally) would be the way such a big IC would look! The ICs' side tanks would be invisible. When I had my VR2 just for just a year I thought of going for an unconventional big IC, but time and funds never matched. Now I'd love to do such a thing on the Legnum (and I'd paint the IC black).

Got any links to those 800mm IC's Dave?


EDIT: Nick typed faster...

[swinks]

Agree with what's being said. Too big volume of IC will have rather negative effect on performance, especially with such small turbos like our TD03.
It's not only a size that gives difference but design.
You can have IC much smaller than mentioned above but more efficient due to design.
Good example is Evo 4-9 intercooler. Stock one has very dense fins etc, where aftermarket one has common design, but is much less efficient. And IMO so far the best upgrade is stock Evo 4-9 IC which is bigger than our stock IC but also have better design than most of aftermarket 600x300x76.

[adaxo]

Dave, to fit 600x300x76 crash bar need to be modified slightly, next thing to consider is a space behind bumper, don't know if you remember but my bumper split due to very tight fit of FMIC, now to bring things looks 'normal' I had to remove plastic mesh from bumper and is fit much better now but still my bumper touching IC. I got 600x300x76

[Davezj]

i had forgotten the problem you had adam, didn't you push the metal frame back towards the radiator rather than modifying the crash bar.

did you intercooler preass right back against the lower support bar at the bottom of the front end of the car.

[Davezj]

I think mike (miller) fitted a 600x300x100
in the this thread and he cut the crash bar up a bit.

http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?42752-Cooler-than-a-cooler&highlight=intercooler+fitting
Pic 549 for lower bar
pic 525 for intercooler

[swinks]

IIRC it's 600x300x76mm Dave. Looks very same to mine.

[adaxo]

i had forgotten the problem you had adam, didn't you push the metal frame back towards the radiator rather than modifying the crash bar.

did you intercooler preass right back against the lower support bar at the bottom of the front end of the car.

You have a proper look on sat if you not in rush to get one now, OK??

[Davezj]

cheers adam, i will do that, it make sense to be sure.

thanks Tomasz it makes sense looking at your setup i should not need to go any bigger. do you have any temp figures with respect to inlet and outlet temps from your intercooler.

[Louis]

I have 600 x 300 x 76 and did not have to cut bar!. The bottom of mine sits just above the lower part of the bumper, not sure if others are fitting theirs higher??. but no cutting the bar on mine!

[Goreden]

I have 600 x 300 x 76 and did not have to cut bar!. The bottom of mine sits just above the lower part of the bumper, not sure if others are fitting theirs higher??. but no cutting the bar on mine!

Same with my 600x300x76 fmic, didnt have to cut the crash bar and sits just above the bottom of the bumper, did have to push the metal in front of the rad in a little though

[swinks]

Agreed with above statements. No hassle with fitting 600x300x76mm IC. Sits nicely.

[Wodjno]

I agree that no modifications are needed to the crash bar to got a 600x300x76mm FMIC.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

[wintertidenz]

You can angle the intercooler slightly under the crash bar to get a 600x300x76 to fit. Works just fine.

[Davezj]

well after much consideration, i have bit the bullet and bought an intercooler pipes and clamps.

i have gone for the 600x300x76
basiscly all the stuff adaxo (adam) posted links to. it should be with me in the next 2-3 days.

Thanks for all the options and commects it has made the descition much easier.

[jjayokocha]

Sorry for digging up an old thread, I have come across a few evo 4/5 intercoolers going cheap and they are 600 300 76, this would be ok then for an upgrade for my FL?

[wintertidenz]

600x300x76 will fit fine with some slight angle on the intercooler.

[jjayokocha]

Will that not restrict air flow to the radiator tho?

[wintertidenz]

I haven't had any problems. Mine is on a 15 degree angle (at most) and you can slightly massage the centre bar as well to allow it to fit in with less of an angle.

The other option is to slightly space out the crash bar with some longer bolts and a couple of washers, but I'm unsure if this may cause other issues.

[CANDEE]

I have my crashbar spaced out 6mm and have no bumper fitment issues.

Im running a 280x600x80 intercooler and couldnt fit it in without cutting the crashbar or spacing it out.

[Humpty's Revenge]

There was a r32 at the skyline meet last Sunday with an intercooler 10"inches wide

But he was running 857 bhp

[jjayokocha]

Looks like I got myself a near mint evo 6 intercooler, collecting it on Tuesday. To fit my FL what angle/size hoses will I need to order?

[GalantOnly]

Who need the crash bars anyway?? I just use them to keep doors open in the garage...

[Davezj]

I have my crashbar spaced out 6mm and have no bumper fitment issues.

Im running a 280x600x80 intercooler and couldnt fit it in without cutting the crashbar or spacing it out.

I never considered spacing the crash bar out by useing some washers, what a good idea, particularly if you only need a few mm extra to make things fit.
I will remember that one.

[jjayokocha]

Might do the washers myself cause don't wanna have the ic at a slight angle, so a 45 degree for the hot side and 90 degree hose for other do the job?

[NLduffyNL]

Why would you take a bigger intercooler and put it behind a crushbar?
Thats a waste of your capacity of the intercooler and waste of time to build boost, because it doesn't cool effective there.

I got a Autobahn88 600x200x70 fitted under the crushbar with the core fully in the wind.
Perfect fitment, good quality and very happy with it.

[CANDEE]

Why would you take a bigger intercooler and put it behind a crushbar?
Thats a waste of your capacity of the intercooler and waste of time to build boost, because it doesn't cool effective there.

I got a Autobahn88 600x200x70 fitted under the crushbar with the core fully in the wind.
Perfect fitment, good quality and very happy with it.
Because its a heatsink.. basically the i/cooler doesnt have to be in the airflow to cool the charge from the turbo's.

Remember the factory cooler is behind the crashbar too. :)

[CANDEE]

Who need the crash bars anyway?? I just use them to keep doors open in the garage...
Thats illegal over here Alex, remember it also holds the chassis rails apart in a crash.. ;)

[NLduffyNL]

I wanted to keep my crashbar for my own safety. If a car hits me in the front it will be the crashbar first instead of some bits of weak metal and straight impact on the engine wich is pretty close to my feet and body.


Still, i bet the efforts of an intercooler (as big as possible) and got its core full potential in the wind, you'll get a better graph then a bigger intercooler wich has for example 100x600mm behind the crashbar. Thats just a waste of air because it doesn't get cooled effectivly. and because of that your air temperature would be hotter (No not a lot but still a bit) compared to the smaller one.
The reason you want a bigger intercooler is so you can cool more air.... behind a crashbar, it barely cools.

[wintertidenz]

The crashbar only obstructs about 50mm at most of the intercooler. The bumper actually obstructs more airflow than the crashbar.

Example:
63047

I've had a look and the bumper obstructs about another 5-7 cm at the bottom. Changing bumper designs (eg. the Crux kit) gives slightly more area for the intercooler.

[Davezj]

from a purely air flow point of view, i have modified my PFL front bumper to remove the jap number plate, cut the jap number plate backing away that protruds below the level of the rest of the bumper. remove original plastic mesh grill as this does not fill the gap now, make a mesh grill from metal mesh. Fit a standard UK spec number plate.
this makes a massive difference to the amount of air that can get to the intercooler and subsequently the coolant radiator.
i don't like the look of it but i need more air flow due to over heating issue when thrashing it. now the coolant temp does not go above 90 deg c when on a bit of a thrash.
so it does work.

i would have to agree with daniel above with regard to the bottom part of the bumper blocking a lot of the air flow to the bottom of the intercooler.

i must have at least doubled the amount of intercooler that is in direct air flow by doing my bumper mod.

[NLduffyNL]

I did a quick search on my comp, its not the best picture ive got, but as you can see, my bumper starts a little bit above the crashbar.
And i got my front bumper modified so it stops exactly at the bottom of the intercooler.
63057

[Davezj]

That sits in there very nicely, and looks great.

But as it is not a stock bumper plastics, it is like comparing chalk and cheese, (stock factory and aftermarket).

[NLduffyNL]

Thnx ;) Your right about that.
But my opinion doesn't change that i would prefer a intercooler fitted between the lower part of the bumper and the crashbar instead of being there a bit behind.
But i think its a personally prefer. i dont have figures or something to know if its actually making differences.

One more picture of the people that might be interested, because the intercooler kit of autobahn88 is really great and fits below your crashbar.
63058

[Davezj]

It is an ideal size and eliminates the need for messing with the bumper bar. And will probably do a very good job. But not an easy size to find for little money, I looked for a long time to try and get a slightly smaller one but nothing ever came up for the money I was willing to pay. The 600x300x76 can be bought for about £85 new.

[jjayokocha]

I still have my square jap plate on but I've put it to the side to allow the fmic to get as much air as possible. Collecting the evo intercooler tomorrow so will throw up some pics of my £40 upgrade.

[jjayokocha]

Heres a pic of the evo fmic I picked up for £40, gna sit it in place tomorrow to try work out hoses and pipes. Do I need a pfl hot side pipe to get this onto my FL or can it be worked around?

[wintertidenz]

You can chop the FL hot side pipe and then put on joiners to fit it, but make sure that the pipe is clean inside after you cut it.

Alternatively just make up some piping for the hot side.

[MarkSanne]

I've mounted a 34" modified IC on my VR2. It couldn't be any wider without chopping plastic off of the insides of the bumper!
See more details and pics here: http://www.clubvr4.com/forum/showthread.php?72804-What-I-did-to-my-car-today&p=798520&viewfull=1#post798520

[foxdie]

MarkSanne do you have a link where we can buy that intercooler? I'd like to add that to the tuning guide you commented on yesterday :thumbsup:

[MarkSanne]

It's a CXracing intercooler from the US for 1G Eclipse. My main goal was to fill the complete bumper mesh part with truly IC radiator, without the side tanks. However, the IC hose connectors were located on the front (or back) side instead of the sides. I cut out the connectors and the brother of a friend pro welded them on the sides. So it's anything but plug and play. The thing itself was only 250 dollar but import tax plus welding makes it an expensive 'option'. I went for completely stealth looks with max cooling capacity...

[Goreden]

Just got my new intercooler for my VR4 600x300x76, now just need time to fit it

http://i1299.photobucket.com/albums/ag77/Goreden/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-05/71CEED76-D4E9-402A-A23F-BA907DCD76F7_zps7r5apkb7.jpg (http://s1299.photobucket.com/user/Goreden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2016-05/71CEED76-D4E9-402A-A23F-BA907DCD76F7_zps7r5apkb7.jpg.html)

[Bobby~d]

This is the one I have fitted on mine. Not my pics tho.
Here's the specs on it. http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160509/ad31ba5e36112c3443c298303779988c.jpg
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160509/7c5e38121a39ee244229f87b82cb2386.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160509/72946b3724396dffec2af09d2ab80bdd.jpghttp://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160509/939e0e273f3af35e7d66a17b7b8d4002.jpg
And yes the crash bar needs to be cut for it to fit.
Dw@r!k@

[foxdie]

It's a CRX intercooler from the US. My main goal was to fill the complete bumper mesh part with truly IC radiatior, without the side tanks. However, the IC hose connectors were located on the front (or back) side instead of the sides. I cut out the connectors and the brother of a friend pro welded them on the sides. So it's anything but plug and play. The thing itself was only 250 dollar but import tax plus welding makes it an expensive 'option'. I went for completely stealth looks with max cooling capacity...

Which one exactly? :)

[MarkSanne]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390536344633?item=390536344633

[foxdie]

Oh I see what you mean now, wowww some welding skills needed there!

[MarkSanne]

yeah for sure, that dude knows how to weld alu :)

I did the chopping trying to minimize the loss of original material and have the holes identical so the would fit perfectly, also from this inside.

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