wink,wink - nudge, nudge - know what I mean, know what I mean.

 

Markski -

I *really* appreciate that you are posting some real data. Impressive results.

Jon

 

I have more but Do not want to take over the thread lol

 

This thread was dead, do it!

 

Thank you.. As i read thru and was about to post i found this.. all intercooler testing we have done in the past was based on AIT's. PERIOD.. What does the car start at and what does it end at.. I am not talking 1 gear pull on the dyno with 200mph wind.. Im talking.. Dead stop to top of 4th gear in the 1/4 mile or from start to high gear on a roll.. What it does pulling 1 gear on the dyno is meaningless..

As far as if are all intercoolers Equal.. I can spot a chinese core from a mile away and YES they are much less efficient.. We just did a 1200hp supra with 5" Chinese FMIC that was seeing 180+degree AIT in high gear.. Swapped to Garrett 5" and brought the AIT all the way down to 130's.. The owner couldnt believe it.. Proof is in the LOGS... 50 degrees is NIGHT AND DAY..

Mike

 

More of them than you know are Chinese Cores.. The fin Density is the 1st dead giveaway,, Giant wide U shaped fins vs much more dense tight fins..

 

Here is an idea..

Garrett Cores



Chinese JUNK

 

I think the most useful information are two calculations: thermal efficiency and pressure efficiency. IATs alone are helpful, but the number itself is influenced by other factors. Similarly, "x% larger core" "x% better flow" aren't terribly helpful.

Thermal Efficiency (percent) = 100 x (Tin - Tout) / (Tin - Ambient)

...will give us an idea of how well the core does. Similarly, pressure efficiency will tell us how well the intercooler's flow parameters are.

 

When i fitted my 3 1/2" Bell cored coolers and intake pipework recently i did before and after datalogs along the same stretch of road, i drove normaly to get there then cruised for 3 min to let temps drop ,then did three 3rd gear pulls with 4 min between each one. We found quicker temp recovery, lower peak temps and smoother boost.



I know without going hard into 4th and 5th gear you cant fully test a cooler ,but i hope to be doing those tests in the next couple of months on an air field.

 

I would like to see these kinds of comparison tests done by someone like Excellence Magazine who have the deep pockets to pay a team of mechanics to spend a couple of days at the track changing from one intercooler to the next, and documenting all the most pertinent performance data so the layman could make an informed purchase. It could be a monthly feature which could compare intercoolers, turbos, intakes, plenums, shocks, etc. Anyone know the people at Excellence?

 

So the difference is the chinese ones look blurry and out of focus when photographed

All joking aside, the Garrett ones look like they have alot more fins that probably make them more efficient.

 

what if the most important factor to a heat exchanger?


Surface area.... Many properly placed fins = much larger surface area

then after that comes flow, pressure drop efficiency(related to surface area)

 

I have the protomotive 5 inchers and I run my car hard in the brutal heat and humidity here and my IAT's are almost always under 120.

 

Exactly- and this is the hardest factor to evaluate. (it seems for vendors and mfgs...) As cjv pointed out you just measure temperatures. Air pressure drop throught the IC will not capture the impact of these fins since the fins are outside the intake path.

But if your metric is "we bolted these on and did a dyno run" or "...did a 1/4 mile" you will not fully capture the performance in a heat soaked, multi-run, track duty type of environment.

A

 

yup, gotta get them to steady state if that's the environment you're after. A dyno or 1/4 mile run is just showing transient response which isn't too hard to show gains; but if that's what you're into...

Mike@AWD, I've been trying to source a proper size Garrett core for the 996 but with no luck. They once offered a 14x12x3.5 core that would have worked by trimming a couple rows off but it seems they discontinued it. Do you know of any prospects? I'd take Garrett over Bell from a thermal efficiency standpoint unless the core was sitting in front of a radiator (which we don't have to worry about). Oh and sorry for the blurry China core pic, though I'm glad someone is using it I can take more with a flashlight behind it -it isn't pretty.

Also realize that the stock and GT2 cores have about 1 1/2 in^2 of completely open flowpath (non intercooled air!) I have no idea why AKG would do that, unless the coolers fell short in meeting flow requirements.

Heres a stock 996 cooler next to a GT2/997 core. The density isn't bad but the open channels, 2" core and endtanks leave something to be desired.